Jam-packed days!

The days are PACKED. Here's a few things from my last two weeks!

We went to Lemon Lime, Crash Boy volunteered to assign Crewmate and Imposters to the cousins in a playground game of Among Us, and Jordan woke me up by magnifying the sun on my cheek because I'd fallen asleep on the ground. (I was angry for ten minutes, but then I was laughing about it.) It's awesome to have neighbors around my age and keeping me young! I'd be taking the express line to grumptown without them!

Got Crash Boy back on the scooter! He's more reluctant to get on one, so it was good to see him go for it. All three of the boys have been scooting to and from school, and it's just awesome to see them. It's a great skill! Echo is such a natural when it comes to it!

LOTS of blanket forts. Echo was sleeping in one during the day, and we built one in the middle of the kitchen, which got a bit more territorial than we wanted! But I love love love how much they like to make little places and use our big ol' house. It reminds me of me!

Storytime at the library! It's good to see my boys sitting down and listening to someone. It gives me hope for their oncoming school days. Grandma Betsy joined in (we snuck her in, tee hee!) and it was really nice. Finally returned some overdue books, too. Gosh, it's just good to go places again. This darn pandemic, man.

Editing Jared's short story! He loves to expand the world, and I can't blame him; I love it, too. I just wish he'd establish the world first! We can't have all these new things thrown in at once!

I started drawing a comic! I have no idea what I'm doing. I can't decide if I want to draw everything, or have set shapes for characters, or even... well, anything. I have no idea what I'm doing, and I think I'm okay with that! I'm just happy to create!

The Moose Showcase! Daniel made a diorama, and all the cousins, ALL THE COUSINS, went and looked at all the different things each grade made! His was about a dragon in the bathtub! 

It's wet backyard season! Hoses, water balloons, turtle kiddie pools, bubbles, the works!

Tiling at Mom's! The boys sure love being out there, and they had a good time playing with the toys! I even got a good little doze-off on the chair! I was SO tired. And Jessi and Jess and Mom made some awesome art to show off! I love how comfortable I can be around my family, and how my family is comfortable with each other. And it's no small family!

Crash Boy has been under the weather. Just tired and feverish. Poor guy. Still in good spirits, though, because he's a sweet boy.

Frog hunt!!! We went out to the pond out back because we heard croaking, and Jaina was dreaming big dreams of catching one and putting it in a prepared bucket! No luck, but the kids did get really muddy! (Which meant it was bathtime once we got back home!)

Dune racing at Grandma and Papa's! They were out there for well over an hour just driving around, picking up pinecones, pretending to park and go shopping, using pinecones as currency! Oh, and filling their socks with rocks.

The dentist! Echo had a tooth pulled, and it was ROUGH. The dentist was busy doing something else, and, well, Echo got antsy just laying in a chair sniffing nitrous, so when they finally came in, he screamed and thrashed and we had to hold him down. He is a strong kid!

SO MUCH PLAY-DOH!!! Whenever cousins come over and I want something creative they can do together, I break out the Play-Doh. I feel like we go through a few tubs every time, because they mix the colors into a delightful poo-brown and then leave it to dry and get crusty. But hey, at 50 cents a tub, it's well worth it! It's good fun. And hey, it's not like the dining room WASN'T gonna be messy.

Picnic! On Wednesday, Daniel came home and told me that he and the cousins were going to have a picnic! I love that they make plans on their own. As dutiful parents, we got them fruit and snacks and otter pops and spread out blankets and watched over them while they got to enjoy being kids and friends and cousins and neighbors. <3

The book! Oh, it feels SO good to be reading for fun. And to be reading a fun book for fun! I picked a random book last time we were at the library, When You Read This, and I'm already over halfway through! 

Seeking out CRIME!!! J2 found a new true crime podcast, and so I decided to join in! It's been a lot of fun to talk about the unfolding story.

It has all been just crazy. And yet, every weekend, it just feels like the week went quickly! That's why I'm writing all this, I suppose! I want to appreciate HOW MUCH STUFF I do.

And today, I want to make sure I remember today! Because today was a good one!

We the parents decided it was high time that we do something that WE want to do. Because we always do things that the kids want to do! So Jordan, Jess and I went to a library, because hey, kids like libraries, and, even more importantly, they have AURORA CRAFT BEER PASSPORTS!!!! You go around to different local breweries and they stamp to say that you've been! And if you get five, you get a free pint glass from the library!

It was a bunch of fun. The kids were busying themselves, coloring, snacking, and messing with the camera, and by golly, it was just so nice to do a thing that wasn't directly parenting. Drinking a beer during the day with good friends. I loved it. It made me feel like an individual, rather than a duty-bound parent!