July Madness {Fun in Minnesota & Branson}

July was a whirlwind.  I had some anxiety about how it would all go down.  Sometimes things work out on paper and seem like they would be fun, but then you get into the moment and realize it's not fun because you have too many children.  This has happened to me quite a bit with my kids over the years.  I remember when Nathan was about 4 months old, we went to a wedding in Colorado.  Doesn't that SOUND fun?  A wedding near the mountains.  We even flew (that was a disaster, not the actual flight, but all of the transitions that it took to make it happen).  After the wedding, we drove up to mountains and the ride was gorgeous.  We were trying to get the kids to marvel at the beauty… but the kids were bored and carsick and asking if we were there yet.  The nerve of them.  Then we got up there, and our double stroller fit nowhere, not in any store in this quaint mountain town.  We went in a candy store and took up the whole store and people were glaring at us.  We ended up eating at McDonalds because we knew it would make the kids happy.  Then we left.  I think it was after that day that I decided to make our vacations kid-friendly and simple.

But now that Nathan is five (really, he's closer to six, but I don't want to talk about that), I've been itching to show the kids more of America.  This summer we decided to do the big city, en route to a wedding in Michigan.  And as long as we were heading to Chicago, you might as well stop in Branson.  

It all started a week before we left, when Graham and Asher flew to Minnesota to spend time with my parents.  Graham has gone the last couple of summers.  This was Asher's first flight.  He was so excited, until the day they were leaving.  Then he started to get a bit nervous.  This moment was right before the tears and ugly crying.  I got in the car and cried too… sweet boys who love each other and crying because they will miss each other and miss home.  It was a happy cry.  I knew once they got there, it would all be fine.  Graham had enough confidence for the both of them.  

While they were in Minnesota, Samuel had the longest and hottest baseball tournament ever.  Papa and Tandy came and cheered him on, and made it easier on me to keep these two entertained for four long days.

Once the tournament was over, the little boys and me hopped in the car and headed for Branson. 

My friend Niki has 10 (going on 11) kids so they had lots of friends to play with.  

Yeti's puts any snow cone place in Fort Worth to shame.  Yum.  And there's ice cream at the bottom!

The kids got to swim and I got to eat a cookie from the Bean.  

I took the kids to Jonah at Sight and Sound Theatres.  So fun!

Nathan spent some of his Christmas money on this.  Adorable.

Samuel got to the do the ropes course.  We were texting pictures to my mom so Graham and Asher could see that we were having fun too.  

They were texting pictures to us full of their adventures.

The best part of Branson for me was catching up with my dear friend, Niki.  Unfortunately we never got a picture of the two of us.  But we did go to Starbucks every morning we were there.  Because that's a very important part of our relationship… coffee and conversation.  Nathan wasn't as amused with going to Starbucks every day so early in the morning.  

Poor baby.

Next up is the gazillion pictures of the Chicago portion of the trip.

Blank Space

Our 4th of July weekend couldn't have been any more perfect.  

And we didn't do one single thing.  A weekend on the calendar with nothing but blank space is a treasure, especially after a long baseball season that has filled up every weekend since about March.  

It left time for diving board jumping.  I sat on the chair and watched the boys laugh and giggle as they jumped.  These days are so sweet and I love it when I can slow down enough to enjoy it.

We walked down a couple of blocks to our neighborhood's parade.  It was perfect and small and they threw some candy out so the kids were happy.

The boys took turns mowing the lawn.  We did nothing Friday, except grill some hamburgers, make homemade ice cream and hop in the car when it got late and saw some fireworks from the highway.  It gave me time to organize the pantry and take care of all the piles in the house that have accumulated over the last months.  

Chris took the boys ALL day on Saturday to do various errands (museum and horse races… basically, he's super dad!) so I could get some things done around the house.  I purged the school room and did some home school planning.

We had a lazy Sunday morning too.  We had french toast, Nutella, whipped cream and strawberries before we hopped in the car for church.  

A weekend full of blank space.  It was lovely in every way.

