Summer Days, Drifting Away . . .

The other day Jackson asked me when he starts second grade.  So we counted.  Six weeks!  Only six more weeks!  It is quite an understatement to say that our summer is going by too quickly.  I'd say this summer is pretty golden for us.  With the kid's ages ranging from 2-7, we are free to go and do fun things and yet they are still pretty much mine.  Other influences haven't crept in too much . . yet.  Our days run anything but smoothly every day,but when it comes down to it, I'm pretty much in love our brand of chaos right now.  I'm sure I will look back on this summer with a large measure of wistful nostalgia.

But for now, there are still six weeks!

Our summer days are continuing to wear us all out.  Anna couldn't keep her eyes open at about 6:30 on the swings one evening.  I loved how Erik captured each stage of falling asleep-ness.

Wednesday was by far our busiest day of the past week.  It started bright and early with packing everything up for the day. (gym clothes, swim clothes, play clothes, towels, sunscreen, CSA boxes, stroller, lunches, water were all piled into the van)

After the gym and swim lessons, we met the McDonoughs for our weekly farm trip.  This week we mostly stayed at the "panning in water station" and the "spray station."  We made our way to the blueberry field as luckily, this week had only one "U-Pick" item.

While picking blueberries, my adventurous friend Anne convinced me to float down the Shenandoah river with her.  I'm really lucky to have adventurous friends because that is certainly not something I would have ever thought to try without Erik with me (and even with him, I probably would've thought Wyatt and Anna were too young).  But she did succeed in convincing me, and rather than drive all the way back to Winchester to get supplies, we borrowed and Dollar-stored what I didn't have.

And we did indeed float down the river for about a mile.  I had an absolute blast!  Wyatt really was into it for the first portion.  He did get comfortable though and decided it was fun about 1/3 of the way in.  As I was helping Wyatt feel more comfortable, Anne held onto Anna (Caroline was happy in her floaties on her own kicking around.  This river moved sloooooooow).  The place to exit was the last slow spot, immediately after was the start of rapids, so I admittedly started to freak out a bit.  I think Anna and Wyatt could sense this, and I was shifting them around (by then I had both with me) so they started to get scared.  Which meant the last 10 minutes was Anna and Wyatt crying.  Even with that though, I still say I had such a fun time which shows how great it was, right?  Jackson was in heaven the whole while and wants to bring Erik back now.

Right after the river float, we picked up a couple of sandwiches at Subway, rushed home, I rinsed off in the shower, then we all piled back in the van to go to mutual.  That night, I came home pretty exhausted!

Before we can go anywhere each day, everyone has to do their reading and homework.  I don't dare make them get dressed before reading, or I know one of them will get too distracted it will be like herding cats to get them to do it.  So usually there's a little bit of nakedness going on during our reading time :)

And Thursday was the last day of swim lessons!!! Hallelujah!!!  I'm proud of what the three kids learned during their time these past four weeks.  Jackson graduated to Swimmer 4 which was super great!  Although, luckily for me, he will not take Swimmer 4 until next summer. :)

On the way home from swim lessons, we picked up Austin because the kids had been begging for a play date.  

Then we had the other two Stakers over so Brittany could go to a church  meeting in peace :) Oh and I finally got to catch up on the phone with Molly.  It seems with young kids plus a three hour time change it makes phone calls a near impossibility.  I can't wait to hear her baby news any day now!!

On Friday at the gym, I walked into the kid's room after working out to find Anna deep asleep!  I guess she was sitting on Amanda's (one of the awesome care givers there) lap while watching a show in the screen room and she just conked out!

Once we got home, Jackson decided that groggy Anna would appreciate some of her babies to help her wake up.

Well Anna just wanted Momma, but the boys wanted a picture with them!

 . . . but Anna did want to explore in her new favorite spot: the junk cupboard!  It drives me just a little bit crazy, because a) it's dangerous for her to climb onto of the counter and b) the junk cupboard just has so many random things that are placed together just so and moving any will result in a jenga like collapse!

Friday evening, we met Erik at the church to take our turn cleaning the building.  And let me tell you, Wyatt was a cleaning superstar!  Oh my goodness, that boy helped so much-- it made a Mom's heart proud :)

And we saw a bunch of geese flying really low over us at the church.  The kids were very impressed with their loud honks!