Monday

Like I said yesterday, my goal is to blog every single day this week. The point is to record an average day and not just catch the highlights of life. This is really for my "journal" and most likley not interesting to anyone else, so feel free to ignore :)

Monday:

Monday, the kids and I all slept in.
My kids rarely sleep past 7:30, so 8:00am is considered sleeping in around here.
I think it was 8:30 though, which is like the jack pot! :)

We hit the ground running because we had a play date that morning and we also had to take pick Daniel up from the car repair shop. We ended up being a tad bit early for our play date, so I laid out our picnic blanket and handed the kids their books. Dylan really, really struggled with books and reading and then in the middle of first grade something clicked and now he's reading like a champ and loves books. I can't even tell you what sort of joy this puts in my heart!  London loves "reading" her books too. She has a few books that she has memorized and she will quote each page as she flips through the book. Others she either just looks at the pictures or makes up a story of her own. I'm crazy about the next couple of pictures.

 

 

 

Once our friends showed up, books were down and kids were flying threw sprinklers.
Both of them had friends their to play with and they all had the best time.

 

 

We have 40% chance of rain almost everyday this week. While we were there it started sprinkling. The kids had played for a while, so we packed it in and headed to lunch. After lunch I took Dylan to get his hair cut. He got a cut totally different than his usual. I like it a lot, except that it makes him look so much older. I can't believe it but I totally forgot to take pictures.

Daniel called and asked me to come get him to pick his car up so that he could take it to another mechanic. He wanted a second opinion. By the time we were done with that it was about 2:00. I put the kids down for a nap and laid down to take one myself. What is better than a nap in the middle of the day, especially on a hot summer's day! The splash pad must have worn them out because they didn't stir until about 4:30.

I took them outside to play with sidewalk chalk, since the weather was nice and "cool" at about 90 degrees.
Poor Daisy even got colored with chalk. 

 

 

We didn't last too long outside because as it turns out, 90 degrees is not very cool.
My mom came over and cooked us dinner because 1.she is awesome and 2.we had missed Sunday dinner the night before.

Right before she arrived, we heard back from the second mechanic that the repairs on our car would cost just shy of $1,000 dollars. If that doesn't slap you with a bad mood stick, I don't know what would.  I tried really, really hard to shake my terrible mood because in the end there wasn't anything we can do about the repairs other than fix them. "No use crying over spilled milk" is what my daddy would say.

We had a delicious dinner and then a great visit with my mom.
When she left, London and I walked her out and noticed that there were TONS of grasshoppers in our flowerbed. I caught one for London and she went crazy over it. Giggles everywhere. We must have spent at least half an hour out there catching grasshoppers. The boys even came out to enjoy them for a bit.
Its the little things that make kids happy.

 

 

 

After all that fun with our hopper friends, we got kids ready for bed and let them watch a few more cartoons.
Daniel and I laid on the couch the rest of the night.

And that was our Monday.

A Week with the Hilburns

Every now and then I get a wild hair to log onto this little space of mine and reminisce.
While I love that I've document most of the "high points" (and even some of the low) of the year, I wish I had written more of the day to day. I feel like its the little things that make up your daily routine that are easy to forgot but also essential for remember what a particular phase in life was like.  
So I'm making it my goal this week to document each day.
I've never done this because there usually isn't much to say,
but I think I'll appreciate it a year or two from now.

Without further ado.

Sunday:

Our usual Sundays involve church, lunch with friends and dinner with my mom.
This Sunday involved none of the above, so I'm not sure its an accurate picture of what "daily life" is like, but it sort of is what our Summer Sundays have been looking like.