He can't possibly be 11.

Every July, his birthday creeps up on me.  I think it's because June only has 30 days (30 days hath September…).  His birthday is July 1st, but he was supposed to be born in the middle of June, but he insisted coming at his very own pace.  I was induced a full two weeks late and out came Asher, all 9 pounds, 5 ounces of him.  He couldn't have looked any more different than his brother Graham.  They still hardly look like brothers… so different in looks and personality.  

We are so blessed to have Asher in our family.  He's that kid that everyone likes to be around.  Or at least I do.  He's content to do what you like to do, but also has interests of his own.  The Rangers have disappointed him this year, so every morning he tells me how long their losing streak has been and who else is on the injured list.  He also asks me what kind of homemade ice cream we might make that night.  And he also might tell me that it's Wednesday and today is the last day to get grapes for 99 cents at Sprouts.  He then might meander into the piano room and try to play by ear some song he heard on the radio.  He has many interests, this kid.  I love that I get to spend my days with him and his brothers, watching these little boys become young men.  Soon (these years are passing so quickly) they will be grown men ready to make a life of their own, and I can't imagine it without a tear in my eye.  But I know when it happens, I will embrace that too.  

Back to his birthday.

Asher is easy to celebrate because he tells you what he wants to do.  His tastes are simple and he finds joy in the little things.  

Like free smoothies...

A good way to start his birthday on the way to swim team. 

Daddy showed up to be with him.  Everyone says Asher is a spitting image of his dad, lucky guy.  

Opening up a fun box from Grandma and Grandpa.

Asher requested a salad bar and wild rice soup for his birthday dinner.  I said he could invite four families over to celebrate (even four families ended up being 29 people!).  It was fun to watch him decide who to pick… his little mind going back and forth.   I was a little worried not everyone would enjoy the salad bar, but surprisingly the kids loved it.  I think they liked choosing their own toppings.  And I made homemade ranch, which is essential to any salad bar with lots of people under the age of 12 going through it.   

I aways love my kitchen filled with dear friends.  It's my happy place :)

We've been watching The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network so Asher knew he wanted this cake.  It has chocolate, Nutella, strawberries and whipped cream, so you can't really go wrong.  It's worth making.  It was delicious for adults and kids.  I made two of them and just had a little bit left over.  

These images of Asher while we are singing to him are my favorite because he makes these expressions a lot.  I'm glad to have them captured.  

Happy birthday, sweet Asher.  We love you more than you know.

Wrapping Up Another Year

Life is full of surprises.  At age 22, I never would have dreamed that at the age of (almost) 40 I would still be spending my days at home schooling my kids.  That would not have sounded appealing to me.  But that was before I was a mother, and before I had five boys.  Now I love each and every minute that we get to have together.  Well, maybe not every moment, but most moments.  Childhood is fleeting.  It's there and gone in a moment, and for right now, home schooling fits for our family.  I love that we are all together most of the time.  We enjoy our cozy days at home learning together.

We did it.  We finished another year of school at home.  This year was a good one, but it wasn't easy.  We worked hard.  Let's face it, I worked hard.  From the moment I get up, there are little people needing me pretty much until the moment I go to bed.  But we are learning together about how this "homeschooling older kids thing" needs to go.  Graham and Asher had to step it up a bit this year and become more independent.  This was also our first year of Classical Conversations and they had to jump into a program that is probably best done from the time you are younger.  We had lots of talks about working hard and about WHY school is important (because it certainly isn't always fun for my boys).

On to some pictures...

These pictures were from their research papers.  Graham was William Wallace.  He read his paper is full accent and loved every minute of it.  Getting up in front of people is his thing.  

Asher was John Calvin.  Luckily, we have a couple people in our lives who went to Calvin College who could lend him a "costume."  He did a great job too, but was probably more happy when it was over.

The older girls are so sweet to my little boys.  And Nathan is quite smitten with them.

He even got a lesson from Robin Hood ;)

And the whole 4-6th grade class.  It was a great year.  

