Summer - Week 11 (Kitties!)

After a quiet Week 10, Week 11 had sooooo much going on.

The kids had grown weary of Y camp, and told me what they really wanted was more time at home to play with their toys, and more time at their old daycare. So, for the last few weeks of August we mixed it up big-time!

They went to Lou-Lou's. This is their second home and they are so happy there! They missed all the chickens (who had gotten eaten by a predator) but played in the woods and sand.

Victoria brought her bracelet kit and helped make friendship bracelets for everyone!

They built a place that I think was called "Water City." Alex was proud to show me the City that was all islands in the river. They hauled all this water from near the crick! LouAnne said there wasn't even a rest time this day, because the kids were all so into their activity.

They had a few remaining days at Y camp, when they rode the bus with me downtown. I loved one day when I got dressed and waited for them on the front porch. Victoria came from dad's house and we realized we were both wearing jean jackets! 💓💕

Then the big day arrived. We had been talking all summer about getting a cat. Then we met new friends whose cat had just had babies (on July 4, pretty cool), and pretty soon we talked about a KITTEN. And, after seeing oodles of adorable photos and videos of all the kittens playing together and sleeping together, and feeling like I just couldn't tear an innocent little kitten away from its whole family, the plan morphed into: we are getting TWO KITTENS! Gretchen figured she would bring me two, we would choose one, and find a home for the other. I knew that would never happen. Once those babies were in the house, we would fall in love and need to keep them.

I have to give a shout out to our sitters. One week we had Benjamin and the next River; they are siblings and were willing to put up with strange instructions like: keep the new kittens in the bathroom and don't let the dogs in until I get there! You see, Gretchen was coming to Duluth in the middle of the day, so the kitties needed to be dropped off while I was gone. It was just the kids and Benjamin there to take care of all the animals.

Gretchen kindly sent me photos.

I heard Alex was too shy to come out, but Victoria was all about helping the kittens into the house.

And soon after, Alex jumped in to helping. They made sure the kitties had love, playmates, a comfy place to sleep, fresh water and food, and immediately started making their own cat toys out of pipe cleaners.

They instantly made us laugh with their pouncing and exploring, in uncoordinated 7-week-old kitty ways. Here they stalk and pounce on tissue paper:

and here they play with each other:

and roll in an ice cream bucket as if it's a giant hamster wheel:

It became so hard to leave the house for any of our normal activities, but we still did it, and still brought the pups with us. One evening we drove to Cloquet to watch Mason at soccer.

I loved seeing these eager faces out my car window:

We all got to enjoy DQ after his game!

On Wednesday night, Victoria ran a race at Grandma's Marathon's "Wednesday Night at the Races."

She had a great run and seemed to love it!

And every evening when we came home, there were the adorable kittens. At first we put them in the upstairs bathroom and let them slowly get used to the house and the dogs. We did Anna first, as I knew she would be more scared of the cats and hopefully be less threatening. She was curious until one stared at her too long, and then ran away and would only poke her nose up the stairs LOL. The cats were fond of hissing at her because she was so curious and wanted to play.

Piper was curious but more calm:

On Thursday of that week the kids got their annual day with Auntie Megan!

I always love love love when they get cousin time too:

That afternoon I got another awesome text.

Look how happy these girls are!

Thursday evening, another soccer game.

Followed by more kitty fun at home.

One actually crawled into my arms!

And fell asleep!

I took two more videos that evening. The first shows what the kitties love to do that gave me a heart attack every time:

And in this one you can see Anna pacing, trying to get close to the kitten. She is certainly curious.

The next day we were leaving for the final camping trip of the summer. We knew it would be hard to leave the kittens at home but at least the dogs would come with us! Week 12 will start off with photos of our camping trip.

Summer - Week 10

Week 10 was peaceful and quiet.

On Sunday, Adam took Alex and Mason fishing (Alex was soooooo excited! He had wanted to go ALL SUMMER!). They had a great time, and while they were gone Victoria wanted to head to the local taco arcade.

We then went to Adam and Megan's, joining them for a delicious supper.  The dogs ran in the door ahead of me, and when I opened the door I heard my niece, Addie, screaming. I wondered what was wrong! And then, I realized it was squeals of glee. This precious little girl LOVES dogs (as noted in Week 8) and was so excited to see them! She followed them around the house:

Piper LOVES Uncle Adam's house including all the good food smells.

