How To Survive A Summer (with 5 kids)

Wow. What a summer it has been. When school got out I wondered how me and my posse were going to survive the next 3 months. But ya know we've actually done great and I'm shocked that we're only 3 weeks away from school starting again.




The first thing we had to get through was our move. We are no longer residents of Farmington.  Oh how we loved this house.  It was perfect, just perfect, for our family.  But we knew we needed to move to SLC to be closer to Bryan's work.  We love him so and want to see him more.

 

So we packed up and moved 30 minutes south.  This is a pic of the boys in our new backyard in our rental home. The new yard may be small, but it's fenced in, with a forest, yes a real forest to play in right behind us.  The boys love it.

 

Things were CRAZY for a few days, unpacking boxes, NO food in our kitchen (in boxes I couldn't find) and as this picture shows we ate cereal for most meals (couldn't find the silverware for a bit.)

 

so we were eating dinner out every night... sometimes at 9:30 at night.  So much for the boys' usually 8:00 bedtime.

 

Things got even crazier when I got a call from my old neighbor telling us that our house in Farmington had caught fire!  Our poor house!  And our poor friends who had bought the house!  Devastating.



But it's been so nice to be closer to our daddy's work. We get to see him lots more! (check out the bright mustard yellow walls in our house!  Oh and there's also a red living room, a neon green room, a bright turquoise room and a bold green room.  The previous family LOVED their color!)

So once we got settled I was ready to jump into our summer vacation!

 

We've celebrated a few things, like Bryan's birthday...

 

and the 4th of July...

 

 Knox turning 6 months old...

 

 and Pioneer Day (which consisted of a party at great grandma Nonna's house and an evening at the rodeo with my sisters!)

 





 We've made lots of fun memories, like fishing with our cousins.


 

We love our weekend getaways to Midway!

 

They could fish for hours... even if they aren't the ones catching anything.



Cason caught one!



And so did cousin Drew!



Of course most days are just normal days.  And this summer I was determined to have a schedule.  One where we were plenty productive in the morning so we could earn the chance to play for the rest of the day.  I've tried other schedules and things in summers past and nothing has come close to the success of this years simple plan.  What I love about it is that it stays the same everyday, so the kids get up and to right to work, without needing me.  They know they can't turn on the TV or go anywhere or play with anyone til its done.  So they do it.  And once they have all erased their initial from their responsibilities, they can pick a fun thing to do!

 

They've earned their trips to the movies (Despicable Me 2 and Turbo!)

 

We've been finding all the fun parks by our new house.



We've loved playing with our cousins.



And do lots of swimming at Nanna's!



And sometimes we play with our cousins WHILE swimming at Nanna's!

 





Now before you think I've got it all together, let me point out that I've just let other things slide.  Like I decided to only do dishes once a day (otherwise, with 5 kids, 3 meals, and plenty of snacks I'd be doing dishes all day!) and way too many meals consist of $5 pizza pizza.

 

Poor Knox has absolutely NO nap schedule.  He catches a cat nap when he can, in my arms, in his carseat and every once in a while in the quiet of his crib.



And yes, somedays, all my kids earn is some time to play games on the computer or watch TV.



But overall, I'm declaring this summer a happy success. Now I've got 3 weeks to start thinking about getting ready for school.  Lots of new changes to come!