Every week I like to take a moment to showcase the moments that brought me the most joy, but also keep it real with the chaos. The key is seeing that despite the chaos, there is still so much good! Sometimes it’s awesome activities and other times it’s a sweet moment between the kids. There are always moments that can fill us with joy if we choose to see them with a thankful heart.
How was your holiday week? I don’t know about you but having it in the middle of the week was really weird and messed with all of us! The kids could not keep track of what day it was and the little guys were especially confused about when daddy was staying home and when he wasn’t. There were a few tears shed on Thursday when he had to go back but we made it through!
We spent a good portion of one day playing with Play-doh so I could get lots of kitchen work done. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time on the Fourth cooking so instead I prepped nearly everything on Tuesday. The kids were at the table creating, Jamison made the alien space ship in the photo below, and I made potato salad, two pans of monkey bread, and a pan of croutons.
We surprised the kids on Tuesday afternoon with a trip to the movies to see Incredibles 2. We all really enjoyed it and no one needed a bathroom break! Then we enjoyed a meal out at Pizza Ranch since kids eat free on Tuesdays. Only one kid per adult, but they do give us the oldest kids for free which is really nice.
Wednesday was the Fourth! We wandered Target, played some video games, played outside, and let the kids stay awake until the fireworks started rather than putting some to bed and waking them up again later. They all did really well and especially enjoyed us opening up the kitchen to allow extra snacking (something we normally never allow).
I love that we can see at least half a dozen firework shows from our deck! No packing kids up and trying to find parking or a place to sit. We grabbed blankets, lit a citronella candle, and caught multiple shows all at the same time. Then we could put the kids to bed in a matter of minutes!
On Thursday during quiet time the three big kids rushed upstairs to let me know that Mercedes was going to lose her tooth at any moment. I gave them an “oh sure, of course, she is” because that morning it was barely loose at all.
Apparently eating whole carrots (they all insisted) at lunchtime wiggled it enough that I barely touched it and it came out in a tissue. She’s lost a tooth earliest of all so far – both the other boys were well into school before losing one – and can’t wait for her other wiggly tooth to fall out as well.
Somehow, on Friday and Saturday, I only managed one photo – a picture of the watermelons we bought at Aldi 😀 They were only $3.69 last week and they were BIG – like as big as we usually get at Sam’s Club or Costco – so we bought two! The first one is nearly gone already and it is probably the best melon we’ve had this summer. I wish we could go get more but the sale is over!
But that’s it. We spent Friday and Saturday lying pretty low because it’s the first weekend this summer when we had ZERO plans and no one was sick. Seriously, six weeks into summer and we finally got to just be together. Plus we were under a heat index warning so we hid in the A/C and played games. If you are looking for a fun board game to play with school-age kids I highly recommend How to Rob a Bank – the big boys love it!
Where did you find joy in the chaos this week? What was your favorite part of the week?
