Back to School kick off...

 Happy First Day of School 2012

Sunday night we celebrated the start of school with our last "Burger of the Week" for summer.
Yep, all summer long we have made a different hamburger each week. The boys in this family love them some red meat... and this mama eats some occasionally to combat exceptionally low iron. Except steak. I cannot do it. It makes me gag to even think of eating steak.  The best I can muster is tacos, chili, or an extremely well done burger here at home.
So here is our last burger of the week:

It was an onion ring topped burger with "special sauce"... think bloomin' onion at outback. I even made the onion rings, and they were delicious! Just dipped them in flour and then buttermilk to coat. Yum.

Poor Alden said, "Mom, does this mean you are never going to make burgers again?"
Not exactly bud... :)

Then we sent off some paper lanterns in the sky. I told the boys to write down (on the lantern) a favorite memory from summer, a prayer for the upcoming year, or just draw a picture if they wanted. I saw this on a wedding photographer's blog, and loved the idea, so I found some lanterns online and knew I wanted to use them for our last night before school.
The wild boys absolutely loved this, and I was pleasantly surprised at how big the lanterns were, and how high they flew. Micah said, as we launched the second one, "These better not start a forest fire." Oops, I never thought of that... but no worries, they did not!

It was a super fun night to get us in the mood to start school. As we watched the boys chase after the last lantern in the shot above, I leaned back into my Micah's arms, and he said, "Look, those are our boys. Aren't they amazing?"  Yes, yes they are...

Back at it...

Wow, last post was June 6th, and here it is the end of August.
My hiatus was intentional.
I wanted to be more here for my boys this summer.  Yes, HERE. 

Not looking down at my phone.
Not sitting at the computer editing photos for hours.
Not reading blogs, or facebook.

I wanted to be here.

Here reading books.
Here playing games.
Here watching goofy movies.

I did ok.
Yep, just ok.
I like to play draw something on my phone. (don't judge)
I like to read blogs about home renovations, and crafts and such.
I like to search for vintage goodies online.
I like to look at photos and read book reviews and put things on my "to read" list.

So, I wasn't perfect. I didn't go for the ever trendy "unplugged" because I knew that wouldn't work for me. There were some mornings when I just let the boys watch Phineas and Ferb whilst I drooled over home projects I'll never be talented enough to pull off.   It really wasn't until this week that bickering started in a fashion that made me cringe and say, "when does school start???" So I would say it was a success.

We have been crossing things off our summer list "like a boss"... isn't that a new cool saying? "Like a boss"? I have seen it places and been confused. I mean, you can peel an orange "like a boss" and workout "like a boss". The two hardly seem comparable, but maybe the boss is SO trendy and cross over, it applies to everything. I am a nerdy mom, so I would say something lame like "we did it with gusto".

So, welcome back to the world little blog o' mine...

and I love this... it was on pinterest... like everything else in the world.

Summer List, Do-Over

So last year I wrote, and never published a post about our summer lists. We made a list of things we wanted to do, I printed them off, we attached them into cute little notebooks that I let the boys pick out, and then we got busy doing, crossing off, etc.

See, here they are, they were great... in theory.

There was a problem with my plan. By the time I got the photos off my phone or camera, printed them the correct size for their books, and had them sit down to write, the boys felt more like it was homework than documenting the fun we'd had. (photos printed the day of, that would've worked.)  We only got about half of our activities documented in the books. Boo.

 It was a mom-planning fail. I think I made it more about what I wanted, rather than what my boys would enjoy and be able to keep up with.

So, this year, I have a new plan, and I already told the wild boys about it, and they were all equally excited. (Now, if you are like my crazy talented friend Sarah, you will paint a chalkboard wall in your home for your list, pen it in lovely shades of chalk, and use that. I am not Sarah, and I am not painting a wall. Sorry boys.)

Here is what our list/scrapbook/summer memories will involve.