But now we've moved on to summer.  And summer is just the best, isn't it?

Saying Good-bye

My parents spent a couple of months living with us this winter.  They are becoming snow birds, leaving the cold, wintery frozen tundra of Minnesota and spending those harsh, winter months with us.  It's a wonderful time for all of us.  My parents get to experience a bit of our chaos.  My kids get the individual attention that they don't always have.  I am able to retreat to run an errand or hit Starbucks by myself more than I often than I normally do.  

But all fun must come to an end and it's hard to say good-bye.  

As you can tell, Samuel already very unhappy in this picture.

A comforting hand from an older brother… I love this picture.

I think it's good that they're so sad.  It's good to be missed.  I remember being so exited when my grandparents would come and visit.  And being so very sad when they left.  

Thanks for blessing us this winter, Mom and Dad!  Come back again soon :)

Ten Things

Well, it's been quite awhile since I've written on this blog.  There's much to say and it makes me overwhelmed to think about writing it all down.  And then I don't feel like blogging because I feel like I need to catch up on the last couple of months.  So I won't.

I'll just write about a few things that are happening right now.

1.  Nathan has been sleeping in our room lately, not every night, but he's been falling asleep faster away from his brothers.  He's a chatty little guy, so he goes to sleep better when he doesn't have anyone to talk with.  Then we move him to the couch when we go to bed.  We find him like this is the morning.  And every morning my heart melts.  Every morning I also think about how I might freeze time and sit and watch him sleep in all his cuteness forever.

2.  Speaking of our room, Chris did a DIY project for me this month!!!  He painted the legs gold on this table and now we have the raddest (and cheapest) desk in our room right now.  I love it.  Now I need chairs.  And I need to figure out what to put on the wall above the desk.  This is Chris's little office space so I guess I'll give him some say in the matter ;)

3.  Graham is my reader.  We have that in common.  When I was his age, I was reading everything I could get my hands on.  We bought The Hobbit a couple of years ago expecting him to dive into it, but it never caught his fancy.  Then he saw some clips of the movie at Costco last week.  He wanted to see the movie and I told him he has the read the book first.  A few days later and he's all done… now he's ready to start the next book.  I love it when my motivation schemes work, because most of the time, they don't!

4.  Texas has had the most lovely spring.  It hasn't been "Texas hot" until this last week.  That is perfect because the pool opens next week.  Swim team already started this week.  I'm ready to spend long afternoons at the pool and long weekends at baseball tournaments.

5.  Instagram:  I did something wonderful at the end of March.  I stopped following a bunch of people.  I was following a whole crew of people that I didn't really know and who I think have really beautiful lives, or take really beautiful pictures, or have beautiful talents.  But for whatever reason, it was all making me feel bad.  There was nothing wrong with anyone I was following, but it was leading to icky things in my heart.  It was freeing to let that go.  

6.  For the first time EVER, I'm planning for the school year in the fall more than a week in advance.  I love organization and it feels good to have the time to figure out what it is that we want to do next year.  

7.  I've been having the biggest urge to take the boys someplace pretty and amazing.  Why do all the really cool National Parks have to be so far apart?  And so far away from Texas?  I've always had a National Park fascination, but have only been to a couple of them.  I want to go and explore!!

8.  Graham will enter 7th grade in the fall.  There's only six more years with him in our home.  I'm not sure how that happened but it did.

9.  Asher and Samuel.  It's baseball season for them and Ranger's season for all of Texas.  I just love their love for it.  I love watching them play.  It pains me when they play at the same time because I don't want to miss a thing.

[Asher scoring a Ranger's game.]

[Samuel pitching]

10.  Joseph is seven and is the sweetest child in the entire planet.  I just can't get enough of him.  I want to freeze him too.  He's so good that sometimes I forget about him.  He's easy-going, almost never makes a fuss, and rarely has a strong opinion.  Sweet boy… he's growing up too fast.

I hope this finds you enjoying a lovely weekend with your family.