Photo Every Hour: August 21st

Expectation: School starts this week. Time to start getting up on a school schedule

7:00 Reality--we just got back from a weekend of camping and no one is remotely ready to transition to a school schedule

8:00 Wii baseball has been the screentime choice of the summer

9:00 I will never complain about their ability to play together outside

10:00 Time for a long-overdue car wash

11:00 Cutting it down to the wire to getting in a trip to the gymnastic open jump before school starts

12:00 Lunchtime! 

1:00 No naps for these fools, but I did start requiring twenty minutes of reading/quiet time before they got their second bit of screentime

2:00 Trying on some back to school shoes!

3:00 Apparently he likes them so much he forgot that we don't wear shoes in the house (also, I will never tire of listing to him--or his brothers--play the piano. Getting this was the best happy accident that ever happened to us)

4:00 Squeezing in as many trips to the bowling alley as we can before our Kids Bowl Free passes expire at the end of the month

5:00 I think this is the best we've ever had flowers do (probably because I've actually remembered to water them regularly!)

6:00 Dinner choice courtesy of Garrett tonight--he found a recipe he wanted to try in a cookbook he got from the library, so we did! I don't know that it will make it into our regular rotation, but the boys all did a great job eating the Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps

7:00 Snacks

8:00 Trying to get lights out a little earlier to help ease into back to school

9:00 Trying something new this year--in order to stay on top of all my tasks, each day has a different designation. So I introduce you to Muffin Monday!

10:00 We definitely got sucked into Netflix's "Quarterback" series. So fascinating to see all the behind the scenes stuff in the life of a quarterback!

11:00 Do you know who's not doing a good job getting back into a school year schedule? This girl

Ugh. One of these days I'll actually do better about getting to bed earlier

Photo Every Hour: July 21st

7:00 Another contributing factor to the busyness of our summer was being a revolving door of babysitting nieces and nephews. Don't get me wrong, I love them dearly, and it truly isn't that much work adding a few more to our brood, but the physical and mental logistics can be exhausting

8:00 I spy three of the sweetest little nephews

9:00 Dropped Harrison off at the bus (he was at day camp this session) and of course had to let the rest play for a little bit

10:00 Survived a trip to the grocery store with this crew (fortunately William and Garrett were in North Carolina this week so I could accommodate three of my sister's boys plus my youngest two in the van)

11:00 Snacks to stave off hangry boys since lunch will be late

12:00 Picking up Harrison from camp

1:00 Lunch times five!

2:00 The three who are three and under are successfully napping, which means time to let the older two watch a little show while I enjoy some downtime and my lunch

3:00 Oh, by the way, did I mention we're heading to the lake this weekend? Time to get packed for that!

4:00 And just like that, the van is ready to go for our crew and we're off to the lake (and excited to be picking up William and Garrett--and Grandmom--at the airport tomorrow!)

5:00 Recovering from a bee sting requires cuddles on the couch and a story

6:00 Helping with the dishes

7:00 Cousin crew scoping out some wildlife on the lake

8:00 Time to get ready for bed is usually code for Grandpa to rile the boys up. Super helpful

9:00 Catching up on some productivity after two days of not getting anything done 

10:00 Still plugging away

Not bad for bedtime, especially at the lake!

Photo Every Hour: June 21st

 Let's just ignore the fact that it's September, mmkay?!? Summer was a wicked blur. Most of it was good, most of it was intentional busyness (these boys drive me--and each other--crazy if we stay cooped up in the house too long), but man it went by fast.

No rest for the busy, especially not when it's day camp week for the boys!

7:00 The older two amassed quite a collection of lester lace creations by the end of their camp session

8:00 Ready and waiting for the bus!

9:00 Picking strawberries with my only little who is too young for camp (but next year he gets to go!)

10:00 I'd like to say we spent our mornings doing fun Mommy Matthew activities, but in reality, he spent most of the two weeks being Mommy's little helper (and a good helper he is!)

11:00 Busted sunglasses means Matthew gets to come help me pick out new ones (I think he made a pretty good pick!)

12:00 Finally a little bit of fun at the playground waiting for Connor to get dropped off

1:00 Lunch with my sister and her boys. Our grandpa's health was beginning to deteriorate so she made a quick trip to town to see him

2:00 Catching up on some emails during naptime 

3:00 Playing some soccer with my favorite Connor

4:00 Waiting for the bus to drop off the full-day campers

5:00 We added one more to our crew for a few hours each afternoon, but after a hot day at camp it was pretty easy to keep them all occupied with a snack and a little bit of screen time

6:00 Easiest birthday dinner ever letting the Shrine do the cooking for us!

7:00 Grabbing a quick snack at the house before heading off to...

8:00 Church for a campfire worship! (And s'mores, of course)

9:00 Obligatory birthday drinks

10:00 Trying to get caught up on organizing my 2023 pictures (spoiler--I'm still no where close to being caught up)

11:00 I feel like I say every month that I want to get bedtime earlier but nothing ever changes

Lights out!