Summer bucket list

Lemonade stand.
Check!

Kayla has been asking to do a lemonade stand for the last two weeks, but it just hasn't been the best timing for one. Shouldn't there be hot sunny weather to have a lemonade stand? Yeah, well we haven't had any every single time she's asked to do one. I felt bad pushing aside her idea, but I didn't want her disappointed for lack of sales, going through all that work to set it up, if it was cold and grey outside.

Well, summer is almost over and we can't wait around for nice weather! Luckily the weather cooperated for an afternoon lemonade stand. Aren't they so cute?! They - and Khloe - proudly and loudly yelled "lemonade for sale!" for hours. And guess how much they made?! $10.39 in 1.5 hours! (Not sure about the $0.39 part!) Not bad for such a short amount of time. You would understand if you tried the best fresh squeezed lemonade you've ever had. The sale ended when they ran out of product, which went quicker than they thought after they poured themselves each two glasses (they were thirsty!) and Khloe wanted two also. We'll have a lesson on profit margin gains/losses next time.

For now, summer bucket list item checked off the list! And I have one happy (rich) girl!

Summer weekend

Summer weekends are flying by! What happened to August? Why must August fly by so quickly? There's still plenty of summer left in my book. One way I gauge that is that there's still two Rockin' the Rivers to go! Yay, we LOVE our Thursday Rockin' the Rivers!

This weekend we were honored to be invited to celebrate two important birthdays shared on the same day - Alexis turning two and Todd turning forty! They split their parties up so we could celebrate with Alexis at her house on Friday and Todd's beach party on Saturday. Going to Todd's party on Saturday caused us to miss another significant milestone event... my 20th high school reunion. Only I wasn't interested in attending it! I much preferred hanging on the beach with the people I wanted to see!

 

What a good sport you are Dr. Todd... wearing a Mini Mouse party hat on the day you turned 40

 Kayla, Khloe and Paige

Of course Alexis shared the spotlight at her party and let Todd blow out candles too

Alexis just loves our girls... and our girls love Alexis

On the way to Alexis' party we passed by a U-Pick flower farm that I've always wanted to stop at but have never taken the time to. After accepting that this detour would cause us to be a few minutes late, I did a u-turn and went back to the U-Pick farm. What a wonderful experience! Oh yes, and Lindsay looooved the flowers. 

 

What fun! We were given these lovely baskets to carry, cutters, and I had a beautiful assistant to do all the work.

 I had to scrape together my last few dollars and some coins to put together a bouquet. Kayla picked out and cut every single flower herself.

 

 

And Khloe enjoyed herself too

Kristi and I and a few other friends wrapped up the weekend by continuing our sister tradition of doing the Float Down.  We had such a FUN time! Then our night wrapped up with a spontaneous late night dinner, bonfire, poison ball game, and hangout with 20 neighbors - they just kept coming and coming! This is what I love MOST about summer... and will MISS about summer too!

 Float Down winners

Beauty rest

It's 10am on Saturday morning and where is your family? Mine is still sleeping! Aren't they so cute and cuddly???

2nd Annual Color Fun Run!

We did it! The Color Fun Run tradition continues, and this year Aaron joined us! Don't you think he looks good in fushia?! I don't think I've ever seen Aaron in so much pink before!

We had SO much fun! I was so proud of us for running our first 5k (hopefully of many!) as a family. It's such a great community event - no competition, no intimidation, just pure family fun. They have a DJ, rock wall, and several inflatables - all which the girls loved the most. The route is what makes it so awesome - it follows the waterfront the entire time and winds through a park, providing enough distraction and entertainment for me that I almost forgot I was running. It was the perfect summer weather for running too.

 We're ready!

3 - 2 - 1- go! The race is on!

 

I'm quite proud of myself; I've never officially ran a full 3 miles before [for fun, not being chased, without stopping] and to be honest, I did look for shortcuts a few times, but Aaron pushed me to run the full distance. Last year I did the race by myself with three girls under six pushing the stroller and so we did sneak a few shortcuts jogging/walking about 2.5 miles. I'm impressed with Aaron too - he pushed the jogging stroller the whole time - not easy on all those hills! I'm proud of Kayla too, she ran half of it and joined Khloe in the stroller for half. Even when Kayla was tired and couldn't go anymore, she sprinted through the finish line with us! Funny story: when planning for the run, Khloe repeatedly insisted that we NOT bring the stroller this year because she was "so much bigger and can run really fast" and Kayla wanted the stroller because she'd prefer to be pushed. Khole pointed out that "Kayla, your bigger than me because your shoes are bigger and my shoes are smaller and so you can't be in the stroller, just me". Yes, we agreed with you Khloe!

