Around Here Week 22: 05/29-06/04

 A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment that is the joy of the last few days of school and the start of summer break!

Reddy!

first day vs. last day of sixth grade (Grey & his friend Ivan)

first vs last day of fourth, first, and homeschool pre-K

Reddy!

the sweetest video call from Rusty's godparents & besties for his birthday!

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 241+ hours (of 1000)
Beautiful, sunny, warm days have us soaking up all the outside time. Once we hit summer vacation, it's no screens until after 3p which means the kids are using their own imaginations to bust the boredom; most of the time outside - especially on the trampoline. I am endlessly grateful for the back porch roof that gives us so much summer-loving shade and our hammock out there too. It is a favorite hangout spot for everyone in our family. 

Reading How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong - so many nuggets of inspiration and enlightenment. I'm taking it nice and slow and digesting it all because my brain is going a million miles an hour every time I read a chapter! 

Back porch project working by hanging up most of the tongue and groove - including even finishing the windows with trim. Gem is always a huge help and we had Chum and Pappy stop by to help on the project too. We have a little more work with the electric before we can fully close it in - but what's done is looking beautiful! 

Swimming and singing Happy Birthday to Gigi! We had lunch at Pappy and Gigi's house and lots of swimming! Rusty's loosey goosey tooth that we have been begging him to pull out even fell out in the pool! 

Getting in special time with family. Grey had a sleepover at cousin Caleb's house with swimming and geocaching. Gemma had a sleepover with Aunt Kitty with looking through some handmedowns from Kitty (best ever!), movies, and drinks from the new coffee shop in town (Cafe Dodie!) We got to have two playdates with our cousins Brookie and Bennie at our house with so much trampoline jumping, a diy pool made from a tarp and benches (hah!) and lots of make believe. Rust and Violet got a day with Chum and Abba too with bike rides and silliness with Rusty's new Spiderman web shooter toy! And we got to spend the whole soccer tourney with our cousin/bestie Heather as Caleb was playing in the all-star tourney too. So we snack/meal planned together to lighten the load and spent the day chatting and chasing Red and Olive around. 

Getting set up for Studerbabies farm and free play days which start next week! Including getting our portajohn delivered! (I got one through Scotty's Pottys) Excited to see how it goes!

Shaking my head at Grey who flipped off of his dirtbike and then got back on while wearing shorts and got a big muffler burn on his calf. Poor thing was trying to be a tough guy about it, but it was pretty nasty. Cousin Tausha brought over some first aide bandages because the following day he was to play in a full day soccer tourney at school for charity! The high school trainer (and sweet friend Jenilee) texted me back to let me know she'd keep an eye on him - I was stressing that he'd take a ball right to the burn?! - but he had a great time and it was all mostly healed up by the end of the week. 

Cheering for Violet who received a special mention at the end of the year pep rally for earning 50 AR points, which means she read over 100 books in first grade from March to May. She and her bestie Bria were the only two first graders to do it! 

Loving my Ruggable! Feel free to use my code if you're in the market for a washable rug! Code here. 

Checking off the last day of school for the year! The kids all wrote thank you notes for their teachers and the girls delivered a thank you and some celebratory muffins to our bus driver Rob (honestly the best bus driver ever!) We took our last day of school photos (always such a shock to compare to the first day #daysarelongyearsareshort ) and it is wide open summertime and the livin is easy over here for us! 

Celebrating our new six year old Rusty James! We counted down his birthday for the past few weeks; pointing out the day it was on the calendar and how many day to go until his birthday (and then how many more until his party!) He thinks his birthday is "last" because in our family yearbooks that span September - August it does show up last for the kid birthday layouts - so he takes a lot of martyrdom-pride in holding out until the very end to finally earn another year (oh, my Rustman!) 

Well Checks at the pediatrician for Rusty and Grey on Friday. Both are growing strong and well - Grey is only an inch shorter than me now (eek!) Grey got his second HPV vaccine and when he asked what it is was for, I said, "well, mostly to protect your future girlfriend." and the nurse was cracking up - but for real. 

Loving checking in on the Live Stream on Youtube from the Namib Desert in Namibia! The kids and I are fascinated to see what animals are stopping by the water hole and how they take turns with each other. 

Visiting Kitty and having a blast on the bouncy houses at the summer bash put on by FOR Johnstown on Friday night. The kids were so pumped to do all the bouncy houses (especially the Zip line one from Flood City Party Rentals!) and we scored some yummy food too! 

Spending all day at Gemma's soccer tournament on Saturday. It was a beautiful, sunny day and Gem's team made it all the way to the championship (2nd place!) B and I had such a great time watching her and learning - we've never played soccer, so we are basically dummies and know next to nothing. We learned how to get offsides at the tourney thanks to a teammate's dad (hah). All the parents pull their canopies together and make a big tent city filled with snacks and goodies and chairs for the players and players' siblings. Gem plays center defender on the all star team and she is like an iron wall down there (lots of thanks to her big brother where she learned to not be intimidated!) It is such a long, tiring day but filled with so much excitement and fun. Two more soccer tournaments yet to go! 

Congratulating Grey on a completed Hunter Safety course. He attend the day long session with Pappy and Grey is PA certified to carry his own weapon in the woods and hunt within earshot of an adult. 

Swinging by two graduation parties on Saturday evening - both for my students. So proud of you, Becca and Sarah! I have loved being part of your journey and will continue cheering for you for forever! 

Sporting with two soccer games each for Rust, Violet, and Gemma with their regular AYSO teams. Violet got to play against Gemma's team one time and she was so overjoyed to play against her sister!  Gemma had an all star tourney all day Saturday at our home field (more about that above). Grey had two baseball games and one sanction little league practice. B played for our Roxbury volleyball team on Tuesday night while I was coaching Rusty's soccer team. 

Making baked potatoes and pork chops, meatball sammies in the traveling crockpot on a long night of sports, hot dogs and burgers, spaghetti, homemade pizza, and bbq chicken in the traveling crockpot for the soccer tourney. I made funfetti muffins for the last day of school (first and last day traditional breakfast!), strawberry shortcake for Gigi's birthday party and pumpkin roll for Rusty at his request. 

Keto check in: down 2.2 lbs this week and feeling really comfortable living this low-carb life style. I've been doing dirty Keto/low carb and not really tracking so much which I'd like to do better with that. We mostly just keto'ed the normal food I made the kids this week without making ourselves something different (not eating the bread, using zucchini instead of noodles, fathead pizza dough, lots of lunchmeat & cheese roll ups and almonds).