Friends, allowance, and one of the funniest videos I've seen...ever.

We've been soaking up these last few days of summer vacation.  

I would say we've been trying to find ways to keep cool, but with 70-80 degree weather, that really isn't necessary!  In fact, the pools and water parks have been a bit chilly.  SO CRAZY for July!!

We spent some time with Melanie and her crew and I think Maggie is in love with baby Aiden!  Presh.

Who wouldn't love this little guy, though?

Sadly, this guy keeps insisting that I homeschool him.  OY.  He still isn't ready for heading back to school this week!  I've loved having him home!!

But, as much as I've loved him being home, I will love seeing him get on that bus!! ;) 

A great way to spend one of our last days of vacay!

What do you get when you sit 5 kids down and try to get a good shot?  

This...

Um, yeah.  That's all I've got for you! 

This week, we decided to start letting Levi earn an allowance!  He is sooo excited!  We made a chart and wrote down how much he gets for each chore.  

So far, he has quite the stash!  Let's just say that he is better at saving his money than his momma is!  He already has more than me.  The $10 is from Eric when he did his triathlon, he got $3 from the tooth fairy, and thanks to morning chores, he has some jingle in the bottom!  Good job, Buddy!

Lastly, I'm sharing this video.  You're welcome.  

{Maggie telling us her memory verse for the week: Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  

She seems to be channeling her inner southern gospel "hell, fire, and brimstone" preacher.}

We're on countdown...

This is our last full week before Levi goes back to school.  We are officially on countdown!  About three weeks ago, I was pretty sad that our summer was coming to an end.  Now?  I'm not gonna lie - I'm getting a little antsy for school to start!  Yes...bad mother.  ;)

We've been having some fun this week hanging with friends.  

When you're little, there's not a lot that you'd rather do than be silly and play with those that you love!

I even got to squeeze in a dinner with some people I love!  We are in the final preparations for planning out our Disney trip in October - CANNOT WAIT!

And, yesterday was a special treat!  We woke up early and I surprised the kids by heading down to BG to spend the day with Pierce and Hope!  These days, my kids are pretty easy travelers.  Throw in a movie and give them their headphones and it's almost like I am traveling by myself!  Almost.

Levi asked from the beginning, "How long till we get there?"  In kid language, I told him three Scooby Doo's and one Dinosaur show.  That was doable.  Once we arrived, the boys were in pure Heaven for about twenty minutes until they acted like old men complaining because they didn't want to play the same thing.    

The girls ran off to play with all things pink in Hope's room.  I don't think we heard from them again until we went swimming!  And then, there was lots of this...  

Sweet girls :)

Me?  I was pretty much in Heaven, too.  Love this girl...so much!  I was so thankful for a day just to plop down and shoot the breeze together.  

 It was just like the good ol' days...back together again.

Brittany popped by for a bit and it was so great to see her!  Been way too long!

And, when B is around, you know that someone is going to get their hair done!  Exhibit A.

Our day was too quickly coming to an end.  :(  It melts my heart that these two old men can pick up right where they leave off and have a good time together.

This one right here thinks she is just as big as the others, but moments like these remind me just how little she is.  Soaking it up...

"MOOOM, can we go swimming again?  We LOOOVE night swimming!  PLEEEASE??!!!"  Gosh, take you swimming again while we have to sit on our rears and talk some more?  Okay...

What a wonderful day.  So thankful for days like this!

Cribs are for babies!

Eric and I have been tossing around the idea of putting Maggie in a big girl bed for a while now.  At night time, she has started to proclaim, "Cribs are for babies!" pretty loudly.  Honestly, we were scared to because we had such a bad experience with Levi!  I liked the idea of her not being able to escape. A couple of weeks ago, Eric told me, "Maggie will be reading to us and still sleeping in her crib."  Ha!  That's when I knew it was time for the transition.  

Here are just a few shots of the nursery bedding and furniture we had for both Levi and Mags:

Uh, yeah...time for a change when your child is almost bigger than the furniture!  :)

So, I had this BRIGHT IDEA!  {And by "bright idea", I mean lots of work for Eric while I walk around and bark orders!}  We had some old furniture in our basement that belonged to my parents while I was growing up, then went to me when I was in high school.  Pinterest makes everything look so easy, so I suggested painting it for Maggie's room!  Great idea, right??!  I thought so!

