July Gets Juicy

                                July's been a juicy month.... as in beach days & playing barbies!
                               (I just noticed that all the barbies were naked, we were about to get them
                                all ready for a ball.  We're not weird, I promise).

                         July also gave us some Juicy burgers.... just discovered Umami Burger restaurant                     
                        with these little ladies below.  We may look dainty, but we ate like a pack of
                         football players after a game.

                                    Oh & did I mention I got to go to Vegas? Without my kids!
                               Got a pedicure there, and saw Circue de Soleil's Beatles show with
                                our friends Heather & Jon.  We were celebrating Jon's 40th birthday -
                                     Oh yeah!  Watching acrobats and trapeze artists really adds to my
                               inferiority complex about my lack of coordination.  Those performers
                              were agile & amazing, whereas I often find myself tripping on my own
                               flip flops.

                          So yeah, this July I went from swanky dishes in Vegas to teaching VBS
                       classes Monday morning for church!  VEGAS TO VBS?
                                                 How's that for a transition?
                          Here's Noelle giving it a go in the sack race.  I had 34 6 & 7 year olds in my group
                       today, and suddenly, I was wishing I was poolside back in the desert again!

Neighborly

Sometimes I just don't pictures.  But anyone who knows my neighbor, knows she ALWAYS takes pictures, and since my girls and I are with her quite a bit, she takes lots of pictures of my kids.  Check out her blog at http://somissurfergirl.blogspot.com/ to see pictures of our summer days!

Some Summer Stuff

                                       This summer we've gotten to hit the beach with friends,

                                                     get our hair done and eat doughnuts!

                                     We've purchased fake glasses, because you know if you're
                                  9, you've gotta have a pair. 

                                    We've harvested from our garden a plethora of summer
                                   veggies.

                                          Dan flew a kite, and of course....

                                          We've eaten ice cream.  (Thanks for the gift card
                                     Grandma Luci).

         Here's what I haven't done:

                      1. Dragged my children out of bed & yelled at them to get their shoes on.
                      2. Graded any essays.
                      3. Explained to angry parents that if their kids don't turn in their assignments, it's
                      difficult for me to grade them.
                      4. Driven back and forth to school 5 times in a day.
                      5. Felt guilty that I'm working, & not keeping up on my house.

So as far as I'm concerned..... after a crazy school year of working 5 days a week and trying to be a wife and mom to 4 kids, this has been the best summer EVER!

Oh and did I mention that next year, I won't be returning to work?  Did I mention that I finally came to terms with the fact that unless I wanted to work 40 hours a week, sending 4 kids through private school wasn't going to happen?  Did I mention that in the fall I'm going to stay home and home school my girls because my oldest daughter is half way to 18, and I'm missing everything because I'm more invested in other people's 7th graders than I am in my own children?

Well in case I didn't mention that just yet to you, now you know.  More on that later..... but now I've gotta go, I've got another carefree, beautiful summer day to enjoy with my kids!
 

Crop It!

 I've had short hair off & on over the years, but at the beginning of June, I took the plunge & really hacked it off for the summer.   In my mind I wanted to look like one of the ladies up above.  But one must realize, they have professional make up artists, thousands of dollars worth of cosmetics, oh, and they've never had 4 kids, and don't have naturally dark circles under their eyes that they inherited from their dad.  (Thanks Dad).  So as much as I wanted to channel Halle,  sometimes with my short hair, I feel more like I look like an 18 year old boy, maybe even this one:

Here are some of my observations about sporting a pixie cut:

      1. Men pretty much hate it. This is okay because 15 years into marriage, I'm not really trying to attract the box out boys at the grocery store or the crossing guards at the intersections.  And fortunately for me, my husband kind of likes it, because he's a little bit rebellious, and it bugs him that everyone thinks girls have to have long locks to be beautiful.

    2. Women over 60 love my short hair!  Older women always come up to me and tell me how adorable my hair is.  I'm not sure how I feel about this actually.  See here I am looking confused.

    3. It fits my laziness, because it requires pretty much nothing every morning, & I love that.

    4. It does require full make up & feminine colors because sometimes, you feel a little butch.  Thank goodness neon pink is this summer's hot color.  See, here I am wearing pink. 

