busy busy busy

This is Lily with her friend Abby. They are going to be getting together once a week this summer to do artwork with Lily's Mimi and Abby's Grandma. Sounds like a perfect deal to me!

This is the table full of children on a recent trip to the pizza buffet. We had one 4 year old, three 3 year olds, two 2 year olds, a one year old and 3 babies! Are we crazy? :)

Julianna at 5 mths. She's ready for a swim.

Drew with Grandma one day at the lake last weekend.

We had a very busy weekend last weekend. In fact, I'm not sure that Lily was out of her swimming suit the entire weekend. She told me that she'd like to be a mermaid and live in the water. I guess the swimming thing runs in her blood, no pressure! Anyway, we stayed so busy that I just know that they were exhausted.

So, to recover from the weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to hang out at home ALL DAY Monday. Boy was I wrong!! What a good parenting theory. Staying home so that the kids get some time to be home and to play with their toys. In practice, I'm not sure it's such a good idea. We did hang out here all day, but it turned into one very long day of fighting, temper tantrums, and yelling. (My worst parenting flaw, that has become a much too frequent, and unnerving part of me since I now have to try and take care of 3 at once)

So, based on that experience....we have kept busy and out of the house since! Tuesday morning we spent at the free water park here in Hutchinson. It's really a great place with water toys and a wading pool. We also had our lunch there (which is a great way to avoid cleaning your kitchen mid-day!) Wednesday morning the kids rode their bikes while I mowed the front lawn. And, today, we spent the morning at Jumping Js (which is a building full of inflatable jumping thingies) followed by a pizza buffet lunch. Tomorrow we are spending the morning at the library. They are having special activities for the kids; like face painting, arts and crafts, and games. I love going; and the kids are excited because Lily remembers going last year.

These busy summer days are the kind of days I was imagining when I dreamed of being a stay at home mom. As long as we are staying busy, everyone is having a good time and getting along. I can't imagine doing anything else. From what I can tell, as long as we are keeping busy, this summer is going to fly by! And so are their childhoods. But, I will avoid thinking about that for now.