Summer So Far

It's been a while since I've posted, but we've started off our summer with a busy bang.

For the first week, my kids went to my parents' house for VBS at their church and "Camp Nana." It was the second year all the kids went, and it was such a great way to start off our summer.

(At the end of the week Ellie wanted me to take a picture of her and her group helper Kendall who she really loved. She still talks about things Kendall said including the phrase, "I'm going to take that as a yes." Ellie now says that, and it always makes me laugh!) 

My parents always do a lot of fun things with the kids. One of their favorite activities this year was going down to the beach after dinner. This guy was there making all these amazingly huge bubbles that the kids got to chase and pop.

While the kids were having the time of their lives, I had a bunch of projects planned around the house. It was so nice to get so much done. I love that feeling of productivity!

Andy mentioned going out to dinner every night while the kids were gone. I thought he was joking, but that's actually what we ended up doing. It was SO wonderful not having to make dinner all week. We tried two new places (Old California Mining Company and The In-Between Pizzeria and Grill), went to BJ's for our anniversary (which happened to be that week), and then walked down to Mr. Taco for our last night of freedom alone.

The next week was another busy week because of three things: Mrs. Prescott's science/swim camp, VBS at our church, and my sister and her family came into town!

Mrs. Prescott (kindergarten teacher extraordinaire) has a science/swim camp every summer at her house. My kids have gone for the past couple of years, and this time Mrs. Prescott invited Ellie to come too. Ellie was beyond thrilled, and all three of them had a great time. It's the only camp they do all summer, and they just LOVE it.

In the evenings, we had VBS at our church. This was my fourth year being in charge. It's a lot of work putting it all together, so it was nice having the kids gone the week before. I was able to get pretty much everything done ahead of time, so the actual week of VBS went smoothly.

My sister coming into town was a very unexpected, fun treat, but that will be its own post.

While we had such a blast for our first two weeks of summer, we were so happy to get some real down time this week. The kids have been playing Legos, having tea parties, reading, and other lounging around activities.

(Hannah made the cookies for the tea party almost entirely by herself!) 

Yesterday we went to the library to stock up on books for summer and then stopped by Rita's to redeem four free Italian ice coupons that the kids got for reading.

Another amazing part of our summer, at least for me, has been sleeping in. I've been battling a cold/laryngitis ever since Ellie's half birthday party (another excuse for not blogging) so I've been sleeping in every morning for the past few days. The kids make their own breakfast and play quietly downstairs. Then when I wake up, Hannah makes me scrambled eggs. I could really get used to this!