Summer Lovin'

{It should be noted that I wrote this awhile ago}...

I'm so sad that this summer is winding down. I can't believe that it's back to the reality of book-bag-checking, early-morning-waking, coffee-cup-drowning, night-activities-racing, and last-minute-birthday-planning. I'm actually quite comfy here in the land of last minute plans, impromptu trips to Sonic play area, feeding six kids at lunch time, cuddles whenever we want during the day, and really just having my kids with me.

I really do miss them so, so much during the school year. So much that, if left to my own selfish ways, I'd pull them out of school and home school them just so I could spend more time with them. And I only say that's selfish because I personally am not in a place in life right now where I can teach them well and like they deserve at home.

I'm just not ready to miss them yet--actually I'm never ready to miss them. I don't like being without those turkies. But I know, that like all things, even the really good things, it must come to an end. Our summer holds many special memories for us.

Miss Boushka did a soccer camp in early June. We had her try out soccer to see if she liked it before we signed her up to play fall ball. And she liked it. She's such a Copeland girl.

The older four girls were all in swimming lessons. The older three were in the same class, and Boushka
(being that it was her first year) was in the beginner class. She was not a fan of the water,which I thought was odd since the last time she was in it she was practically a little fish. But things change over the course of nine months. They all enjoyed their lessons and actually progressed some. I enjoyed seeing them grow more confident.

Daddy went out of town a handful of times. We mostly had fun while he was away. And I only say mostly because... well, I'll explain later. But we did have some movie time. Cuddle time. Painting nails time. And more cuddle time.

Now to explain the mostly...I have this theory that every time Matt is out of town, somebody in the family gets hurt or injured. Sure enough, the last time he was out of town we ended up in the emergency room for a concussion (and an ear infection I had no idea about) for poor Boushka. She fell at her sister's softball game and hit her head on the bleachers (we think it was bleachers--I didn't actually see her fall).

Bobo at sister's softball game

About 10 minutes after she fell, she vomited. I took her to urgent care, but with her symptoms and the fact that she had a bump on the back of her head, they told us to go straight to the ER. So off we went, and it was a long night. The poor little gal was so tired, and ultimately we ended up having to get her a CT scan. She was very scared, but eventually a sweet grandmotherly nurse saved the day when she turned on a youtube video of the new Despicable Me movie. We got her all calmed down and the CT actually came back clear. We picked up meds at 12:30AM and headed for home. I'm so happy she didn't have anything worse than a concussion. And I'm still sticking with my theory.

Brownie lost her first tooth on July 2! And of course the tooth fairy came to visit. Another $5 donation to the college fund!

July 4th was as fun as ever--except this time we got the added bonus of having Auntie in town. We ate good food and shot off fireworks like most Americans.

We also did some swimming and general lounging. Of course, this was the day after Matt got back in to town, and Hunk seemed like he had an ear infection.

So I made our 2nd trip to Urgent Care that week, and sure enough he had one. But we did get to enjoy the evening with family, and that's always a blessing.

Three days later, and still within the same week Matt left town, there was yet a third trip to urgent care. I was in the middle of sanding and painting our old dining room table when Peach came out complaining of earlobe pain. I took one look and fuh-reaked! It looked super bad and totally infected. Since I was drenched with sweat, daddy handled this emergency. Luckily, the doctor was able to finally get the earring out (after using surgical tools and causing major pain for a little red). It left a big gray scab of dead skin. Blech! But it's all healed now and she has good earrings in. 

Our anniversary was a couple days later, and we didn't do much. My friend, Traci, watched the babes for us so we could enjoy a couple hours sans-kids. We came home and tried to cook dinner, but it was a bit of a disaster. Something with the grill was off, and we basically spent the whole two hours cooking. But it was still nice to have some P&Q!

Here is the fried zuchinni--this was my contribution to our anniversary meal

The next week Miss Bug had Kindergarten Camp. Oh my goodness, she was so excited.

Who am I kidding, I was thrilled. I knew she would love every minute of it, so I was happy she got to go. She had a lot of fun and even made a new friend.

She brought home a cute game, a tote bag she decorated herself, and helpful worksheets (that I had the best intentions of helping her complete for fun before school started--I'll let you guess how I did with that).

Bug also started gymnastics for the first time in July. She absolutely loves it!

Brownie has been doing gymnastics non-stop since she started after Christmas, but she actually has her last class tomorrow. She's taking a little break, but she'll be back at it soon.

