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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

good old fashion summer fun!

This has been one of the best summers ever! The weather has been incredible, the kids are all at fun ages and it's just been so reminiscent of the summers of my childhood. This is what I remember summer being like when I was little, super fun, super hot and no pressure. That has been our summer in a nutshell. Here it is in pictures...

We went to Lake Compounce a few weeks back. Jason's boss very generously treats his employees to a day there, complete with bus trip and all meals. I really love the park there. It's nice and clean and they have free drinks everywhere in the park which is especially nice when it's 90 and humid! The kids had a blast. They boys were big enough to go on some of the "big people" rides and really enjoyed most of the rides they tried. Hannah and Bella are nuts and loved the roller coasters and fastest rides they could find.





We are so excited that our friends the Germains have moved close by. My friend Jen and I have been friends since we were born and it has been so nice to have her and her family close by. We've gotten to see a lot of them this summer and it's been so much fun! One day the kids all had a lemonade stand. They did pretty well thanks to some very generous customers who were very encouraging to the little entrepreneurs.


Everyone had a job. Ian liked holding the money best.
Another important ingredient for a great summer, water balloons. You gotta love an activity that takes at least 1/2 an hour to set up for and is over in 5 minutes or less. The kids made fortresses and teams and once the balloons were gone they switched to throwing buckets of water at each other.




Another day at the Germain's we made some slime. It came out really good. It farted in cups and made everyone laugh. Nothing provokes a genuine giggle like the sound of flatulence.


Bella and I had a delightful time celebrating my friend Megan's birthday. She had a wedding dress brunch. One of my weight loss goals was to fit into my wedding dress by my 10th anniversary (which is tomorrow!!!!). Megan provided me with an opportunity to not only fit into it but to wear it for a few hours! Hey, every good birthday party has a theme. It turned out to be just my friends Megan and Michelle in attendance with our beautiful daughters and it was a great morning. I even wore the lavender traveling suit that I had bought to leave my wedding reception (b/c driving in my wedding dress wouldn't have been easy and where else would I ever wear it!)
The wedding themed birthday cake.
Michelle wore a bridesmaids dress because her dress is packaged and preserved.
The beautiful flower girls.
I don't think I'll ever get too old to play dress up. I hope Bella doesn't either.
We were blessed to have my niece Madilynn over for a few days in July as well. We packed our time full of summer fun. We had a delightful backyard campfire...



Got messy with some soft serve ice cream on a hot summer evening...


and spent some time at the lake.

Despite all of our fun, there has been some down time that the children would call "boring." I call this time "wonderful." When you are a busy homeschooling mom, there is no such thing as being bored, only blissful moments of not too many things to do. Anyway, "I'm bored" is not allowed in the summer vocabulary around here. It only indicates a lack of creativity. One morning where "I'm bored" was on their faces and "go find something creative to do" was on mine, Bella decided to wash all of her doll clothes and make a clothes line. It was just too cute.

Although we haven't been too scheduled we have kept up with book club and piano for the summer. We also attended a craft day. The kids had a blast tie-dying shirts and making sponge balls among other things.

Another fine summer afternoon when the rain was blessing the outdoors the kids decided, rather than being bored of course, to make a mural with the Germains. It came out really nice and they all worked very well together.


We Corbetts have been doing a lot of hiking lately. It's been so much fun. Isaac, in particular, is like a little mountain goat. He just doesn't run out of energy! I can't believe the pace he can keep on an uphill hike. We've enjoyed some leisurly hikes and have endured some rather strenuous hikes as well. We've also been covering some miles on the bike trail. It's a lot of fun now that the kids are getting bigger and we can be active together!


One of the most important things we have done this summer is implement a chore plan. I divided our major chores into 4 daily chores and 4 weekly chores. They alternate between all of us. Our daily chores include, dishes, table washing/setting/clearing, sweeping, and putting dishes away. Our weekly chores include bathrooms, vacuming, dusting and sweeping. Everyone is also responsible for their laundry once a week and keeping their rooms clean and beds made (which was already in effect). It's been going well. If I can keep it going when school starts back up, life will be much easier! So far they don't seem to mind...too much.


Today we had a field trip to the Berkshire Botanical Gardens. It was so much fun. The theme was Dirt to Dinner. The kids took home a transplant of chives, toured the vegetable and herb gardens and we topped our trip off with a lunch of baked potatoes and the chives that we brought home.






After the field trip the kids cooled down on the slip n slide. I forgot how dangerous that thing can be. It didn't help that it ended right in front of a pine tree. They had fun and no one got any serious injuries.



We are leaving for vacation in a few days!!!!!!!!! The kids are counting down the minutes until they can be with Rara and Papa at the cottage and go fishing and hang out on the beach! Then it will be back home and getting down to business for me. I have lots of planning to do for this upcoming year! We are going to have a new student this year and have lots of awesome things to look forward too!

3 comments:

Kim said...

Love the blog! Just wanted to thank you for the idea on the 4 things daily & 4 things weekly. I changed our chores to this & it has worked great!!!! Have a great vacation!

Curliegirl

Fernando Solis Eguiza said...

El Niño Y Tu Pilin

Fernando Solis Eguiza said...

Los Dos Niños Que Se Encueren Y Tu Pilin Y Tu Culo