Fun Limit

Wheweee, Summer is flying by.  I can’t believe it’s already the last day of June.  We’re having lots of good times; however, I’m noticing a pattern of behavior that I’m determined to nip in the bud.  Growing up, we’d be driving home from boating or something and one of my siblings (never me ) would ask something like, “Can we go bowling?”  My parents would be kind of taken aback at the fact that we had just done something  major.   One of my brothers busted them for having a fun limit.  I guess I inherited it. 

There’s nothing that I love more than spending quality time doing something fun as a family. BUT, I have noticed that the more we do, the more insatiable my kids become, the less they focus on the fun we just had and what the next big thing is.  I don’t like it but I don’t know how to fix it.

Is there a solution out there other than just not do anything fun?  Are my kids the only ones that do this? 

Paradise

Can you tell I’m determined to catch up on posting today?  I underestimated how busy this Summer would be.  Brennan is swamped, the kids have just enough to keep me hopping around town dropping off, picking up etc.  It’s all good times though, and we feel very blessed.  We needed a little get-away though so we headed about 3 hours South of here.  Brennan’s Dad, LeRoy, his wife Janet, their adorable dog, were there staying with Janet’s daughter, Terri.  Terri’s husband was at work, so we missed him, but their sweet little boy, Matthew, was there.  Oh, and don’t forget about the 3 horses, Quixa, the dog, and the two cats.  I’m telling you – my kids were in Heaven, we all were.  Mike and Terri’s beautiful cabin (that Mike and a neighbor/friend have built with their own 4 hands) is situated right up in the hills so that on one side of the cabin you look out over the valley of lush green farmland with an occasional rustic old barn or shack, and then on the other side of the cabin you are surrounded by endless mountain ranges.  It’s stunning.  It was a quick trip, but we packed a lot in. 

The gorgeous cabin

We got there on Monday afternoon and basically unloaded our stuff, said hello, and took off on the 4 wheelers.  They had 3, so LeRoy, Brennan and I each drove one with 2 kids each on back.  LeRoy was our trusty guide and led us through some of the most gorgeous wilderness I’ve ever seen.  We started up the canyon, crossing the river several times, til it was time to head back for dinner.  I can’t explain how much fun it was.  It was so peaceful to be surrounded by such beauty, everyone of us loved every minute.  I worried we might wear Joshy right out, but when we pulled up to the cabin after several hours of riding, Brennan turned the 4 wheeler off and Joshy started yelling, “GOOOO!”.  We wiped off as many layers of dirt as we could and drove down to the most charming little Mexican restaurant, Maria’s, for a most delicious dinner.

Anna and Matthew

After dinner we headed back to the cabin for s’mores and the while Terri made the fire, the kids helped Grandpa clean out the horse corral.  Yes, that’s right, my germ fearing kids shoveled manure, and loved every second.  Anna especially took to the horses.  She was in that corral every second she wasn’t sleeping or riding the atvs.  They all got to feed them.  It felt so good to be able to give them that opportunity.  Terri and Leroy and Janet, were so gracious and so sweet to all the kids.  Matthew just loved having some young cousins around and they all bonded instantly.  After making a mess of gigantic s’mores, and loving the horses – Storm, Red and Honey, we settled in for bed.  We were all so exhausted, sleep came easily and hard. 

There’s Terri, I did get one little shot.

We woke up Tuesday morning to incredible views and the beautiful cool summer breeze.  Terri and the girls and I whipped up some pancakes, oj and fruit and everyone devoured it.  After an hour or so of digesting, time with the horses and dogs, we got back on the 4 wheelers.  This time we headed straight back to the canyon to go further.  LeRoy took us to this overlook that took our breath away.  There were yellow and red wild flowers all over the hillside overlooking more mountains and valleys than you could count.  Unbelievable.  We rode and rode and rode some more and then finally rode back to the cabin.  I LOVED getting to drive, especially through the water, and the incredible scenery.  The kids were completely enthralled.  At one point I had Nate and Abby on back when Nate said, “I love Grandpa LeRoy!”  Abby heartily agreed.  It meant so much to all of us to have such a great time with him and Janet, Terri and Matthew. 

