Pretty Perfect Monday

Kids slept in, and thus so did I. Let Mr. Man sleep in even more because he has been working all weekend.  Which is kind of half normal for a priest but being up at 5 both Saturday and Sunday, travelling to a bishop's consecration and back on Saturday, having a very full morning of church Sunday (preaching and celebrating all 3 services), plus an afternoon of minor league baseball game, and a Sunday evening of Superman makes for a very tired Daddy on the day after Father's Day. 

VBS is this week, so I dropped the big kids off and we went to brunch with Baby Girl. Ran a few errands, left Daddy and baby to a failed nap, went to Target, watched the Blind Side (which our kids LOVE), and decided I needed to make the perfect summer dinner. 

So, for dinner we had Tomato, Cucumber, Basil, and Feta Salad with Pesto Chicken Pasta. Our basil is growing like crazy and this batch of pesto plus about a cup chopped for the salad barely made a dent. The cucumbers were from my parent's garden, we've never had success with cucumbers but theirs are going crazy! My mom gave me 5 more today; more cucumber salad, yay! We had gotten a big bag of local peaches at the farmer's market Saturday, so for dessert we had whipped cream and sauteed peaches in butter and brown sugar with a little cinnamon (and a dash of scotch thrown in for the adults). So yum.

After dinner Daddy and the big kids played games while I kept M busy with a basketful of rocks. We love these big smooth rocks from Michigan and keep them on her level to put in a out of the basket to her heart's content. We probably did it for 15 minutes and she kept putting them to her cheek and saying "cold".

Big kids have been sleeping together at night since they don't have to get up early for school and they are currently talking and laughing in bed. So sweet. Baby Girl went down easy after her non-nap and now it's time to read and watch a little HBO on the iPad. 

See, pretty perfect Monday. 

Summer!!!

Summer's in full swing around here. With the first week (and annoying transition/adjustment time of siblings being together constantly) under our belts, I think we're ready to dive in to summer. This week is a bit of the crazy with 3 swim meets (2 rescheduled from storms already), a baseball team party, and VBS, but we're taking it one hour at a time and trying to relax where possible.
Here are the end of Kinder and 2nd grade pics, the differences from the first day of school being mainly longer legs and shorter hair. Ok, we're off to the pool because we just can't seem to stay away!

Good Stuff

We've had some fabulously fun weekends around here lately. Full of family fun and early summer adventure. Last weekend I was fed up seeing everyone else's beach photos on facebook and feeling the NEED for the salt in my hair and sand in my toes, so we took a surprise day trip to the closest beach. We settled on Folly Beach which is hip and old-school all at the same time. I can't wait to go back. The kids were so excited to go on this little adventure and were so good in the car that they didn't even mind the extra 1.5 hours it took to get there due to Memorial Day traffic. They made videos the whole way there and slept the whole way home. They were in the water 93% of the time we were there (which was much warmer than I was expecting) and ate every single snack we brought. 

For dinner we went to a place called Surf Bar that I read good reviews of. Kind of an open-air dive but in a good way with surfboards lining the ceiling and dogs roaming the porch for scraps. They had great burgers and perhaps the best and most unusual cocktail I've ever had called The Painkiller. I have no idea what was in it or how to make it but it was creamy and slightly sweet but also savory and it had nutmeg on top! Yum.

Having the pool open on the weekend just automatically makes the weekends more fun. Usually Sunday afternoons means family rest time but while Daddy and M slept, I took the big kids to the pool. Now that they can both swim independently and well, this means I actually got to relax at the pool! 

I think it's a new Sunday afternoon ritual! 

Alone Time

My parents offered to take Ms. Cutie-pie today so I could have some free-time before summer break hits. I have so far been enjoying gardening, catching up on e-mails and making coffee. I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something though. I'm off to shoe shop (not for me though, boo!), get lunch, and maybe a pedicure or a nap. :) Time is running out quickly though so I'm off.

Photography of late

I've been trying to advance my skills as a photographer, learning about light and aperture and white balance and shutter speed and focal point. It's fun and just when I think I've figured something out, I realize I still have so much to learn.
Here are some favorites from the last few weeks in a variety of lighting, actions, and settings.

Recovering

After the eye injury, other parts of my body decided to stop functioning as well and I ended up with mastitis. So not fun. Antibiotics are helping an I'm finally feeling like a productive person again. Thank goodness for my amazing husband who cared for the kidlets, cooked, cleaned, etc. all while trying to maintain his job, write and preach a sermon, etc. Oh, and he did it all joyously. He rocks. 

I'm pretty much fully functional today but its been a week. So I couldn't resist joining M for part if her nap today. Who needs clean underwear? Oh wait, we all do. Seriously, it's amazing the way things pile up when one us is down and the other is in maintenance mode. The mail, school papers, cups, laundry, trash. Ugh. I'm happy to do it though after feeling so rough the past week. 

We've entered swim season around here 

That's our girl at the bottom of the lane, their coach noticed her (she's new to this team) yesterday and said "I've got to get my hands on that girl, she's strong, she's a strong swimmer." And she really is, she's beautiful to watch in the water. But we took a year off and her body has changed and she needs her skills sharpened. Swim team is going to be so good for her. H is loving it too and he looks so cute in his speedo shorts.

Good ol' one eye

Toddle-britches, that's her new name, injured my eye. A scratch on my cornea from her fingernail. I thought it would heal up a few hours later but it got worse so I had my mom come and take me to the urgent care because my vision was so blurry. After lots of tortuous drops and washings, plus a freaking expensive antibiotic/steroid drop prescription, it's much better, but still blurry and swollen feeling. I should not be writing this, I'm basically typing with one eye. I can't read or drive or really even watch tv. Last night I had to watch the office season finale with a blanket over my bad eye so I could keep it open but the light didn't bother it. First world problems, huh? It did force me to finally figure out how to download audiobooks from the library so I'm listening to my newest find, Outlander. I know this is actually quite old, but I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon and really enjoying it. 

Ok I'd better go before I injure my other eye from using it took much. Here's my favorite little leaguer who got the game ball last week. His team played amazing and he had great fielding, 3 for 3 hits, 1 run and 2 RBIs! When coach asked the team who should get the game ball, they all yelled his name! So awesome! And a moment we will never forget!