 We did it! We finished the race! Next up, the final color throw!

 Alissa and me

 You bet we're in for next year!

Cousin fun!

Annual family reunion in Indiana - so much fun!

Isabella, Caynah, Aleah holding Evie, Sophie holding Alec, Charlie, Bruce, Ethan, Kayla, Khloe and Cohen

All that's missing is Kempton and Beau... and sweet girl Aniston Lynn who was born just 24 hours after this photo was taken!

Khloeism's

I could have pages and pages and pages of Khloeisms! I try to keep up, some I tell myself  "I've got to write that down!", some I think I will remember (I don't); I need to get better at writing some of these down!

Kayla hunched over in her room peering closely at a small bug crawling across her floor,
Kayla: EWWWWWWWWW! A bug!
Me: Yup, I see it. I'll get it.
Khloe (running in): Kayla, Kayla, let me see! Oh yeah, Kayla I see it. Do not worry Kayla. I will get it.
Khloe runs past me into the bathroom: Mom! Mom! I need a kleenex!
Khloe, running back into Kayla's room, puts her hand out towards Kayla and says: Kayla, stay back. I've got it. 
Khloe bravely scoops up and squishes the bug.
Khloe: I got it!

Thank goodness Khloe! You saved your big sister's life!

Outside on the patio, Kayla and Khloe spot a daddy-long-legs. Kayla is immediately grossed out, Khloe is intrigued and can't stop watching it.
Khloe: Do not worry Kayla. I'll get it.
Khloe grabs Kayla's flip flop laying on the ground and knocks the daddy-long-legs off the fire pit. It quickly crawls away. Kayla jumps up off the ground and onto a chair. Khloe continues to chase down the daddy-long-legs with Kayla's flip flop. Finally Khloe puts Kayla's flip flop on one foot and steps on the daddy-long-legs, beaming with pride of her accomplishment. Once again, Khloe saves Kayla's life. This brave girl amazes me!

Barely light out, Khloe comes bounding into our room at 6:45 in the morning. This has never ever happened once in our lives.  She runs in and yells "Ah ha! There you are! I found you!" I wasn't aware we were hiding? Who has this kind of energy the SECOND they wake up? And why is she even awake at this hour? This is the girl that routinely sleeps until 8:30 am every morning! This early morning wake up wasn't so bad for us since we needed to get out of bed for work anyways, but I knew it coudn't mean good things for Khloe later on in the morning. Who knows what woke her up so early, but later that night I talked to her about it, making sure it wouldn't happen again:
Me: Khloe, why did you wake up so early this morning?
Khloe: I don't know. (pause) Because you told me I could.
Me: Noooooo, I don't think so. I didn't say that.
Khloe: Yes you did! You told me I could get up early.
Me: No honey, I didn't say that.
Khloe: Yes you did. Didn't you hear you?

Nice try Khloe!

A moment of quiet

I was thankful for a lazy Sunday afternoon. After a busy Friday that included Kayla having a late-night cheerleader slumber party tie-dieing t-shirts with the neighborhood girls and the Johnson's coming into town on Saturday for a day of boating and a sleepover, I was looking forward to having a slow Sunday. Mid-afternoon rolled around and I grabbed a stack of magazines, looking forward to a quiet moment to relax and read on the couch. But, something even better happened. I fell asleep... and so did my girls... with me.

It was splendid and glorious. After I realized I wasn't alone in my slumbers I didn't know whether to stay awake and stare at their sleeping faces or fall asleep myself. I think I did a little of both.

It was truly an unforgettable moment in a seemingly unforgettable setting. And it  made me realize something - that if I stay still long enough (which doesn't happen near enough) my girls will come to me. And if I'm lucky, we'll get to steal another nap together. Lesson learned? Take time to just be; be still, be relaxed, and be uninterrupted more often. I need more of these types of days!