Summer Ambitions

I have big ambitions for the summer. So, I am going to attempt to document our progress as a way of staying honest. Let's see what we can actually get to and which activities are the most fun for everyone. It will be me and my three kiddos for the most part with Dad home off and on.

We've got our Summer Bucket List written out with 54 items and 70 days to do them. My 9 year old says there are too many. That may very well be, Son. My husband and I have visions of getting back into a routine of working out that is much needed. We also want to clean out, clean up, and get this house in order. Both boys will be playing baseball twice a week for the next six weeks, two children have gym once a week, and little sister has swimming once a week. We also need to limit screen time and do some academic work to avoid the summer slide.

Wow! I'm exhausted already. We have a lot going on and we will have down time too, but I know if there isn't some sort of plan the fighting will erupt in no time.

My first attempt to get things done without whining to use technology is to have a list of what must be done before the kids can even ask for tech time. I plan to adapt this pin from Your Modern Family to work for our expectations:

No Screen time Until


Tomorrow is the last day of school so, I've got to go and figure out what we will do after early release to celebrate.

Hope to update you on our progress again soon!
L

Swimsuit already?

I don't know why, but I ended up looking at Nordstrom.com yesterday, specifically the swimwear dept. Am I a glutton for punishment? Maybe. Since having my three kiddos in three and a half years I have lost 25 lbs (and still working on more), but in no way do I have a swimsuit body. It is inevitable though with said three kids that I will have to be in the water this summer.

I bought two cheep swimsuits last year that are not in great shape to be used again so, I'm splurging this year and hoping for the best (I ordered online!). I chose this one piece for many reasons: black-always a good bet, asymmetric-more stylish, cute-gathers and mesh, and the all important spandex to help with the mommy tummy. A cute one piece is hard to come by so I jumped on it even though I won't have a need for it until the end of May. It is already on back order and the cutest are the first to go and nowhere to be seen come June. In times like these I'm so glad for my 'fun' job that allows me to splurge on myself when I otherwise wouldn't have.

Here's to being ahead of the game and hoping it fits!

www.nordstrom.com Jena Swimsuit

Update: The swimsuit fit and did work out well.  Too bad my dear husband liked the affordable swimsuit from Old Navy better and I wore that one most of the summer.

Favorite Party Sites

During the planning of the Baptism reception I found quite a few new sites that I fell in love with. I was looking for party ideas and found so many great ones on blogs. In the past I have usually turned to Martha Stewart for ideas, but I broadened my search this time.

Some of my favorite party sites so far are Bella Grace Party Designs, Kate Landers Events, LLC, The Birthday Girl, and Hostess With The Mostess. Kate Landers Events and The Birthday girl have teamed up to offer a great give away worth $250 for a custom party! You'll have to hurry though. Entry ends in 3 hours, 12pm PST.

Baby Girl Baptism

My daughter's baptism was yesterday and I had a lot of fun gathering ideas on the web for decor and food. Here are some pictures of my favorite things from my event.


I used a pink and white scheme.
Here's the dessert set-up,



the super cute invitation made using my Cricut and Lyrical Letters Cartridge (inspired by Capadia Designs),





and my take on a Cobb Salad
(i.e. use what ever you want for your layers).

Waiting

They say not knowing is the hardest part of a situation and in my case I have to agree. I had to take my 6 month old baby girl to Children's Hospital of Central California yesterday for a hip x-ray. The creases in her legs are asymmetric. In other words, her fat rolls don't match. Of course I had to do some research on the internet to see what the problem could be and what kind of treatment might be indicated. Bad idea. The asymmetry of her creases could mean that she has hip dysplasia. Seeing that my baby girl could possibly need surgery under general anesthesiology and then a spica cast from her chest to below her knees has affected me immensely. I have had a range of emotions thinking about her little body going into surgery or trying to cuddle my lovable baby covered in plaster and what her reaction will be to her loss of mobility. I had a glass of wine last night, okay two glasses. When I woke up at 2:30 my mind was buzzing and I was not able to go back to sleep. I've just been looking at her, kissing on her, and cuddling her as much as possible. The nurse at our pediatrician's office said she wouldn't expect the films back before this afternoon and she would call me when they come in. I hope to get some sort of answer before the weekend because this not knowing is killing me.

Spring into Summer!

It has been hot, hot, hot here this week! With the temperature in the 90's for 3 days in a row what else do you do with a house full of kids but have a water play day of course! The kiddos loved it. I have a little pond with sprinklers that fills with about 2 inches of water and a water play table. I put the kiddy slide going straight into the water and they splashed around for hours.

They put on swimsuits I had asked their parents to bring and were slathered with sun screen. They wore sun hats as well and since we were outside from about 9:30 am to 11:30 am the sun isn't that harsh yet and we didn't have any problems with sun burn.

They had so much fun we did it again the next day! I had to move our play area around to try and have equal flooding throughout the yard. Here are some pictures of our little set up:
















And the next day too:

My failed garden

I was so excited to attempt a garden this year. I started seedlings with the kids in February and went on to plant them in March. I finally talked my husband into giving me some room in our raised planter for the garden. We made nice rows with labels and everything. But...All of my seedlings have shriveled up and disappeared. Definitely bummed! I guess I will give it another go either by planting the seeds directly in the ground or I'll buy some plants at the store and see how they do. I never said I had a green thumb, but I still wanted to try. I remember growing strawberries and tomatoes as a kid. Yum. Hopefully I'll have better news in this area in the future.

Here's a picture of my nice, neat rows 10 days ago: