weekend report

So our "staycationing" type of a weekend plan has turned into a be lazy in the summertime plan...
We skipped church this morning, I just unloaded some groceries, Ryan's mowing the lawn, Savannah's going thru a whole ream of paper with markers and Sawyer's in the backyard helping our neighbor work on the fence. He's in heaven... Mr. Bill gave him some scrap wood, nails and a hammer and he's in heaven.

Yesterday we never made it to Six Flags... I did laundry and Ryan sealed our deck as we waited for our pool to open in the morning. We ate a quick early lunch, headed over for a quick dip and then made our way to Evan's first birthday party and made an afternoon of that. We were so worn out from the heat (and all the food) that we vetoed Six Flags and decided to just come back home and go swimming again. Walking back from the pool (at seven thirty in the evening) we got sidetracked and ended up with drinks and s'mores around a fire in a neighbor's backyard. Finally came home at dark and basically all fell into bed.

So after we finish up a few chores this morning, I think we're basically going to spend the whole day at the pool again for today. It's already 85° at 10am, so yeah, a relaxing day at the pool sounds good. I'm just gonna prep some kabobs for dinner -we're throwing together a last minute bbq/game night with the Malones and the Laughlins- and go soak up some sun.

Happy Sunday!

weekending it

As much as I'm internally (okay, a tad externally too) grumbling about not getting to have a vacation of pretty much any sort this summer, what with moving and you know, the not really knowing when or where aspect of it... I'm thinking we're kind of making up for it on these weekends when Ryan's home with a whole lot of fun.

I'm staying on top of house stuff better these days and so pretty much our entire weekend (minus time for Ryan to mow the lawn each week) can be devoted to the fun stuff.
It helps that we've had some gorgeous weather weekends lately too!!

Last weekend on Saturday we headed out to Grant's Farm and spent pretty much the whole day there soaking up the sun and the nature and the animals (and the free beer). We got home and grilled up some steaks for dinner and then got the fire bowl going in our driveway and a few of the neighbors gathered 'round for s'mores. It was still pretty stinkin hot for it being 7:30 at night so we all kept our distance from the actual fire and eventually the kids even turned on the sprinkler and got nice and soaked, clothes and all! They had a blast running around in the water till we were all sugared out and finally let the fire die out and drug them all into their respective houses to dry off and bed down at almost 9pm!
Sunday we got our tad bit of yard work out of the way while the kids set up a lemonade stand and then we all had a picnic lunch and afterwards broke out the slip'n slide. It wasn't long before all the neighborhood kids were back over and pretty soon we had a little popsicle party as well.
After we had our fill of sun and water we cleaned the kids up, ran a couple of quick errands and headed to Costco for some pizza before getting the kids home to an early bedtime so Ryan and I could partake in our six hours of the LOST finale event. Yes, it wasn't just an episode, but officially referred to as an "event"!

This weekend Ryan is already home for a four day weekend (woo hoo!) and while I was still playing with the idea of getting out of town somewhere (besides it being a holiday weekend, our anniversary is Monday as well), we'll most likely end up at Six Flags (trying to take advantage of the season passes we bought before we knew we were leaving!) for at least a day. The kids have been anxious for the water park part to open, which it does this weekend, and maybe we'll even stick around for their Glow in the Park Parade.
Oh, and our own neighborhood pool opens on Saturday!!

The following weekend we have tickets to a Cardinals game with the Swinigans, and I'm totally drawing a blank at the moment, but I think we have something else going on that weekend too.

We also have extra admission tickets in hand for The Magic House as well as some special stuff at the Science Center. Not to mention the always free and amazing St Louis Zoo that we love to take advantage of and I really want to take the kids around in to paddle boat around Forest Park soon before we bid farewell to STL.

So we're stuffing in the good stuff, making every weekend a "staycation" of sorts, soaking in the great stuff this city has to offer and taking advantage of family time that's so spread thin these days with a daddy living long distance during the week.

wet

I think we're on day six of sunny, hot, want to be in the water if you're outside kind of weather. We went straight from cool, dreary, wet days to Wow, it is definitely summer!
And I love it.