8½ x 11 cardstock
One binder & page protectors
One fuji instax camera and film
Markers, Pens, Gluestick, etc.
and let's be honest, I will throw in some of my beloved washi tape too :) 

 I am planning on taking the fuji instax, getting a photo of the activity/adventure WHEN WE DO IT and then that SAME DAY having each boy write down a little something for the opposite page. I know Alden will need help with this, but he can dictate to me or one of the older boys. I think they will love having this book, but it won't be as time consuming to put together. Honestly, if the Instax film weren't so expensive, I might have still stuck with individual books.  I also think using individual, 8 ½ x 11 cardstock will allow more freedom for more photos of certain things if need be, and being able to use regular old 4x6 photos.

So here is to 2012... The year of the DO-OVER :) 

If I am still alive...

 

Yesterday I had a lovely conversation with my youngest son, Alden. It is the second time one of my children has mentioned my death in the last few weeks. Either they are prophetic, or wishfully thinking... 

Alden: "Ma, when I am a adult, I'm gonna take my sons camping."

Me: "Aw, that will be so much fun buddy." 

A: "But I'm NOT giving them my bear or blanky!" 

Me: "Well, that's ok, you know why? Because Mommy will be 

        your sons' gramma and I will get them their own blanky and bear."

A: "Ok. That's good. Thanks Mom, you are the best mom ever." 

Me: "Can Daddy and I come camping with you and your sons?"

A:  "No. You'll be dead by then"

Um, Ok. I am off to reflect on Psalm 90 and eat some vitamins. 

I used to be a Girl Scout...

One of the things on my proverbial "bucket list"  is  was to go camping with my Micah and our boys. I mean tent camping, not some wimpy-cabin-with-AC-and-cable-type of "camping". When I told Micah this, his first question was, "How long has it been since you went camping? In a tent?"  Well... it had been a while. A long while.  There was the time in Girl Scouts when I was in 4th grade, and then with my youth group one time, and then as a camp counselor we were forced to take our campers on a tentless overnight campout where some group of dorky guys was sure to scare you.
So, needless to say, it had been a while. "Come on..." I said. "I am a mom of three boys, I got this." My Micah gave me a skeptical look that seemed to say, "Yep. You are a mom of three boys who likes AC and her blow-dryer."  True enough, true enough. Somewhere inside though, I conjured up my outdoorsy gal, we borrowed a tent and some equipment and officially became...

A Family That Loves Camping.

From the minute we got there, I loved it. Ok, maybe not the first minutes when Alden had to poop SO bad we just grabbed some wipes and went to the woods. I think all that outdoorsy gal junk went to my head, and let me just say... it is a sad moment to realize how close you were to a real commode, when THIS is the result of your 4 year old's first outdoor defecation attempt.

The site, the area, the tents, all of it was just what I had imagined. I kept pinching myself, thinking, surely someone will get sprayed by a skunk like a Brady Bunch episode, or there will be a thunderstorm, or gross bugs, or... or... or...
Nope. Nada. Zip.

We had the best time EVER. I know some bloggers write crap like that all the time, but I think since my lead in story was about someone pooping -again- you can trust I am not blowing smoke. I surprised myself how much I liked it. I thought I would have to endure it, one of those "take one for the team as I am a mom of boys" type activity. At one point, Micah asked, "Are you sure you want to sit that close to the fire? You ARE going to smell like smoke you know. "I KNOW! I LIKE IT!! WHO AM I?!?!" I replied.

So, we cooked on a cute little grill... hamburgers and hot dogs, and even (yuck!) steak.
We hiked... some ridiculously straight up trail that I swore was never going to end. But the view was worth it.
We made fires... well, mostly Micah and the boys did. The last morning though, I pulled my weight and started quite the lovely fire from SCRATCH.
We roasted marshmallows, told ghost stories, ate by the fire, read books, played cards, talked about God, threw rocks, laughed and had  
the.best.time.ever. 
At one point, I told my boys, "You know what we are doing right now?"
Em looked at me and said, "Um... camping?"
"Well, that... and making a memory..."

Oh, and when my Micah commended me on my fire starting skills, I may have said boastfully, "I was a girl scout yo!" I think all that mountain air also brought out my inner nerd too.

We saw this guy on our hike... he was NOT invited back for lunch despite my boys longing to catch him and keep him. I have my limits folks.