Fire pit

$40, a couple hours of configuring, lots of sweat, and a few smashed fingers later, this not so handy duo

 

(and oh goodness, my Mr., he is mighty good looking all scruffy bearded working in the yard!)

turned this...

into this...a "do it yourself" sort of project.

and while the summer heat and humidity is not favorable for use aside from burning yard debris, I dream about cooler evenings this upcoming fall, where we can utilize this fire pit for cool stuff.  The stuff that will be memory makers for our family - evenings together burning up S'mores.   Now all that is left to do is just pitch a tent and we're all set for a backyard camping adventure.

Little mama

I hope someday I get to watch her in the role of mama.

For now, this will do.

 Notice that she doesn't leave doll out of the basketball fun.  Sister has her parked front seat row.

Fav phone photos

My favorite window of the house, perfect view of the sky when standing on the 5th stair of the staircase, the beauty after the storm.  A frequent occurrence here, lately.

The saying goes - like father like son, however in this case it was like son like parents.  P&I Just cheesing up a R smile for the camera, cause we are really mature.

Apparently we are incapable of taking a "good" picture.  I love that I have J pjs on my shoulder too, and that my hair gives me bunny ears.  P - not sure what he was doing with his upper lip...

Who needs toys when there is a full kitchen of stuff to get into.

His dimple, oh goodness, gets me every time.

Hair that finally was free of a ponytail.  The first time this summer, and goodness it is...long! 

3 - ready to go.

The eyepatch + the hand placement = priceless.  Picture to embarrass with later on :)

A morning surprise treat for my little guy.

Her cheese ball smile.

The view while taking a bath, thought it was picture perfect, so I took one.

Kindergarten registration

We turn in paperwork tomorrow that will make our little boy kindergarten ready. He excitedly speaks about starting school, and riding the school bus, and taking messy pb&j sandwiches for lunch in a special lunchbox. He says he wants to ride the bus the first day, even...he is ready.

We are not.

Aug. 15 we will drop him off for his first day of school (cause mama isn't ready for him to be that independent to take the bus on day one), i will wear waterproof mascara, and I will try to contain leaky eyes until I am driving home.

How did this happen? Why is time going so quickly in this parenting journey?

I am having a hard time being able to trust in someone else to teach him, keep him safe, and care for him more during the day than I get to.

And now that we are this.close to having a school aged child, I can understand why parents homeschool.

I am trusting that this is the journey to take, and that he will thrive in the public school system.

So here is to hoping tomorrow brings feelings of comfort as we go to meet his teacher, the person we will trust to care for our little boy throughout his kindergarten journey.

Perfect timing

We are learning...

Patience, and the value of the dollar, and how to stretch it.  We were looking deeper in our pockets, and waiting on payday.

Because with a $368 electric bill (go ahead gasp, and maybe curse) because I sure did...that is how it goes sometimes.

Something about $68 in a bank account + 5 people to feed + 10 days until payday = humbling.

And just as I was scratching my head to figure out which bills could be paid late without a huge fee, our problem was solved for us. 

My Mr. he just knows his stuff, and knows the right people, who know the right people...and well long story short, he had an interview which ended with a job offer before the interview was even complete - there was talk of "how much do you want paid" and well, I am feeling blessed, and so very proud of my Mr. and all his hard work. 
 

Lemonade stand

He wanted to have a lemonade stand.

So we did.

After P discussed the art of negotiation this last week with R, specifically related to chores and his cost per chore - not sure why he'd do that given we are the ones forking out the cash - it was only fitting for R to take a stab at his own "business." 

See before R discussed negotiation with P, he was fine earning one dollar to gather all the laundry around the house and helping me start a load.  Now he says, "I'm going to need to negotiate a more appropriate price, mom, that task is simply way too huge for just one teensy, tiny buck!" 

So I asked R, "how much you going to sell a cup of lemonade for?

"ten dollars, so I can just sell one cup, and then go to the store to buy an angry bird."

I told him that was way too much, and not even the best tasting lemonade would be sold for $10 a cup. 

So P made a sign for his lemonade stand...$0.25.

And R wasn't too thrilled when his one, and only customers, gave him two quarters for two cups of lemonade.

"Two quarters, mom that won't even be enough to pay for the beak of an angry bird?"

and now, he is getting it, the art of negotiation, and understanding the value of the dollar.

He didn't last long manning up the lemonade stand, soon the sprinkler (or sprinkle as K calls it) won over, and the pitcher of lemonade emptied out thanks to two little toddlers.

By the size of K's belly, and his frequent potty breaks, I think we all know where that lemonade went.

Because I am a sucker nice mom, I gave him a buck for a cup of lemonade, and he only gave me this much...

Kindergarten ready?

We picked up the packet, the dreaded packet. The one that once filled out makes us parents of a school-aged child.

He loved the playground at this new school.  He loved telling K, "this is my new school, I'll get to play here everyday when I'm at school."

He rocked that play structure.

 So did K.

 But little lady proved to be the strongest of them all, one arm pull up, no big deal!

I'm not ready for him to be a school-aged kid.

At all.

He'll be gone 5 days a week, 7:50am - 2:20pm. That is a long, long time. So the packet, it sits on the kitchen table, half filled out. As much as I'm not ready. He is. He is smart, and loves interaction with kids, and will do well...but it is going to be hard. Sigh.

To make sure he's ready to jump into learning, after a summer of playing all day long, we've been incorporating fun learning activities into the day.

I love sneaking in learning.

So after a late morning spent doing this...

R taking K for a ride.

 K's "sprinkle" face.

We came inside where I created a "game," I put post it notes around the room, with uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet, R had to race around the room and pair up the uppercase with the lower case letter.  He is totally his dad's kiddo as he asked me to time him to see how long it would take him.  I had him tell me the letter sound each letter made as well.  Aside from mixing up the d and the b, cause "those are silly, who'd of thunk to make two letters look so much a like." - R, he nailed em all.

By July 27th that packet will be filled out, we'll of met his new teacher, and maybe, just maybe I'll be more ready to embrace this new journey.  For now I'm soaking up every minute of summer I have left with my biggest boy, and complaining to P about how much I dread R being gone all day Monday through Friday.