The kids -not just mine, but all in the neighborhood- have been soaking it up, spending pretty much all their time in swimsuits in sprinklers or sopped up on slip'n slides, splashing from yard to yard around here. Swimsuits, popsicles and sprinklers, what more is there to being a kid??

Well, it would be just that much better if our pool was already open. Of course it's 90+ degrees all this week and the pool doesn't open 'til Saturday. Boo.
Also, we had to be out of the house all morning due to house showings and Sawyer wanted to go to a park, so we tried that but it was too hot. And I had the brilliant idea of visiting one of quite a few parks around here that have splash/spray pad play areas... but they don't start the water works until Memorial Day. Boo again.

Basically, we're stuck making the most of this glorious sunshine for the rest of this week without county or neighborhood run water play.
So while at the store this morning, I decided to grab a $2 blow-up pool for the kids to put at the bottom of the slide in the yard or whatever. Something simple just to change it up a bit. Sawyer's been splashing in it all day, a wet combination of the pool, buckets, squirters and the hose.














It's also good for relaxing (even tho it's a little small!).















Poor Sawyer is so looking forward to SJ being done with school when he'll have his sister and other neighborhood kids to hang out with all day instead of his lame mom who isn't exactly thrilled about sprinklers or two foot diameter plastic puddles...

miss-y

This morning was Sawyer's last day of his first year of preschool...


We made our traditional strawberry bouquet to take for his teacher.
And we ate a few extra along the way :)

















Sawyer had an emotional morning as Ryan had stayed an extra night with us last night and left for work (for Nashville) for the week this morning.

Less than an hour later Sawyer and I left for school and as we were walking down the street (quickly because it was already good and hot this morning and my strawberry roses were melting!!) Sawyer was telling me he has to miss too many people...
"I already miss Andrew cuz he moved and it's the last day of school and Sam is already gone and I know I will miss my best buddy Reece -who I'm gonna marry so I won't have to miss her forever- and now today I miss Daddy cuz he left to Tennessee and now I will miss Mrs. Fetsch too much because it's the last day and I won't see her again and she's my best favorite teacher ever."
...and then proceeded to get actually teary eyed and lip quivery.

Thinking about too many goodbyes in one morning I think. :(

At least he was all smiles when we got to school.
Families joined the class for the last hour for an ice-cream party... we sang songs and shared stories authored by the kids and had some yummy ice cream sundaes.
It was kind of rough because at one point other parents and kids were talking about who was going to what class next year and which teacher (some will be in a four year old class and some a fives)... Sawyer looked up at me and said quietly, "I'm not going to the fives class because I'm going to a new school in Tennessee, right mom?"
Just matter-of-fact, but at the same time kind of sad.

I'm glad there was ice cream to cheer us up.

And stories.
Sawyer's page in his classroom's version of May There Always Be Sunshine...

His page says,
May there always be daddies
Awwww...


















With his best buddy Reece:















(this is who he tells me every chance he gets that even though he likes all his buddies, he loves her the best and even though all the girls want to marry him (!!!) Reece is the only one he wants to marry)(seriously, he has been smitten with her all year. smitt-ten!)

And smiles with his Best Favorite Teacher Ever who he will miss too much:

a good one

it was a tram riding kind of weekend...




















and a carouselling kind of weekend...















and a goat feeding kind of weekend...

















and an elephant petting kind of weekend...




















and a lunch under the shade of an umbrella kind of weekend...














and a snowcone kind of weekend...




































and a cold (free!) beer kind of weekend...




















and a s'mores with neighbors kind of weekend...




















and a lemonade stand kind of weekend...




















and a slipping and sliding kind of weekend...


































and a pizza in Costco's food court kind of weekend...
















and now you'll have to excuse me cuz it's a big LOST kind of a weekend...

friday fun

It's Friday. Finally.
Trying to make it fun, despite the gloomy weather.
Looking forward to a fun afternoon with friends, a couple of fun days of great (90°) weather coming up, and an fun extra night with Ryan here watching the LOST finale on Sunday.

Meanwhile, some random fun questions for you:
Tell me...
what was the last fun thing you ate, what was the last fun thing you got in the mail, and what was the last fun thing you bought for yourself?