Anna and LeRoy

Anna fell in love with the horses, and told me, “This is the best trip EVER!”.  When we’d been home about five minutes she said, “I’m bored, if we had horses, I could be out with them!”  Nate said the same thing about 10 minutes later. 

I can’t believe I didn’t get one picture of Terri and Janet!!!!  They were such gracious, kind hosts.  I was worried about descending upon them with all our kids, but they made us feel so comfortable and welcome and the kids were so busy having the time of their lives, they stayed out of trouble.  Brennan was so grateful to spend time with his Dad and let the rest of us get more acquainted.  We are missing our new found paradise and our family there.  Thank you so much for having us!

The night before we left, Emily, Brennan’s other step-sister – John’s daughter, and her family came to stay here.  We had dinner with them Sunday night then left them Monday morning, while they went off to play, and then we rejoined them here Tuesday night for a fantastic BBQ.  Emily’s husband, Paul, is grill master and cooked up some yummy steaks for us and hotdogs and hamburgers for the kids.  It was so much fun, we all enjoyed having them here.  

Tonight one of my dearest friends from AZ is coming to stay here on their way further North.  Can’t wait to catch up with her and her kids.  The fun just keeps coming!

Musical Theatre Performance

My girls tried out for our city’s summer theatre production of “The Secret Garden”.  It was kind of a frustrating experience because the 4 leads, Archie, Lily, Mary and Collin, are all the director’s family members.  She did double cast Mary and Collin so that Abby’s friend, Paige, landed one of the Mary roles.  Anyway, my friend Sarah, my same friend I take voice lessons from, decided these girls needed an opportunity to really shine.  She got my girls, her two girls, and 3 others who had tried out and organized a little musical theatre workshop.  For two weeks they learned a solo and two group numbers under the direction of Sarah.  She spent untold hours into finding the music, finding a time that would work for everyone, choreographing numbers, finding costumes, etc. 

Last Friday night was the big performance, and all that work definitely paid off!   What a treat to watch these talented girls.  I filmed Anna’s and Abby’s solos and their two group numbers.  I wish you could hear better, they really sounded spectacular!

Anna is the one with the baseball cap, Abby’s the one with the boots.

There’s No Business Like Show Business

I Could Have Danced All Night

Honeybun

Anna is on the far left and Abby is 3rd from the left.

Sisters

Nate’s 8!

The next big thing I’ve got to catch up on was Nate’s birthday.  It’s a biggie too, the big 8!  What a darling boy.   Remember him at about 8 months old?

 

He’s always been such a sweet boy.  One of my favorite things in the entire world is a child who is kind of intense and takes themselves very seriously.  That is one of many reasons I love Nate.  He is so earnest and so sincere when he is serious about something.  He is so rewarding to give to or to take to events because his excitement is totally transparent.  He tends to get obsessed with things and could chat all day long about those things.  It’s one of my favorite things to talk to him about animals or LeBron James because his eyes get really big, his mind goes way faster than his mouth can and you can just see the enthusiasm completely envelop him.  We love Nathan!

The big thing Nate asked for was a LeBron jersey.  He LOVES it.  He is also obsessed with cool shoes lately, so with his birthday money from Grandma Jamie and Grandpa John he bought some fancy new shoes. 

We do friend parties every other year, and this was the family year so Nate chose to go to Boondocks for pizza and games.

It was really fun, Chloe was staying with us while the rest of her family was at youth conference. 

For Nate’s birthday date with my parents, he got to go to an aquarium and get a VIP tour.  He got to go behind the scenes, so to speak, and feed the big green turtle and play with the penguins.

What a lucky boy! He loved every second.   Happy birthday, Natey!!!

Abby’s Recital

The same night as Brennan’s surprise party was Abby’s ballet recital.  She’s a beautiful dancer.  I was struck by how tall and graceful and pretty she is.  She has so much presence on stage, but we can always still see that hint of self consciousness.   She’s so great. 

Here she is as a chimney sweep

It’s always so neat to watch your kids perform something they love to perform and do it well.  We love Abby!

Who Does This Remind You Of?

