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07 March 2020

August Little Things

We kicked off August with Junior Lifeguards.
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This time, the little brothers joined the daycamp lineup.
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The camp is a vigorous mix of ocean safety and swimming skills. The rotations switch each day and they find out immediately when they arrive each morning if the dreaded "swim-run-swim" is on the schedule.
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On one of the days the older boys were at camp, Crew and Finn went to a Dr. Suess camp put on by some neighbor girls. They made "Cat in the Hat" kabobs.
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We had a street ice cream social one summer evening. I love that we do these gatherings.
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I don't think the kids mind either.
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Finn had his fair share of battling with asthma and fevers, per usual. 
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Nash decided the cliff on the beach would be a good place for rock climbing.
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When he fell a few minutes later and scraped up his wrist, he second guessed that idea. The lifeguard wrapped him all up in bandages.
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Nash drew quite the crowd with the lifeguard intervention. Our friends that were at the beach with us captured the excitement.
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Nash wasn't down for long, it was too beautiful of a day to waste.
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Maybe I'm biased, but the Laguna Beach coves have to be some the prettiest places in the world.
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We ended our summer series of weekly ward beach day with one last trip to Riviera Beach.
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All of the four and five year old boys played follow the leader with Blake and his friend.
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This went on for hours and was quite entertaining for both the participants and the observers.
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We cranked out the last of our summer bucket list items before school started. We made it over to a club pool we've been wanting to try out with inflatable water slides.
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One of Blake's friends set up an inflatable slide in his front yard for a day and that was also a hit.
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I love finding notes like this on the piano.
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Crew wrapped up his weekly summer soccer camp.
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He also thought it would be funny to wear every hat we own.
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One night, Nash and I ended up on a date, shopping for school supplies. We couldn't resist getting Finn a monster lunch box with zip up teeth.
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Then it was off to school. Blake and his best friend Talon ended up in the same class which they were pumped about.
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Crew met up with lots of his friends from church on the first day of kindergarten.
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Finn was over the moon excited to start his first year of preschool. 
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With all four boys overlapping at school for a few hours, two days a week, I took advantage. My alone time mostly consisted of errands and work, but occasionally, I fit in a workout or brunch on the beach to celebrate a birthday.
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We had a full summer with lots of togetherness and memories made, but I have to say, it felt amazing after more than a decade of having little ones at home to be the kind of person who could say "yes" to brunch on a Tuesday morning.


06 March 2020

Baby Girl Shower

Once school started and everyone was back in town, we hosted a baby shower for my good friend Kristine. My house was in demo mode so our friend Kristen offered to host.
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She decorated her backyard so cute and cozy.
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Lots of people helped with food and making it all come together so beautifully.
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A few weeks later, I got a call in the middle of the night to come watch some of our favorite little boys when Kristine went into labor. A short while later, little Rosie arrived. I took the boys to the hospital to meet their little sister.
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Rosie quickly won all of our hearts.


05 March 2020

Back to School Fancy Dinner

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Some years we are great at incorporating our school year theme into our lives and revisiting the theme throughout the year. This year was not one of those years. Most of us forgot what our theme was immediately after our traditional "Back to School Fancy Dinner." Our house entered mass construction right after school started and I never got around to displaying our theme. A few of the boys asked me what our theme was in the months following the dinner and I was sad to report that I didn't remember either. 

It was a nice idea, to focus on what matters most. And at least I have photographic evidence that the event took place and we at least had some nice discussions about our theme for one night. You win some, you lose some, and I'm determined to do better next year.


04 March 2020

Back to School

We were so excited to have three boys all at the same school this year. Blake, the big fifth grader, started his last year of elementary school, Crew started his first year of elementary school, and Nash fell right in the middle. Finn started preschool and was thrilled to have his own carpool and lunch box two days a week.

Crew made it into kindergarten during the last year that our school district offered half-day kindergarten. I was grateful that Crew made the cut off because he is one of the youngest in his class and he would not have been ready for all-day school. 
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Blake was definitely too cool for school.
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I'm not quite sure what was happening with the hair that got crazier and crazier with each pose.
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It always feels good to vacuum out the pound of sand in the car and get back to schedules and routines.