I had an ice cream sandwich last night (always love those!!)
got Perry the Platypus in the mail (no, not for me, for Sawyer)
and I bought myself was bright purple nail polish last week. :)

Your turn!

faith

I'm officially in the process of emptying our pantry and our freezer. I'm boycotting the grocery store except for milk and bread (thank goodness for our produce co-op) and using every little last thing in our pantry and freezer.
So that our freezer will be empty when we move.

I'm living like we are moving. Soon.

Yep, I'm living in faith.

almost summer

We went to the library yesterday.

The due date on our books?... JUNE 1

Seriously? How can it possibly be only two weeks until June already??!?!!

This is Sawyer's last week of speech class. Next week is his last week of preschool. Savannah's down to 12 days of school left.

It is officially Almost Summer.

I'm kind of freaking out about it and having a really hard time wrapping my head around what the calender is saying.

I think a big part of it is the fact that I assumed we would be deep in the process of moving by now. I had prepared myself for the possibility of not quite making the end of the school year here and I've been semi-subconsciously operating under the mindset that if we weren't out of here by the time June rolled around, we would be at least definitely on the way.
And yet here we are, headed into the last two weeks of May with all the school wrap up stuff going on, and we are absolutely no closer to actually moving or even having a plan than we were three months ago. Six months ago when all of this started.

Also contributing to my mind's boycott of Almost Summer is the stinky weather we've had around here lately. It's really not bad... it's just that after record breaking warm temperatures in both March and April, really summerlike weather then, May has been nothing but cool, stormy and rainy. Which one could argue we're due for after the beginning of our springtime, but seriously- it makes it hard to think we're on the way to the neighborhood pool opening. We'd better get some warmer weather in here pronto because we plan on taking full advantage of pool time while we're still living here and I'd rather not swim in a frozen pool. C-c-c-c-c-cold!

The kids are ready for the pool though... Sawyer asks almost everyday if it's open yet.
(12 days to go, but who's counting?)
They've been scoping out new pool toys in every store we step foot in. I finally let them grab a couple of squirters at the dollar store this weekend. And even though we have no swimming in sight (it's been 60 degrees and raining for over a week straight), Sawyer made do this afternoon...











with a puddle.










































Well, it used to be a puddle anyway...















this kid spent -no exaggeration- an hour out here playing with his squirter, and literally sucked all the puddles around our house dry.

I think he's ready for summer.

beach fever

I cannot wait to get to a beach this summer.
I am so seriously craving it. Honestly, an aching craving. The smell of the water, the air, the sand, the sunscreen, the breeze, sandy toes, shovels and buckets, sunglasses, snacking and sipping and listening to the water lapping on the shore, kids squealing in the waves, seagulls crying overhead.

Last summer was a summer Without Beach.
That's hard coming from a West Coast girl, who skipped several days of school a year to get to the water, spent spring breaks camping on the coast, weekends at a beach house, and at the very least, a drive to just get a fix of the waves and the scenery up and down the coast.

It's been two summers since I've been to a real beach. The summer before last at least we made it to a Great Lake beach. Last year? Nada.
I can't take another one of those.

Moving in the summertime is quite frustrating because it gobbles up not only your money but your free time. Moving in the summertime but not really having any freaking idea when is even more frustrating because you can't plan anything that might even possibly involve any extra free time or money you may be able to hide away.
Until we know what and when we're doing any of this moving stuff, we are stuck not planning a beach trip, not planning a camping trip, not planning any kind of trip or really any thing at all.
Just one more reason I hate being in limbo.

I need a beach fix big time.

So I ended up going thru beach pictures this evening, trying to soak up some beachiness.
Like it or not, I'm posting some favorites. Lucky for you we've only had a digital camera for the past seven years and I won't touch the hundreds in photo albums... :)

Prepare for beach overload!

Here's exactly what I'm missing tonight...

the scenery...

















crabbing off the docks (or renting a boat once in awhile)...


































getaways for the gang...















fun in the water...

















fun in the sand...
(bocce ball!!)

















sunsets...

















bonfires with friends...



































and other favorite memories...






Savannah's first trip to the beach, 6wks old, may 2003














...and a few snippets from the next few years:







































































































First trip to the beach as a family of four... february 2006

















































at the "faux beach"-
South Haven on the shore of Lake Michigan, june 2006:













































sept. 2006
















































back at the Oregon coast 9/2007























































and in 2008