   5. In short, it's growing on me.... no really it's growing on me.



  

Gym Anyone?

My motto in life regarding physical exertion began in high school when my mom bought me a black t shirt that said, "I get enough exercise just pushing my luck."  From that point on I did everything I could not to sweat, not to exert myself beyond extending my arm from the bag of chips to my mouth.  But alas, those days are fading.... because my metabolism is no longer that of a 16 year old youth, and those 4 children that were ripped from my abdomen have left me with loose skin, and chub where once there were only bones. 

And so because I'm incredibly vain, I've realized I must succumb to the daily grind of painful workout DVDs, where Jillian Michaels yells at me, Brooke Burke shows off her ridiculous perfection, and Bob Harper loses count as I try to pull the kettle ball over my head one last time. 

So here's today's inspiration to get me out of bed:

Dara Torres, age 45, went up against little girls that could be her daughters.... and she qualified, yet again for the olympics.   So if this 45 year old chick, could do that, then this 36 year old better be able to do a half an hour DVD. 

(Disclaimer: Though I was motivated today, I will probably be disgusted by this post tomorrow, will skip my workout, and will take the girls to go get doughnuts - As the ancient Greeks once said: "Know thyself"). 

Happy Almost Birthday!

Morgan turns 5 Saturday, & I guiltily realized, I hadn't ever thrown her a party before, though my in laws gave her a few when we visited with her cousins, I, the mom, had never made the efforts to give her a little shindig of her own out here, so I put together a birthday picnic in our front yard today for some of her friends.  Here are my tips for keeping things low - key:

1. The dollar section at Target was my inspiration, not pinterest.  Here's why, pinterest is adorable & amazing, but it requires MAKING things.  Instead of slaving over a needle and thread, I found a bunch of red, white, & blue stuff for 4th of July & used that as our theme.

2. A kid party = kid food.  I made PB & Js, a few coldcuts for the moms, fruit, and chips, no time or $ for stuffed mushrooms & risotto, let's keep it basic.

3. Forget originality: I went old school and we had a ring toss, and pin the tale on the donkey, it was fun.

 4. Keep things moving.  A party with a bunch of kids under the age of 5 is bound to end with tears and tired tantrums so as soon as people get here, we eat, we sing, we play games, we keep things rolling, conscious of moms who have brief windows of time before naptime calls.

 5. Cupcakes rule, they are so much easier than slicing cake.  Can I get an amen on that ladies?

Okay, so now that you all are thinking I'm the laziest mom ever, I'll show you some pics.  Oh & one more thing, I had the party on a Monday afternoon, gives moms a chance to get out while Dad's at work, and it doesn't take up someone's precious Saturday, because let's face it we all have enough to do as families on Saturdays!

Kids, not Babies

This summer, my four girls will turn 5, 7, 7, & 9 years old!  That means, I'm officially the mom of four "kids," not babies, not toddlers, not preschoolers, KIDS.

Here's what I'm discovering:

The GOOD: They all washed their own hair today!  I could have cried.  This newfound independence frees me up A LOT.  They can shower on their own, go to the bathroom on their own, wake up & go to sleep on their own.  This is AWESOME.

The BAD: They all can spell or sort of sound things out now.  This means Dan and I can no longer spell things out in front of them, and we really have to mind our P's and Q's.  Anything we say may be repeated by them to others, or will be comprehended by them.... Scary!  I miss the freedom of babbling on in front of them, knowing they still couldn't speak!

The GOOD/BAD: They are forming their own opinions.  This is sort of fun as I figure out their individual personalities more and more, but this is sort of bad, especially when their opinions differ from my own.  What  do you mean my outfit doesn't look good?  Why don't you love that book I gave you?  I loved it.  You're supposed to think all of my ideas are AMAZING.  Come on....

The GOOD: They're still not toooo big to need mom:  In the car today, one said something about pirates.  Another responded, "Pirates are real you know, right mom, there are such thing as pirates?"

"Yep, there are real pirates in the world."

"Well then, are mermaids real too?"

"Mermaids? Um, no, no mermaids."

Yeah, they're getting older, but it looks like they still need me around for a few years to come!