Around Here Week 26: 06/26-07/02

 A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment. 

photo cred: Kristie G

photo cred: Kristie G

photo cred: Grey

photo credit: Loni

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 381+ hours (of 1000)
Snagging hours at sports and swimming at Pappy & Gigi's house to beat the heat. It is truly so much easier to manage the kids and their boredom (and their fighting) if we are outside - so we make an effort to get out every single day. The no TV until 3p rule helps them get their brains pumping with creativity.

Reading How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong and The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Celebrating our cousin Ariel with a graduation party on Sunday evening. So hard to believe that my sweet little Ariel has graduated high school (she was one of our flower girls in our wedding when she was just 4 years old! Crying forever, bye). The party was at the Que and it all came together so nicely and easily (thanks so much to Heather and Albert who are always ready to follow my orders - hahaha, but seriously, love you guys). And all the aunts/cousins made food to bring and it was so special to celebrate that girl we love so much. Congrats Ariel! 

Starting Rusty at Kinder camp this week! Our local public school has a great little three week program for incoming kindergarteners to attend "school" for two and a half hours. He got to meet some new friends, learn where different parts of the school are (bathrooms, lunch room, gym), and make some crafts while honing important kindergarten skills like cutting, writing his name, and using a pencil box/keeping his desk tidy. He went three days this week and was a smiling happy camper each time! He will be so ready for Kindergarten in the fall! 

Searching for blackberry bushes with Violet. She still has strong memories about making wild blackberry pie with me two years ago and she is adamant that we do it again - just me and her (! no one else is allowed to help!) Hey, I'm always happy to maintain random traditions that feel special. 

Meeting with You in Flood City for our quarterly board meeting. As always, I left there feeling so rejuvenated and inspired. Do you have a group of women that support you and make you feel seen and valued? If not, you need to get you one immediately. After the meeting, I stopped by my parents' house and had a visit with some coffee at 9p (hah - tell me you're a mom of little without telling me you're a mom of littles) and had such a nice chat. Honestly might have been the first visit without ANY kids with my own mom and dad in 12 years - I'm not even exaggerating and that's ridiculous. (love you mum&dad)

Finishing up our drop in free play events for Studerbabies farm & free play. We hosted 8 free play sessions over the month and got to meet so many new friends and families. We had some repeat visitors and in all, 20+ kiddos got to play wild and free at our house in the month of June! I have some new ideas for July that I am excited to offer and try out. I feel grateful to have the space to give kids opportunities at natural outdoor play and I feel so lucky that other families are interested in trying something new with us. 

Prepping the house and plans for the weekend (last Beer Olympics!) There was plenty to be done - mowing, cleaning, organizing, making lists, picking up tshirts, ordering kegs, setting up the back porch, pulling out supplies for the big day, making sashes, pins, and posterboards, and taking one last trip to the grocery store to make sure we had everything!

Hosting the tenth Beer Olympics! My parents hosted a spaghetti dinner at their house on Beer Olympics eve since they were the original location of the event for the first three years! (thank you!) How wild it is to think back on all the years - we started this event in 2009 and my momma had all the shirts from all the years hung up in the garage at the carb-load pre dinner at their house. We had the big event at our house on Saturday. It was a great day with so much wholesome, hilarious, absurd laughter and friendship making - as is customary for this event. It's hard to explain that it is so much more than a day of drinking unless you actually spend the day with us. I just know I am so very grateful to have had a crazy idea and then have friends and family be fully on board with where ever that idea led me. From my official rules binder, to ridiculous games, to preposterous additions to the day, (remember the year we had handicaps for each game!? how about the year we had tributes! LOL forever), to the hardcore face painting and team loyalties, to the viral post about beer olympics that made your faces all pin-famous, to the random friend connections all over facebook, to the wild and ridiculous awards and ceremony...gosh, you guys. I can't talk about how much I have loved this day and how grateful I am to finally get our tenth event done. Our four biggest kids have all already asked, "When we are adults, can we have a beer olympics?" so let's take a break so we will be ready to play again in 10-15 years. LOL, but not kidding. 

Sporting Gemma had a basketball pick up night at the high school outdoor courts (thank you for organizing Coach Ang!) and while they practiced, the kids and I did a few laps on bikes around the school. Vi and Gem attended basketball open gym on Tuesday morning and B and I played in a volleyball double header from 8:30-11p (!!) on Tuesday night - thank you to cousin Ariel who came to the house to watch the kiddos for us! Grey finished up the CT tournament on Sunday and had another double dingers to clinch the championship at the CT tournament! The team is so sweet to Reddy and Coach Scott even had a championship medal to give to him at the end of the tournament! He had one sanction practice on Friday night and they played in the first little league sanction game on Saturday (thank you Conns for taking him and for the sleepover after!) The boys lost that game, so it will be an uphill battle to dig back into the bracket. 

Making creamy Italian chicken over noodles in the slow-cooker, homemade pizza, chicken nuggets & leftover ravioli from the graduation party and taco dip for the kids. We ordered in pizza one evening. I brought hot dogs and sauerkraut for Ariel's graduation party and I made cupcakes for the Beer Olympics eve dinner at my parents' house. For Beer Olympics I made a (another) giant roaster of hot dogs and sauerkraut. 

Keto check-in: been straddling the fence with Keto, but determined to get back on because it just feels so much better to be in control of hunger. Honestly, that's the greatest part of keto for me - not feeling that carb-crazed hunger all day. We had ground turkey, zucchini Mexican skillet bowls and keto taco salads and tried to make low-carb decisions otherwise, but again...we are getting a little lax over here.