It's so crazy that summer is coming to an end! The best way that I can think to describe the past three months is FULL. Full of so many activities, events, emotions, games, stories, downtime, sleepovers, beach days, night swims, parks, friends, family, the list could go on and on, but I'm pretty certain that this summer we have covered it all!! This summer was the first time that I've experienced such a range of emotions in such a short time-one minute I could go from loving having everyone home to the next minute desperately wanting the routine back, from thinking that I have the best behaved kids in the world to the next minute wondering if they've ever learned any manners, from having a quiet house to total chaos in 3 seconds flat...this list could go on and on, too. Overall though I feel like I did a pretty good job of just embracing it all and really feeling grateful for the time with the four of them just at the stages that they were this summer. Everyone always says how fast it goes and to enjoy each and every moment so that is what we are trying our best to do. They are just so fun to be around and really made this summer special!
For exampled, there is nothing like early morning shenanigans involving Captain Underpants...which we have not seen or even read the books but everyone is obsessed with!
On Thursday, August 3rd, Cole and Joseph had a boys sleepover with Nani and Poppa while I took Syd and had a girls sleepover at our house. The boys had so much fun (as did the girls) and they even ended up at the Safari Park on Friday morning. We are so blessed to live so close to such amazing grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins!!
So, remember last month how Ella and Julia played hairdresser?!? We were finally able to get in to see my hairdresser for Ella to get her hair fixed up and for her to enjoy her first (yes, FIRST!) haircut at a salon. She has always refused to go so I have just trimmed it at home but Nani and I were finally able to convince her to go see our hair dresser, since we both see Miss Shannon now, and she was really excited. Even more excited when she looked like a troll (or a poop emoji) after getting it washed!
After the hair appointment, we headed up to my parent's house to celebrate Sydney's 6th birthday!!! We swam and had a great afternoon celebrating sweet Syd Syd!!
Julia got to try on the birthday crown for a bit!
We celebrated my birthday together with an afternoon swim and dinner in. Love these guys!!
This girl. She has become all sorts of crazy this past month. More to come in her individual monthly post but man is she BUSY!!!
Lots of pool time throughout the month. Perfecting their belly flops, backward jumps, cannonballs and flips!
On Thursday, August 17th we met the Ozecks at the zoo for a great morning!
After a minor meltdown in the parking lot regarding Ella and her shoes, we had a really fun day. (I'm pretty sure in the pictures above she was still pouting in the stroller, but thankfully she snapped out of it and put shoes on!)
This was actually our very first time on the Skyfari and to see they were excited is an understatement. The Ozecks do it regularly so Cole and Syd showed them the drill.
Even Charlotte enjoyed the views!
More pool time later that week, of course! Julia was all about jumping into the deep end today!
A favorite activity these past few weeks is to help Charlotte walk around the house! She's getting so close!!
On Saturday, August 19th, the Laugesen family had us over to their home to celebrate the end of summer by spending the afternoon grilling and playing on their water bounce house. The kids had an absolute blast!!
We celebrated our neighbor's 3rd birthday on Sunday, August 20th at the club. Charlotte even got to try a bounce house for the first time and no surprise here but she loved it!
I jumped in with her and Julia so snapped a few pictures!
Our last official beach day of the summer! On Monday, August 21st, two days before school started we met up with the Kiffee boys (and mom) at Del Mar for a few hours of fun in the sun. It was a perfect almost last day of summer.
Back in June (which seems so long ago now!) we discussed our plans for the summer and came up with some summer goals as well as things that we wanted to do. The goals started out just as goals without a "treat" or reinforcement attached to them but after some negotiating it was decided that once they met their summer goal that they could choose something that they wanted to celebrate their accomplishment. The ice cream cones surrounding the summer goals were also started at the beginning of the summer and are a variation of what we have done throughout the year for other holidays/seasons where we share and celebrate when we are kind to others. I have found that these are a great way to really talk about how we are treating others and to use one another's actions as examples to do the right thing. The kids continue to enjoy it and we celebrated at the end of summer by going out to ice cream as a family.
After our fun filled beach day we went for an end of the summer treat at Coldstone. The kids worked so hard on their summer goals and ice cream cones that we had to celebrate!!
On the day before school started Joseph had a popsicle party at Westwood to find out who his teacher was, but before that, Jen and I took the boys, along with the Vuong boys, to Nickel City to have one last summer hurrah. This was Joseph's first time there and he loved it and as always loved hanging with his buddies!
Rich and I celebrated a belated 11th anniversary dinner at Roy's downtown on August 26th. It was such a nice night out and the kids had a blast at Nani and Poppa's house. We still picked up Charlotte after dinner since I don't think she's quite ready for the full sleepover experience but it was a treat to just have her the next morning, too.
Charlotte and I ran Lake Miramar on Sunday morning while Rich went on a long training run before we picked up the kiddos.
One of Joseph's summer plans was to go fishing and Poppa made that dream come true when they spent the night. While Nani took the girls to the Safari Park, Poppa and Joseph went to Lake Hodges to go fishing. Although they didn't catch anything, Joseph had the best time!
On Thursday, August 31st we went to my parent's house after school to swim and to have dinner to welcome Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Paul and Finn to California!!! They have officially moved here and we are so excited to have them here! Paul starts a job in Carlsbad at the beginning of September-it almost still doesn't seem real that they are here for good but we are all so happy.
They spent a long time working on this
Charlotte has become obsessed with the top bunk! Every time we are in the girls' room she is determined to climb the stairs to get up there and then she just goes crazy up there. Even worse though is when you have to take her down because she will throw a fit-she is one strong cookie, too, and can straighten out her body so it makes it very hard to get her down!
I love having a pool. I know I have said this before but the amount of time, use, entertainment, etc that we get out of it is just priceless.
Jules and I hanging out together while waiting for Ella in speech one day. Charlotte was there, too, but didn't make the picture. This sweet girl keeps me smiling constantly!
A few final pictures just from hanging around in the cul de sac. You never know what type of outfit Julia will come out wearing so it is always a surprise!
And, these boys could just play for hours out here. Almost every day they play something different and always entertain themselves. I honestly don't think once I've really had to intervene due to any issues with how they play together-they are really such great buddies.
