Life Lately

 {I found this gem on the fridge this morning -- it made me laugh out loud.  

Grace's shopping list for me:

Sophie butter

Nutrigrain bars -- lots of strawberry

Cheerios

iPhone -- Ethan

Possibly chips

:)

-- THANKS}

Well, summer is in full swing!  And by swing, what I really mean is swinging on a pendulum between two extremes -- merriment and woe.  {Exhibits A and B, below.}      

We've had lots of fun at the pool (most of the time, at least), played some games ("On the Dot" is a new favorite), read quite a few of our summer reading challenge books, and done some shopping to get ready for our trip.  Grace has also created a "school" for the younger kids -- "Nicole," "Savannah Jade," and "Jack" (Sophie, Jane, and Alex) and Ethan has taken it upon himself to create detailed agendas and itineraries for our upcoming epic road trip. {It's going to be epic, y'all.}  Those are some of the highlights of the last couple of weeks.

On the flip side, we've weathered MANY a freak-out and fit, seen a trip or two to crazy town from Thing 1 and Thing 2, and lived in near squalor as the house gets trashed over and over and over again with the kids being home all day long everyday.  Not to mention, Squeaky Squeaks has REALLY been struggling with sleeping now that he gets himself stuck standing up in his crib almost every time we put him down.

With two and a half weeks of summer under our belt, it seems as though we've settled into somewhat of routine.  My only hope now is that by the end of the summer, the good times will outweigh the bad...  :)