Do I get a cookie, Mom?

LOVE this picture of my sweet baby boy!

Some wet fun

Another month in review

Lest you think (from my previous post) that I have spent the whole past month micromanaging and nagging my family, here are some of the things we've done lately:

We had a bad storm one night right at bedtime. Natalie and Karis snuggled up for some comfort from the thunder and lightening. We couldn't believe how quickly they fell asleep next to each other and stayed cozy all night long!

Karis had graduation from Preschool. It's crazy to me that she'll be going to Kindergarten next year, but I'm so excited for her to make some new friends and continue growing into the girl that God wants her to be!

To kick off summer vacation we are starting a new tradition of having a family slumber party on the last night of school. We treated the kids to IBC root beer in the bottle, skittles, gummi worms, and popcorn and a couple movies they had never seen. It was hard this year with Levi wanting to steal everyone's snacks and Natalie trying to get in other people's sleeping bags, but I think in the years to come it will be fun. There won't be a bed time and we'll sleep in as late as we want the next morning!

We brought up this old "springy" horse since Natalie and Levi were fighting over the zebra toy. We have cute pictures of Ethan and Karis with cowboy hats on while riding it when they were little. I couldn't resist getting a couple of Levi and Natalie.

We're in the process of making some "I Spy" bottles to take on our Outer Banks trip. We started out using sand, but I feel like the objects are really hard to uncover. We may try a couple with rice instead and see how that works. Ring around the Rosy has been a big hit with Levi and Natalie. I love that all 4 kids will do it together about 20 times in a row and sing and giggle the whole time!

SUMMER!!

Well, I thought summer would be a time for me to start blogging on a regular basis again. I should have known I would just end up filling my time with other things! I love summer vacation, especially since I'm married to a teacher :O).

I must admit, though, for a control freak like myself, it's not quite as wonderful as it sounds some days. I really have a hard time balancing between feeling like my house should look perfect and our days should run smoothly since I have my hubby home everyday to help, and just letting go and enjoying the time we have spend together. I'm totally wired to get everything done, then if there is time I'll rest. He's totally wired to lay on the couch with the kids and watch cartoons for an hour and a half every morning and then just relax for the day. If I don't accomplish like 12 things before 9am, I start to get annoyed with everyone and everything for not feeling like they need to do the same!

So my goal for the next several weeks is to (once again) work on letting go. I (once again) need to get okay with the fact that my toy room is ridiculously dishevelled, my furniture is dusty, some days nothing "monumental" gets accomplished, we have to dig through baskets of folded laundry to find something to wear, and many of the projects on our summer to-do list won't get accomplished.

I'm (once again) expectantly praying for a change in attitude. With June almost over already, I know I can't afford to waste any more precious time worrying what's not getting done and start investing more energy into enjoying this time that I'll never get back!