Lemonade Stand

We did it, we marked # 26  off of our Summer List.
The Lemonade Stand is done and over with, thank goodness.
And it was a success.
And it was hot...really hot.
I think the grand total in profits came to $30. 38.
The kids had fun but honestly I think their favorite part might have been painting the signs
the night before.
Wyatt was so excited the night before, he said he couldn't fall asleep because he kept thinking about  how much fun the Lemonade Stand was going to be.

I don't know if it was due to the heat or what but we definitely noticed that there was not as much traffic on our street yesterday, foot traffic or car traffic but we still did pretty good.
{Note to self :: When you see kids having a lemonade stand, whether you know them or not, STOP.
Buy lemonade from them, don't think about doing it or wishing later that you had stopped, just stop}.
Both sets of grandparents, cousins and friends came by and a few neighbors stopped by, too.
Someone doing lawn work on our street pulled up in front of the house and said she didn't want lemonade but wanted to give the kids a dollar.
That means a lot to kids...and to their mom.
It's nice to see little random acts of kindness in a world of bad news, depressing stories and
constant tragedy.
Seriously.

How is it Thursday already?
And how is it the end of July?
Eric is off all next week and we can't wait!
Have a great day everyone!

ps- how much do you love Wyatt's little lemon faces? love those signs! ; )

Hoping For a Crowd....

The kids are having a Lemonade Stand this morning.

It's supposed to be 93* so hopefully there are a lot of thirsty people out and about today-
well, thirsty and hungry, I made a bunch of chocolate chip cookie bars, too.

We are hoping for a crowd like this---wait, minus the clown, the clowns can stay home and the mad
 little boy can, too. This mama does not do clowns.
We just want shiny, happy people at our Lemonade Stand, thank you very much.

Wish us luck!!!


{and now you have this in your head, don't you? }

Exhausted.

Throughout my six and a half years of parenting, I have come to realize a few things; at the top 

of that list is that this parenting job is hard. Hard, hard, hard. 

Rewarding and wonderful and fulfilling? Yes. And hard.

One thing specifically on my mind this week is that although having babies and littler
kids is physically exhausting,once they move out of the physically exhausting stage you move
 on to the mentally exhausting stage. The stage I/we will probably be at forever now, huh? 

Sunset from a few nights ago...I was so happy to see the sun go down, to know the day was nearly over, quiet time was near and the chance for a new and better day tomorrow.

The arguing the talking, the questions, the explaining, the whining, the teasing, all of it,

 day in and day out exhausts me. And sometimes gets the best of me.

It's been one of those weeks...not terrible, nothing out of the ordinary, just exhausting. 

The kind where I am repeating myself over and over, cussing under my breath and fantasizing about running away from it all--if only for a weekend.

I suppose you didn't come here just to hear me whine though, huh?

So what have we been up to this week, anyway?

Well, today we knocked another one off of the Summer List, I think we are making a
pretty good dent in our list so far.

We tie-dyed t-shirts today; red, white and blue. 

It was messy and I didn't have gloves so I'm thinking my hands might be permanently stained red...

but it was fun and we did make some cool shirts.

We made one for Eric too and I might just tell him that I made an appointment for us to all to

 get family pictures taken this weekend in our matching shirts...hahaha.

 I can't wait to see the look on his face, I know he will be panicking on the inside.
What else?

Ice cream.
The kids cannot get enough ice cream and popsicles in this weather.

 I don't blame them, I don't get real hungry for ice cream myself until summer hits.
Dilly bar anyone? Yes, please.

Happy Friday to everyone, hope you have a great weekend!
Now tell me, what your plans are for this big holiday weekend...? 

It is supposed to be super hot and humid here with a little chance of rain, fingers crossed that
it doesn't affect the fireworks. I love fireworks and probably look forward to them even more than the kids do. We are also looking forward to cooking out, spending some time at the cabin...

and I'll be hanging with these crazies all weekend while trying to hold on to my sanity:

Lord, give me strength.

{Summer List}

We actually made our Summer List several weeks ago and I am finally getting around to posting it. 

Since school has been out for us since right before Memorial Day weekend, we are a whole

 month into Summer now around here.

I am happy to report that we have already marked off the following::

water balloons

ride a ride

make s'mores

vacation bible school

make homemade ice cream

catch lightning bugs

rummage sales

Next week we hope to go to the beach, tie-dye t-shirts and see a movie in the park.

We are crossing our fingers on the movie in the park though because it was rained out last week.

We will go to rummage sales all summer, as it is seriously one of my kids'
very favorite things to do (don't you love it?) and writing in their summer journals is
 something we try to do every other day or so.

We are making progress on that list while enjoying these lazy days of Summer.

What's on your list?

#5 and #6

Our Summer List is long but it is growing shorter by the day.

Last night the kids stayed up late, which has pretty much a constant theme so far this summer, 

and we cooked hot dogs outside over the fire and made S'mores.

S'mores was #5 marked off of our list.

One thing they have really been looking forward to is staying up late to catch lightning bugs.

Last night was the perfect night to do it, the weather was beautiful and we decided it was a 

good night to stay up extra late. Catching Lightning Bugs was #6.

They each got their own jar,  then we cut a small piece of paper for a lid, poked holes in it and

 fastened it on with a rubber band. They went to sleep with the jar of lightning bugs next to their beds.

I remember being up (what felt like) super late in the Summers when I was a kid, playing tag and catching lightning bugs with the neighbors in our Court. 

Ahhh....there really is nothing like the Summer, is there?

Summer is for breaking the rules a little, for ignoring schedules, for putting off work for fun. 

Oh, how I love Summer vacation.

What is one of your favorite memories of Summer as a kid?

Or tell me something on your Summer List that you hope to do this year, anything.

 I planned to get up this morning and edit all of my pictures from the Fair but instead I decided

 that the kids and I will clean off the front porch and they are begging

 to make a fort out there. I think I will skip picture editing for fort-building.

Happy Monday to you!

Linking up with Heather today...
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