Back Yard Car Wash

Well, I hate to point out the obvious, but summer is really going by quickly... School starts in exactly 2 weeks and 6 days, and I find that very horrifying! I love summers with my kids home! Do I sound like a broken record?? I love summers with my kids home....

And they definitely enjoy being home. Seems like every day is a new opportunity for them to test the boundaries of their limitless imaginations. It's hilarious to watch what new thing they'll think of to do next. For example the car wash.

Yesterday, and like every day previous for the past several weeks, the kids headed outside as soon as they were done with breakfast to see what adventures awaited for them in the Back Yard. It's an actual destination spot. "Let's go to the Back Yard when we get home!" "Can we go to the Back Yard tomorrow?" "We had so much fun in the Back Yard today!!" I would've thought they'd be bored to pieces of the Back Yard by now, given that it's VERY SMALL.... But no. Adventure, ON!

So they headed outside to the Back Yard, and my husband and I sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy our habitual morning cup (okay POT) of coffee together. It's not unusual to hear the water hose running because they know they're supposed to water all the flowers and tomato plants for Mom everyday, but this time it seemed to be on for an extra long time. We weren't paying much attention to what they were doing till we heard, "I know! Let's put all the dinosaurs through the car wash too!"

They'd apparently hijacked most of the toys from their bedrooms and had them all lined up along with the cars, the bikes, the furniture, anything "washable" really, and were hosing them all off. They of course were all soaking wet, and since we live in weirdo northern California where it doesn't hit 60 degrees till about noon these days, they're teeth were chattering away!

Gotta hand it to them for ingenuity. I'm thinking I now know why the big spike in our water bill last month....

Viva la summer!

Got 'Maters??

So check out my "garden".... It's actually 3 tomato plants planted along the wall of my house that against all odds have survived up to this point. The odds being: a week of neglect while we were on vacation, 4 young children who like to "inspect" the plants often to monitor the growth of teeny tomatoes, and a severe lack of watering (I sorta forget they're out there because I can't actually see them when I look out my window.)

If they survive to ripening, I will enjoy myself a huge BLT!!!!

Blue Chips Football Camp!!

What a week!

Well, summer is in full swing here at the Smith residence! Can I say again how much I love summers!?!?! As busy as we are all year long, it is SOOOO much more calm and relaxing with them being out of school! For a mom who works night-shift and a dad who works ALL shifts, it feels ten times less chaotic in the summer when our hardest decision is "how late do we let them sleep in?"!! :)

They are keeping up with some "school skills" a few days a week, thanks to some cool work books I found at the book store, and Rea is neck-deep in a book series she's hooked on, so that's pretty awesome! Ni'ke and Ya'shar are counting the days till we fly to Ohio for some family time there in August. They're so excited with the thought of finally getting to go fishing with their cousin Levi!! And somehow Ya'shar has gotten into his head that we are going to "meet the Buckeyes"... I'm not real sure what transpired in his mind after our many conversations about going to Ohio, but I guess he just associates Ohio with the Buckeyes! We probably won't be meeting any, however. :)

And then of course, sports are a big part of our family in the summer!

Every summer we've tried something new with them - some of our ventures have been successful and others not so much.... Let's see, there was gymnastics (Rea hated it), then ballet for both the girls (Ni'ke couldn't hold still and Rea cried almost everyday, got a great video of her sobbing at their recital AND in the group photo) then soccer (Ya'shar was terrified of the giant L'il Kickers Bunny and Ma-lak just stood there) and then Tae Kwando... They all had their moments with that... Ma-lak hated it at first, and then loved it, and Rea seemed to find her niche right away. Ni'ke was just still too young, so she'll try it again later. And Ya'shar, well he tackles everything with a lot of "exuberance" but isn't officially involved in anything at the moment! He cheers really loud from the sidelines though.

So here we are with FOOTBALL! Ma-lak and Rea will be playing this fall with the Central City Phantoms in the Mighty Mites League, and the coaches have been so kind as to let Ni'ke and Ya'shar run around on the field a few times when the big kids were practicing. (Ni'ke is a fierce tackler. More on that later.)

This week was football camp, and I'm very grateful that the heat wave died down a little for the occasion! I had to work nearly every day this past week, so Daryle was on his own with getting everyone up and around and fed and over to camp by 8:30 every morning - he even managed to take pictures for me since I couldn't be there. :) Many of the coaches and guys who do the camp are retired NFL players or coaches or have played college ball, etc, so of course dad was having a good time too!

We were so looking forward to me being off for a 3-day weekend this past week, but late Friday night three of the kids came down with a GI bug of some sort. So instead of road-tripping to the beach, hanging at the pool and visiting the aquarium like we'd planned (and me running my 5K today - boo hoo), we instead did a LOT of laundry, house sanitizing, visits to Target for Pepto, Immodium AD and ginger-ale, and quietly watched movies while eating saltines, not popcorn! (I'll spare you all the gory details, you're welcome!)

Thankfully we have a few weeks of downtime before practices officially begin! Praying for a quick and speedy recovery for these little guys, and for fewer trips to the bathroom...

Football Football Football!!!

Well. It seems that Rea has discovered a new passion. Or shall I say OBSESSION??!!

It all started a couple days ago, when Daryle took ALL the kids with him to go get Ma-lak fitted for his football gear. We had enrolled him several weeks ago in a local city league (go Central City Phantoms!!) and he was looking forward to getting his practice helmut and jersey.

They were having conditioning practices on the field and letting everyone run around and play, even if they weren't registered for the team, and turns out Rea had a really good time.... So she asks her dad very sweetly, "Hey Daddy, can I play football too??" Well, that was it. If you know my husband at all, and what a huge football fan he is, none of this will shock you!

Next thing I know, Rea's running in the house, fully decked out in her purple jersey and helmut, babbling a million miles a minute! "Mommy! Look!! I'm gonna be a football girl! And see, I'm all fluffy and cushioned up so if they "fall me down" it won't hurt!!"

"You mean if they 'make you fall down?'"

"Yeah, if they fall me down!"

(LOL)

It might very well be that Rea is more gung hoe about this than Ma-lak, who's just along for the ride at this point. He is in fact quite unhappy about how TIGHT everything is, how HEAVY his helmut is, how HOT it is, etc..... But assures me he's still very excited about playing! His jersey number is 80 (apparently this is Jerry Rice's number from his SF 49er days...)

So our lives are about to get alot more interesting this summer and fall! Lots of practices and football camps and games and fund-raisers and LAUNDRY!!!! :) (had to throw that one in there!) But hey, there's not much I wouldn't do to see these huge smiles on my kids' faces.

Even if they do "fall her down"....

(sigh)