Peach also started gymnastics back up after being out for a couple of months. She missed it, too. I honestly enjoy watching them learn new moves, or stunts, or whatever it is that they do. But seeing them grow, literally by leaps and bounds, is amazing.

The week after K-camp was when my sweet doggy took a turn for the worse.

 I was going over to mom's house nearly everyday just to spend time with her, try to get her to eat/drink/potty, loved on her... you get the idea. We only had a couple of days between putting her down and leaving town for a mini-vacay. It seemed the busy never ceased... but does it ever? NO!

We went on a mini-vacation to my mom's hometown earlier this past month. We were gone for a few days to a small, western KS town.

We were able to stay with my uncle and aunt, and we had so much fun staying up late, eating good food, swimming, and visiting with family. We went out there during their County Fair, so we got to see a parade, enjoy a BBQ, and even see a movie, The Bell Boy, on the library/courthouse lawn. My aunt and uncle even got me a cake for my birthday--one of the best cakes I've ever had. And as for that parade, Hunk thought tractors and horses were just about the coolest thing ever.

Since being back in town, we have been trying to get caught back up on life. It's amazing how difficult it is to leave your house, if even for a few days, and then try to catch up on everything while still raising six little babes. I remember leaving town back when we had just a few kids, and it was not this hard to come back home. Anyway, I think we're mostly there--like 80%. It doesn't help that I've been traveling back and forth to Kansas City every other day with Brownie since we've been back in town. It takes at least half a day to drive to her appointments and get back home again, and then I'm so tired it's all I can do to stay on top of the survival needs. Regardless, I am enjoying having the babes all home. I wish this is how it always was--well, the "them being home" part. Not the chaos part--well, some chaos is okay, just not as much as we have right now.


The two big girls, my sis, and I all went to the Taylor Swift concert in early August. Grammy bought tickets for their birthday presents. I think it's safe to say they had a blast!

 Florida Georgia Line was also there. They opened for Ms. Swift--what a fun band.

Proud of their new t-shirts.
We all went out to Applebee's at the Legends for dinner. It just so happened there was some sports game going on, so parking was a nightmare. But we made it to the concert in the nick of time!


We also went to 2 different VBSs. One was called E-Week at my former MOPS church. The girls loved it, and we really want to do it again next year. Each day they got to learn a new skill, and one day they packed school supplies for charity. A really great program for my big littles.

 Here is one of my littles trying to teach me knitting without a needle--a skill she learned at E-week!

Scrunchie playing at the carnival for VBS finale.

The next VBS was at a church I can't wait to attend again (softball has to end first). The four older girls all went. It was in the evening, and it was a carnival theme. The pastor's family are friends of ours, and they are some of the sweetest people we know. And they happen to understand big families!!
Thrown into the mix of summer activities is a host of little side trips we took to the library,

adventure mobile, book mobile, birthday parties,

 Girl Scout parties,

play dates,

 the mall, the movies, the park, getting ice cream,

 and the fun things we did at home like play in the water,

 build forts,

catch the toddler red-handed in the Nutella jar,

playing in the sand at Sonic

-
and put boys in girl clothes.

We did have fun trying to stick to our schedule, too. I designed an activity for each morning, and then naps or personal time in the afternoons. Well, I'll just say we tried! The schedule went like this:
Mondays: (am) library/(pm) naps/mom chores or work out
Tuesday: (am) outside activity/(pm) special time with kids
Wed: (am) kitchen/(pm) naps/mom chores or work out
Thurs: (am) Trip/(pm) special time with kids
Fri: (am) quiet time/(pm) swimming for rewards for good behavior

We never actually made it to swimming for a reward. And no matter how awesome my intentions were, we rarely got the chance to stick to our schedule. But it was always there as a back up when we were bored or maybe even found a free minute. I think as the kids grow and we aren't on a "baby" schedule so much, a master schedule like the one above will certainly come in handy.

And of course there was softball. Peach and Bug played from May (when we had to cancel games due to snow--seriously) to the end of June, and Peach played in a tourney in July.

I so enjoyed watching them play ball, and I always treasure family time at the ballpark. Both of their teams had a blast from what I can tell, and I know both girls really enjoyed their time playing ball. I'll post more of softball in a separate post.

Oh, and we went to dinner at the country club with my Aunts and the rest of my family. We even got a cute picture of our whole family. And one of some of our babes.

Anyway, I'll post about Brownie's trips to KC in another post. For now, I'm going to go catch some sleep so that I can enjoy the next few days with my kiddos.

{And I did enjoy those last few days of summer--despite the gray, rainy weather}