Last weeks of summer! So much action!

Tim and Scott flew to Germany on Friday!  The whole day was just focused on getting them packed and ready and to the bus.

Saturday, we decided to get out of the house and do something fun.  We went to Mel's Funway. 

It was incredibly hot, expensive, and there was little shade, so we decided to just do a few activities.

Each child got to pick one activity.  Ollie picked the water squirters and Cora to go with him.

Aaron picked mini golf and me to play with him.  (we let the littles do some putts too though)

Aaron got heat sick the last two holes, so that was not fun! :(  

Next time, we need to go on a cloudy day.

We all did Laser Tag at the end.  Ollie was excited, because he's too small to play Laser Tag at Extreme Craze, but it was not as fun because they don't form teams, so you are just playing on your own.  We decided to be team Stapleton anyway.  It's more fun to play on a team.

We watched Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse at home.

My favorite part was Ollie squealing and getting super excited when Miles Morales came into his powers.

After the movie, Ollie was ramped up to do Spider Tricks

on his scooter

On Sunday we had great meetings at church and got to have Christy and Lizzy over for dinner.

The kids were enamored with Lizzy and trying every tactic to get Christy to agree to let them babysit. 😆

Meanwhile.........

Scott and Tim have been in Germany for 2 days!  Tim got to see downtown Aachen today.

On Sunday, they got to attend several church meetings and attend a ward potluck too!

Beautiful Aachen

Scott, Alex and Paul

The Düsseldorf Chapel

I can't wait to hear all about their exciting week!

Last week:

Cora has enjoyed watching "Izzy's Koala show" and "A series of Unfortunate Events"

after her chores

The boys have been getting all their chores done and then getting a half hour on the VR headset.

Aaron even connected to Billy and Tyler and can play with them, each in their own home.

As a stay-at-home mom the last 14 years, I have spent a LOT of time at Library Storytime.

We have met so many friends there, learned, sang songs, read books, played with toys.  We have been to storytime in Ann Arbor, every library in Cleveland, St. George, Acton, & Windham.

I had to shed a little tear today that today was likely Olivers last Preschool Storytime.   

The library had a "Going back to School" storytime.  Ollie's off to Kindergarten next week!

I suspect the next time I attend Storytime will be with my grandchildren.

Maybe Allie will let me take Salil?  :) 

The kids got to check out the bus they will be riding to school next week.

This is Ollie with his buddy Grayson

Cora got to spend the day with her dear friend Anna, and even have a sleepover!  

Her first one with a friend (not family)

They went to a waterfall in Merrimack!

We have continued to walk Curtis a few times a week.

The kids love him!

Tim got to attend Cross Country camp for 4 days right before he left for Germany,

He said the hydro-training was the hardest part!

They ran 3 times a day, did yoga, had a nutritionist tell them what to eat and drink, learned about how to train safely& effectively, etc.

He had a great time and enjoyed time with the team and his friend, Noah

More time with friends!

Ollie got to have Ethan over for a playdate, and we found out that they will be in the same class!

Emi came to play with Cora

(And not pictured, Cora got to play with Candace and Vanessa at their house!)

Billy played with Aaron

The kids all saved their money to have a day at Lake Canobie

We loved the views at the Ferris wheel

My day consisted of just going on the little kid rides with Cora and Ollie

Tim and Aaron got to hang out with Noah and Nate all day with no parents.

Then, at 5 pm, Tim went to the Diwali Dance up at Zion's Camp.  They threw Holi colors at each other at the dance.  haha!

Scott was nice enough to drive Tim so that Aaron, Cora, Ollie and I could stay at Canobie Lake Park until close!  10 pm. It was a busy day!

Another great part of Summer was August 3-6th Young Men's Camp

The boys got T-shirts to commemorate the camp

The Theme was "Trust in the Lord"

The camp was action packed

They camped at Chiver's Pond this year

Tim and Aaron were falling sleep every chance they got from all the action!

I took the kids clothes shopping two days in a row.  

It was painful. I don't like shopping anyway.

Shopping with 4 kids is awful.

But, we were successful. We got all 4 kids new church shoes that fit, 

the boys got new running shoes for cross country,

 and we checked off several other items they needed/wanted.

If I could I would buy everything online, but we really needed to try these things on this time around.  Whew!  Maybe it's done until school starts!

Scott took the kids to "Power at the Tower"

a free car show in our town

They liked the treats....

...and climbing the Letizio Tower.

It looks kind of like Rapunzel's Tower 

and is a reconstruction of a tower that used to be at the Searles Castle.

Ollie was invited to Cam's birthday at Altitude Trampoline Park and Cora got to come too!

We have had a bang up harvest of blackberries this year!

We eat so many of them, I didn't think I would need to preserve anything, but then, we had SO many, 

I finally made my first jar of blackberry jam.

Cora got her haircut for school

I took Ollie and Cora to the Airpark at Extreme Craze while the boys were at camp.

I jumped for 75 minutes straight without many breaks.  Great workout!

A trip to the beach with the Haskell Fam

Hampton Beach State Park has been our beach of choice this year.  We visited twice so far (once with the Haskells and once with the Powells), and are planning to go again with the YM/YW this Saturday. 

We also went to New Castle Beach with the Haskells earlier in the summer.  

4 times to the ocean this summer.  

We have been to lake beaches a few times more though.

(Town beach, Clyde Pond, and Wier's Beach)

 

I think we visited the ocean 3 x as often last year.

It's ironic because last year it rained and rained and people complained that there was no summer.  This year everyone was saying it was the best summer weather we've had in a long time.

Living so close to the ocean, I think it's important that we get out there often and enjoy it! 

The ocean is so amazing.

Just a note:  Having kids home for summer AND ..... cleaning, feeding, cleaning, feeding is a HUGE chore.   I am so proud when I can take some time (amidst trying to keep the education going, reading lessons,  having fun activities, and constantly feeding and cleaning up after kids)

 to do any deep cleaning or food preparation for later.

Sometimes I take pictures of my work to remind myself amidst all the fun photos that I was doing work like this EVERY SINGLE DAY.....for hours!   It's not just a quick 15 minutes here and there.  Sometimes it takes hours to get the house back to a functional spot.

Yesterday, I spent several hours cleaning up for a friend to come over, and I was pleased that even though it's not perfect, at least I got it in much better order!

Also, Scott planned a BBQ for his lab on the fly last week.  We spent our whole Monday evening and night just getting the yard ready...all 6 of us hard at work.  Setting up chairs, trimming the kiwi, pulling weeds, blowing the deck.  It was quite the ordeal, but I was so happy to see the firepit uncovered and the yard looking much tidier afterwards.

Scott's lab students, and David, his visiting guest....with Cora.

Hope you had/are having a great summer, with all it's fun, work and endless chores!

With all the other mothers.....I am definitely ready for school to start!!!