Summer summer summer, just like a merry-go-round

The Fourth of July was nice. We went to our ward's pancake breakfast in the morning (Theo was the lone Wolf/Bear helping with the flag), then we went to see the movie "Inside Out," which the kids liked although Ida got super sad near the end... then Matt put on a little fireworks show in our parking lot, then we put the kids to bed early and put me to bed early.

I made a summer playlist on Spotify which I am quite enjoying. If I ever get on my desktop I'll link it to this post.

The week after the Fourth, Theo went to Cub Scout day camp and the other kids went to Vacation Bible School. Polly and I had a few hours to ourselves every day! It was awesome.

Ida woke up early one morning that week, caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and was so scared, she went back to bed and hid until I finally found her.

Sooooo sad. She was legitimately terrified. I was pretty sure it was a bug bite, but took her to the doctor just to make certain it was OK to send her to vacation bible school that day. Although she refused to go anyway.

It slowly got better over the course of a few days and Ida cheered up a little, finally convinced that she wouldn't look like Quasimodo for the rest of her life. So she made it to the last day of VBS.

The kids did the junior swim team, which is now over. Next year I think they'll both be ready for the regular team. Then I'll just have to decide whether I have it in me to let them do meets. Swim meets are an ordeal. Phew. But I really want them to become good at swimming.

The lone picture I have of myself with Polly, other than her birth day.

She's getting so big. I am loving it. It's so amazing how quickly they grow at this age. She is now 10 weeks old. Smiling, cooing, kicking and punching her way through life.

I was looking at the calendar, planning out the rest of the summer, and I really think it's going to keep flying by. I had high hopes for doing tons of fun things with the kids this summer like we have the past two summers, but it just hasn't happened. Although we have watched plenty of Netflix (them: Curious George; me: Gilmore Girls), so there's that... Anyway, we went to Glen Echo Park one day, which was fun but it pretty much took it out of me. That was four weeks ago and we haven't been on a real outing since then...

We let the kids watch "The Phantom Menace" for the first time this past weekend, and it was a bit underwhelming for all of us, I'd say. But still fun. I'm trying to get more into Star Wars since my kids love it so much, and in preparation for the new movie coming out in December. So I re-watched the original three with the kids earlier in the summer so that I'd actually remember the plot lines. Harrison Ford, you dreamboat. Does anyone remember if "Attack of the Clones" is OK for little kids? It's been about 10 years since I saw it. I know I won't let them see "Revenge of the Sith" for a few more years. That gave me nightmares.

We may or may not do an outing this week. At the very least I know we'll make it to the pool at least once because it's soooo hot. Next week my brother Harry and his family will be staying with us for a few days and touring DC (yay!), so we'll definitely be out and about then! The week after that we'll have to do at least one outing, because my kids talk about water parks every day and there's no way we'll make it to all of the water parks in their library coupon book but we should at least do one. The week after that we're going to the beach for a few days!--I'm so excited!--and the week after that is Polly's baby blessing, when we'll have more visitors, so we'll probably do at least one random outing. Then there will only be 2 weeks left in summer and Polly will be almost 4 months old. Then Polly and I are heading to California for a couple of days to help celebrate my Grandma Helen's 100th birthday.

I think I'm doing a good job of simultaneously enjoying the moment, and looking forward to the coming months as Polly continues to grow like crazy, Lars starts his final year of preschool, Ida and Theo start first and third grades... As tired as I am right now (despite going to bed before 9 every night) I love my life and I love being their mom. The future is bright!