Howe Two: Summer Fun--Week 2

Another week of summer is in the books. It's so good for me to record these memories not only so that we have them for the future, but so I can be reminded that we have lots of good stuff tucked into each week. We have high levels of female drama right now--admittedly, I contribute to this because I am easily irritated by the chaos and have just about zero tolerance for the sassy mouth and intense insistence on being in charge by my dear first born. Last week felt particularly rough. I expected it, because it was our first full week at home together coupled with grandparent detox, but I found myself so frustrated at the end of each day. Thank goodness for grace. Now for the pics!

On Monday we hit Firefly Berries after our time at the RAC. We managed to pick about 8 lbs of strawberries in about 45 minutes (me working at a frantic pace, the girls alternating between eating the berries, fighting, and complaining...and picking one or two here and there).

When we got home, I promptly washed and hulled the berries while the girls had some mandatory room reading time, and then we worked together to smash the berries and make some jam. From field to jar in less than 4 hours!

-Tuesday and Wednesday were comprised of running errands for Adrienne's upcoming birthday party, stressing over family picture outfits, getting Jillian some sewing supplies for her sewing camp this week, and hitting the library for a re-stock of reading material. Who knew the library was absolute CHAOS at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday morning?!?

-On Thursday morning, Adrienne woke up with a tummy ache and Jillian said she just woke up feeling awful and tired. This was the scene on my couch. What in the world??

Jillian perked up quickly, but Adrienne promptly vomited everywhere. So we made her a "sick bed" and stuck her on the couch--canceled piano lessons and a trip to the RAC .

Jillian was excited to have the chance to work through developing a new story with the story prompt program I got for her. She didn't like the noise of Adrienne's cartoons, so I offered her a spot in my room. The creative juices started to flow.

Two hours after vomiting, Adrienne was devouring toast and bananas and applesauce, and licking crumbs off her plate. Her color returned and she was bouncing off the walls. Kids are so weird!!

Since Adrienne seemed A-OK, I was able to go with Matt to the annual fellows graduation dinner that night. Hooray for grown up dinner and wine and clothes that aren't of the workout wear variety! Sometimes I just have to throw in a mom selfie on this blog to prove I exist.

On Friday we spent the morning at the RAC, and then spent the rest of the day preparing for our family pics that night, and for the Spartan race on Saturday. Matt signed up to do the race with a friend, and also signed the girls up for the half-mile kids race. We got up bright and early to head to Welch Village (a ski area about 45 min from home) and begin the long day in the hot sun. The atmosphere was great and it was fun to experience the festival-like atmosphere as we watched people practice and warm up and participate in the grueling race. Matt did such an awesome job! It was miserably hot, and he endured a 5.25 mile course with 21 obstacles (penalty for missing an obstacle was 30 burpees per obstacle!) and most of it was up steep ski hills. He finished right at two hours after his start time.

Spartans before...

Matt and Jake before the race

The girls and the Sellon boys--Luke and Isaac (sons of Jake and Roshani)

Close to the end of the race, coming down the end of the last hill--you can see a muddy Matt third from right

Getting ready for spear throwing. This was so exciting to watch--I'd say about 80% of people missed this one and had to do the burpees. Matt threw that spear like a boss!

Getting ready for the last obstacle--scaling the rope

They did it!

As soon as the guys finished racing, we high tailed it over to the kids race. Jillian was pretty serious as she listened to instructions.

Adrienne close to the front. The kids had to scale this wall to get into the starting pen. Don't worry, parents were allowed to help and run the race with them. I ran alongside.

Shouting "We Are Spartans!" to begin the race.

Adrienne tackles the first obstacle.

Here comes Jillian out of the tunnel

Adrienne was so funny to watch on this obstacle. When she climbed over the first hill and into the waist deep water, she just grinned and stood there like she wanted to stay and play awhile.

Jillian climbs the net

Adrienne's turn

Digging deep towards the end!

Concentrating on the balance beams

Adrienne climbing under the next to last obstacle

And finishing with a solid spear throw--just like her dad!

Three awesome Spartan racers!

Proud of those medals.

We got home and showered and took a rest, then headed out to celebrate with an early dinner at Newt's. We picked up Flapdoodles on the way home, then snuggled in the basement in jammies to watch Return of the Jedi (with an intermission for an ice cream picnic). We were all seriously wiped out after the big day.

We spent today mostly hanging out at home--catching up on laundry and life. The girls played great together this morning (before fighting like banshees all afternoon), and I got a kick out of their creative play making paper Halloween costumes for dolls...because it is of course normal to think about Halloween in June.

This doll is a mouse...