BEFORE:

I decided on a pretty aqua color since we wanted to keep her room yellow.  

DURING:

We finally got it all put back together and I LOVE IT!!!

I still haven't found any new handles that I like for her chest of drawers, so just pretend like there are some really cute ones on there! ;)  Oh, and here's a tidbit I learned:  a dresser is a piece of furniture with drawers and a mirror sitting on top.  If it is tall, with no mirror, it is a chest of drawers.  I kept calling this a dresser and was corrected every.single.time.  Whatevs.

I'm ecstatic to report that Maggie has been sleeping in her bed for a week now and has done great!  The very first night, we had a little visitor at 3 am, but I took her to the potty and back to bed and she went right back to sleep!  And, I have to admit that it is quite adorable to see her little head come bopping around to my side of the bed when she wakes up in the morning.  Love that little girl!! :)

Levi swam, biked, and ran; I cried

Sometimes, there are these precious moments in life, and you want to capture EVERY SECOND and bottle them up.  This morning was one of those moments.

This has been a big week for both of my kids!  Maggie got a new big girl room {blog post about that tomorrow, hopefully!} and Levi went to his first Tri-Camp and completed his first kid triathlon!

Here's how it went down:

Camp was great, and then it wasn't.  After the first two days, Levi didn't want to participate in the swim portion.  Griffin had swimmer's ear and couldn't swim, so Levi didn't want to, either.  He doesn't like for people to watch him and was extremely anxious {gets that from his momma!}.  There was the fine line of forcing your child to follow through with his commitment and not forcing him to do something he was scared of.  Those are the moments of parenting that I don't like!  There were tears, there was a lot of praying, there was yelling, and there were the moments you wish you could take back.  Griffin was going to swim this morning, but we didn't know if Levi would.

We woke up early, got everyone ready and Levi seemed excited.  In my gut, I was worried that he would bust out crying at any moment...but he never did.  We got there to sign in at 7:20.  There was one parent allowed in the transition area with him, so Eric helped him get everything set up.

7:45 - Stretching

7:50 - Following in line with his Wave to swim; smiling

8:00 - Triathlon starts

Levi was in the 8th Wave, which means there were quite a few to go before him.  It went by age, older kids first.  He looked like he was going to cry or throw up.  I tried to stay out of his view because I was afraid if he saw me, he would chicken out.  My dad and Eric were behind him and I heard my dad yell, "Levi, DO THIS!  You got this, Buddy!" and I saw Levi smile and look more confident.  The horn blew and he took off.  No looking back.

Maggie and I ran to the end of the pool where he exited and we were yelling for him.  He was ALL SMILES!  This is him fresh out of the pool and running to the bike transition.  {By the way, how adorbs are the little ankle monitors??!}

Eric was waiting in the transition area to help him gear up.  OH, did I mention I had already cried 4 times by this point??!  It's true.  I'm a wimp.

Biking was his strong point.  It seems like it didn't take him very long!  They crossed the parking lot, went out on the main road, rode through Perrin Park and came back.  

Next up was to park his bike and take off on the run.  I think I may have cried a few more times by this point.  He seemed so proud of himself!

This was the only activity where one adult could join each child.  Eric promised Levi that if he did the swim portion, he would run with him.  PRESH!  Levi was thrilled that Eric ran along side him.  

THE FINISH LINE...a pretty awesome water slide!

I was screaming and crying!  I went over to hug him and told him how proud I was that he finished.  He said, "I know, Mom.  You are crying."  ;)

SO PROUD OF THESE KIDDOS!

Stats: 25 yard swim; 1 mile bike ride; .25 mile run

Levi's time was 14:30

After the event, the Aquatic Center opened up for two hours of free time for all the kids and their families.  Heaven for this little three year old!!!

And, Levi had ANOTHER first: jumping off the high dive!!!  So awesome!

I cannot tell you how incredible this day was for us!  It was a learning lesson and a bonding experience.  It gave a little boy some much needed confidence.  It made these parents take a huge chill pill and realize we can't fix everything.  It made a little girl adore her brother even more.  I'm so thankful for these two little people.