Emily's recital

Emily had her piano and violin recital a few weeks ago. I'm so behind on blogging. I'm behind on everything.

She did great and we are proud of her accomplishments.

 

 

David's Days

David's birthday and Father's Day are always within a week of each other. It's kind of nice, and kind of hard.  I feel like I just buy him gifts and then split them in two piles for each holiday. Whatever, it works.  Here hs is getting cards for his birthday.  Ben drew a funny picture.

 

And he got a french press. Ugh, I'm not happy about making coffee more difficult, but it's not my gift.  See, David makes us all coffee every morning and it's hot and waiting for me when I get up. I love that. But, if he wants fancy coffee from time to time, so be it. 

 

We made him a cake.  

 

He had to work, so it was a rather boring day for him. But, we did go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, so that was nice.

Now, on to Father's Day.  We went to see Incredibles 2. Emily went the night before with friends, so she wasn't with us. 

 

I made David lasagna and we hung out on the trampoline.  

 

And he got work pants and shirts. How exciting!  It may not be the most exciting, but it was nice to celebrate him. He does so much for all of us. Seriously, this past year has been difficult. We prayed he'd get this new supervisor position last July and he did. Now, I wish he never did. But, it is what it is and he works his ass off for all of us.  We're lucky to have him.

YoYo Summer

Our friends' kid introduced us to the term, Yoyo, while we were camping. It means You're On Your Own. And it's fabulous!

I've realized I do WAY too much for my kids. I do it for them gladly and willingly, but they need to step up. So, this summer, the are expected to make their own breakfast and lunch. We've done away with enrichment hour. I'm not forcing them to read an hour every day, do workbooks or write in a journal. When I need help with some chores, I ask them to help, and they chip in.

Seriously, there are these charts floating around on the internet and they kill me!

Seriously, you're going to make your kids do all that before they get on electronics.  Have you done all that before you checked your phone Mom?  Hell NO!  So, why would I make my kids. It's called SUMMER!  Let them enjoy being kids and throw away the charts. Plus, all I do is stress about getting lesson plans ready and figuring out writing prompts. Ugh, it's just awful. My kids are brilliant. Let them be kids for 2 months before they have to go back to school.

And you know what? They're proving they don't need to have charts forced down their throat. They go out and jump on the trampoline about 10 times a day. We go to the movies. Emily has hung out with her friends almost every day and practiced her piano and violin. Her friends had a horror movie marathon. Yes, that's what summer is all about. And the other day, Noah made this robot.

It's a Yoyo summer, and I'm loving it!

Newport Beach, Day 3

We had donuts from our favorite donut place and got right to the beach.

 

The kids got busy playing frisbee and volleyball. 

 

And we went out swimming. We had enough boogie boards for everyone this time, so at one point we were all out there riding waves. 

 

I love this pic of Ben and all the boogie boards. This wasn't even all of them. 

 

There was more sand burying. 

 

And this was Emily's solution to sunburnt legs. Just cover them up with sand. 

 

By the afternoon, we were all ready for a nap. 

 

We got pizza for the kids and went the adults went to our favorite Vietnamese food, Saigon Beach.  We get this 420 downtowner rice. It is so good. 

 

Then, we ran down to the beach as the sun was setting.  We have to get the sunset every night. 

 

The Suttons get almost the whole day with us tomorrow before they head to a concert.  We are looking forward to one last beach day.