 

Military School

The kids got out of school a week ago.  Last week I sort of gave them the week off, no chores, no real structure at all.  I gotta be honest it was rough for me.   I don’t do well with rigid schedules, I think I’m always way more ready for school to be out than my kids are, but the other extreme is NOT good either.   I’m determined to find that happy medium this Summer.  I feel strongly that my kids need freedom, they need to be creative and resourceful and to exert physically.  Don’t get me wrong, I also think they need to work and help around the house, but I believe summers should be magic and wonderful and the fun should outweigh the not so fun. 

I worked all morning to come up with my kids’ summer chores and a routine and some rules to reflect that balance.  Here’s what I came up with:

9:00 am – get up, responsible for your own breakfast, clean up after yourself

9:30 am – chores  (which should only take no more than 30 minutes, but I’m giving lots more time.)

11:00 am – read

11:30 am – FREEDOM!!!

Prize each week  for kids who have chores done by 11 am all week.

No friends til chores are done and not before 11:30 am

No tv until 4 pm

Thursdays – no friends, cousin camp!

Guess what?  When we called the kids together to present this to them.  I got as far as have to get up by 9:00 am and eat breakfast right way when the wailing began.

They were offended that I am dictating when they have to eat breakfast. 

There were even tears and accusations of making their summer like military school. 

I know that we’re supposed to validate all of their feelings, I know we’ve probably scarred them for life -- but Brennan and I cracked up laughing, loudly, right in front of them.  Military school?  Really?

Brennan’s Big Surprise

Brennan turned the BIG 4-0 on Friday!!!!  What a geezer   Friday also happened to be the last day of school for the kids and so there was a LOT going on.  I wanted to do something special for such a special birthday so for the last few months I’ve been planning a surprise party.  Several months earlier my brother, Ryan, did a surprise party for his wife, Macy.  He rented out a bowling ally and they had a blast with friends and family.   That gave me the idea to try a similar thing.  Since Brennan was born in 1971 I thought our local roller-skating rink would be the perfect venue, so I rented it out and invited our family and some of Brennan’s friends.  The only problem is you can only rent those places when they’re closed to the public, so we had 10pm to midnight.  Partay!!  I have to say, it was a LOT of work, but in the end I had so much fun -- I hope everyone else did too. 

I told him we’d celebrate Saturday night since the kids all had parties Friday night.  Saturday night Abby had her ballet recital which gave Brennan’s Mom the perfect excuse to come up.  I’m so glad she did, I couldn’t have done it without all her help!  Anyway, after Abby’s recital we left he kids in Jamie’s care, Abby pretended to be headed to a party at the -rink and hid in the backyard til Brennan and I left.  I took Brennan to dinner and told him we had to pick Abby and her friends up at 10:15.  In the meantime, Eliza (my sister) and her husband (bless you!)  got their early and set everything up and welcomed the guests.  Brennan and I pulled up and he asked if I was going in or he was.  I quickly told him we better both go in cause the girls had their scooters and treat bags etc.  Whew, I hadn’t thought that through all the way.  Everyone was supposed to get their 70s groove on, a couple people really went all out and had some fantastic costumes.  I wish I could have gotten pictures, you can see Eliza’s fabulous dress though.  Anyway, we walked in and:

Brennan’s “surprise”

As you can see he didn’t even flinch, he did turn to me and say “exciting!”  in a monotone voice.  I think he was in complete shock.

After that I made read a little tribute that and then pulled out another surprise.  You can watch below, skip my part you can’t hear it anyway, so if you skip to 1:37 you’ll get all the good stuff.

Untitled from Eliza Thompson on Vimeo.

Tribute and Song

After all that hoopla, we roller-skated!  I haven’t skated for I don’t know how long, and I loved every minute!  We had some groovy music and races and games and it was so much fun. 

I hope Brennan got a taste of how much we all love him.  I wish more of our family and friends who live far away could have joined us, but I’m so grateful to all who did come and make arrangements for kids, and drive a long ways!  I’m so grateful Jamie was there to bring the big kids for their big moment and then take them home, take the babysitter who was home with Joshy home, and got everyone settled.  Thank you!!  We love Brennan.  Happy Birthday!