We played hooky from church this morning for two reasons. The main being that our pastor is out for the month and guest speakers are never my favorite thing. The other being that yesterday it seemed like we didn't get in very much quality family time. In lieu of church, we spent the mornings at the theater. This is probably Daniel's favorite thing to do as a family. Its probably my least favorite. I do like watching movies, but I hate that it never cost less than $40 dollars for us to go. I'd much rather wait for the movie to come out and spend $20 bucks to buy it and pocket the rest, especially because the kids almost always want to watch it again once it comes out on DVD. Lord knows I'm not against spending money, but for some reason the movie theater seems like a waist to me. Sadly, I loose this battle because my kids share Daniel's love and it turns out to be 3 against 1. And sometime's a pretend our house is a democracy and that I'm not the dictator.

After the movie, we grabbed lunch at Freddie's Frozen Custard. Burgers and custard... what better lunch on a summer day?

We came home and had quiet time while I napped and kids read their books for about 30 minutes. The rest of the afternoon was super laid back. Dylan spent most of the time playing pretend super hero and London rotated between that, cartoons, and coloring with me. Dylan also worked on the book he is writing.


We didn't go to my moms tonight, so I cooked an easy dinner.
Then we spent the rest of the evening playing games.
Family game nights make my heart smile.

 The memories I have of game nights with Papa John's pizza are some of my most cherished. I have always dreamed of nights of game after game with my own family, even as a kid. It makes me plain giddy that my kids are both at an age that they enjoy games. I hope this is something that our family never outgrows.

 

 

 

We let the kids watch a movie while I sat outside with sweet neighbor-friend and enjoyed  girl talk and a  beautiful summer night.

Today has been the perfect end to a great week. 

Yankee Doodle Dandy

I love the 4th of July.
I love the way it brings out an extra
dose of people's pride in our country
the way that Christmas brings out extra doses of kindness and joy.
I often think how glad I am to have been born here in the USA,
but on Independence Day, I feel it all the way in my toes!
Not that our country is with out its flaws, and not that there aren't things I hope to see change before my children become adults...
 but the hope that in fact change could occur,
that its possible... that's why I love our country.

And we celebrated the USofA's birthday in grand fashion this year.
We started the day off with a the "Yankee Doodle Parade"
 in our neigboring town.The parade was held 
on the streets of the town square, which is over 100 years old.
The sea of red, white, and blue was beautiful

 

This picture tickles me so much. London put this necklace on by herself and brought the tea cup along with her.
She is too, too funny!

 

 

I love the picture bellow. It makes me smile to think
about how many decades of patriotic parades 
this little square has seen. 






The kids loved the parade.
They were dancing and waving and saluting
every person they saw in uniform.
My favorite part of the parade was when a float with retired veterans came down the street and the crowd went wild cheering for them.
I was just barely able to hold back the tears. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the parade we came home and had a quiet afternoon.
We ate hot dogs on star splattered plates. Does it get more American than that? ;)
We had family cuddles and naps.
It was perfection.

Then we got ready again and headed over to our friends house for a BBQ and a great time.

 

Seriously, I could have died at the cuteness of London's bathing suit.

 

In case you are wondering where all the pictures of Dylan are, it turns out that almost all of them were taken with his little friends. They are precious, but I try to never post other people's kids on here, because I don't feel its my place. But trust me, brother was there and he had maybe the biggest time of us all. 

 

 

 After some swimming, delicious food, and fabulous company we all headed to the front yard to shoot some fire works.

 Dylan is crazy about the sparklers. He waves them around and dashes them through the air and I can just tell that he's acting out some grand adventurous story in his head.

London is a little more cautious with them. She keeps her arm out as far away from her body as possible and gives them gentle waves.

My two little firecrackers both had a great time.

A parade, family time, BBQ with friends, and fireworks,

it doesn't get much better than that. 

God Bless America.

This Week's Hapenings

This evening we are wrapping up what was a pretty perfect Summer week.
At this moment, the kids are laughing and playing together in playroom, Daniel is on the other side of the couch saving the world (or at least the world inside his video game) and I'm cuddled up under my favorite quilt. Life is good.