And the good pets!

Piper also loves being in the back yard when her family is with her.

On that particular day, Grandma took Victoria school clothes shopping, and Alex, Grandpa, and I hung out on the back deck playing Clue:

And building/improving slingshots:

Alex told me: "Mama look! Grandpa and I are both working on something!"

V came home happy to have had Grandma time.

It was such a perfect summer day, Matt wanted to take the kids to the beach and let me go with them.

We spent long stretches of time wading way out into the lake and lounging on the inflatable tub, bobbing to the slow rhythm of the waves.

Such a happy place for me, the sand and water. I laid in the lake and looked at the hills and felt so deeply grounded and connected to everything.

It's also great to watch the kids just have fun inventing and creating.

And looking for beach treasures.

Good memories :).

Just because she's cute I'm including this picture of Piper asking Mom for a bone at the end of the day:

Summer - Week 9

Week 9 started off with a ton of memories up along Lake Superior. I had booked a camp site at Lamb's Resort for the kids and dogs and I, and we invited Ashley along! 

Mark and Ashley actually brought the camper up the first day and got the whole camp site set up. The kids and I showed up around bedtime. Mark had to leave the next day but we were so glad to have him for one night.

The dogs were happy to be hanging out, and watching for people, dogs, and chipmunks.

The first night we ate walking tacos. Alex doesn't like tacos but he still likes the chips!

They had an awesome playground, and the kids kept asking to go play. I spent many hours with this view:

It was tough to tear them away from the playground even for campfires.

Alex really loved inventing things from stuff he found at the campsite, then trying to sell them at his store. He took bits of ferns and gave us each a stack to use for "money."

He made tacos and cookies and mugs of hot chocolate to sell :). I love his creativity and embrace every moment of the play.

He also used his creativity to make an amazing nest for his bird:

At the playground, Alex was the nerf gun soldier, playing tag and trying to "bomb" all their new friends.

I didn't always get the help I had hoped for, but somehow they were always willing to get water for camp!

These two, however, really didn't do anything to help out LOL.

There was a small arcade that provided some good entertainment.

For the dogs, the entertainment was all about the chipmunks that were EV.RY.WHERE. If you look closely you can see this one. It got pretty annoying to try to calm the dogs down and hold on to them every 30 seconds when one ran by.

The second night there we maximized campfire time. We made s'mores, told stories, and sang songs.

We got to bed super late but it was worth it.

The last full day there it was pretty rainy (ok it poured for hours and got really boring).

We had to do most of our watching from the camper.

We couldn't believe it when a grouse walked across the camp site! The dogs went crazy and I knew right away that it was more than just the typical chipmunk.

There was even a long stint of ipad time while it rained.

When the rain stopped and we finally got out in the evening to the beach, everyone was so excited!

We headed to the lake with our new friends, Mialynn, Ezra, and Emma (and their mom and Grandma). Great kids, and this bunch of six got along so well!

They took letters from their names, wrote them onto rocks with chalk, and worked to create a new word:

We had one last night in the camper. 

Packing up, being the only adult when the kids only wanted to play, was very difficult for me. A ton of work. But looking back on these pictures: it was all worth it!

We came back in time for me to pick up cupcakes (it was my birthday after all) and go to the National Night Out event on Leonard Street. It was so awesome to walk down the street and see tables of neighbors out:

Soccer kicked into high gear! So much fun to watch the kids on the field.

Or to take naps in the grass.

After one game, my brother sent me this text. So awesome to hear that others are seeing Alex's progress too.

Victoria has been doing occupational therapy this summer for her sensory disorder. Alex has often come with, and occasionally gets to play at the end of the appointment. They are so cute together.

Apparently camping didn't provide us enough campfires so we built one in the backyard too.

And enjoyed supper on the deck. The more outside time, the better! (Piper says: only with comfy chairs!)

The kids were asked to help a neighbor water some plants, and when we went to her house to check it out, we discovered an awesome rope swing from a tree.

We did some bike riding, down to the creek:

The kids discovered the Board game Clue, and they have played it everywhere:

All the dogs love being outside!

Or inside snuggled on the couch.

In the middle of the week I took a break from work and parenting to celebrate with Junior League presidents:

"Mom, summer is so fun!"