On Monday Dylan started basket ball camp.
He had the best time and came home with not one but THREE ribbons.
His first year, when was just entering kindergarten, he didn't get a single ribbon all week.
I remember being so sad for him, and even wanting to go buy him a ribbon and somehow pass it off as a ligit one. I was thinking of saying something like "Oh, Buddy! Coach called and said he meant to give you this. I went the school and picked it up for you. He was so sorry to have forgot to give it to you in front of everyone." I know. I know. Don't judge me. Its hard to watch your little ones stumble over growing pains. And not to worry, I listened to my sensibility, aka my husband, and did not buy a fake ribbon.

The next year he got 2nd place in dribble tag! And he got a special sportsmanship ribbon because he blew the coach away with what a great sport and team player he was. I think he had helped someone on the other team who had fallen during the competition, or something like that.

And this year... 3 ribbons!
He gets better and better every year.
He's also such a good sport. On the first day of camp he came home with a 4th place ribbon.
He said he was excited but also sad for his little friend who was tied for 4th but lost it in a  tie breaker match.
Dylan said "I just remember how sad it feels to not get a ribbon."
My sweet, sweet boy.
He makes my heart SO happy.





During the week we hung out with friends.
Went swimming almost everyday.
Went to the water park with friends for what I thought would be a couple of hours
but ended up being most of the day.
Relaxed and just enjoyed summer.

One thing I've been doing with the kids is having them read 20 minutes a day.
With pre-vbs and then VBS week followed directly by basket ball camp, we have not been completely constant, but we are trying! My goal is to help Dylan jump up a level in his AR at school during the summer and to have London learn to sit still and look and listen to books for at least 20 minutes (which she's getting great at). I'm using a reading bingo sheet that I found online to encourage this. I'll have to do a whole post about it, because its really great, but basically its a bingo grid with different places/ways for the kids to read for 20 minutes.
Example: In the bath tub:


After completing a task, they put a star on their square.
When they fill up five squares in a row, its a bingo!
With a each bingo comes a treat.


Dylan got a big kick out of reading in the tub.
And both kids got to Bingo this week.
I gave them each the option of:
1.Staying up to midnight 
                       2. Buying a small treat of their choosing.
                                 3. Unlimited screen time for the rest of the day. 
                                                      This means TV, Computers, Games (anything with a screen)


Dylan chose Unlimited screen time and I threw in a little bonus of staying up a little late. 
London chose buying something and picked Hungry Hungry Hippos, 
which she saw and wanted at our last trip to Target. 


*I  did take pictures of kids playing the game, but Dylan was in his boxers 
(which I didn't think about while snapping away) so they can't be shared. lol!



We're also working on checking things off our bucket list.
"Get a surprise from Mommy" was one of the list items.
I wasn't sure what this was going to be.
Then I got a wild hair of an idea.
A fort in the living room!
My parent use to make these for me all the time. I have the best memories of it.
I can't believe I've never thought to make one for my kids before, but I'm so glad I did!
They LOVED it.

 

And everything is more fun in a fort.
Reading, playing board games, and even sleeping.
The kids and I played and read books in there for at least an hour and a half,
and they lasted even longer.
They even slept in it!

 

  

 

 Saturday we went to lunch at chickfila, which is a Saturday favorite around here.
The kids went and played at my moms house while Daniel and I went to look at flooring (more on that later) and got his hair cut.

We played hooky from church today and had a family day instead.
I plan to have a special devotion tonight to (sort of) make up for it.
I do feel guilty when we miss. But we had a great day at the water park.
We didn't go to our usual one, but took a little trip to one we've never visited before.
We had the best day hanging out and just being together.

We decided to be super laid back with dinner and eat sort of a hodgepodge of things. We had some leftovers and I offered the kids that or a sandwich. London chose PB&J. While I was making it, Daniel decided he would have one also. I don't know why it tickled me so much, but it really did. I thought it was so cute to see him have a PB&J and a pudding cup with the kids. 

 

We have another fun week ahead, with 4th of July just a couple days away.
Happy weekend!