baseball playoffs

we have spent our entire weekend at the ball fields.
josh's team is in the playoffs and had games friday, saturday and today.


the tournament is double-elimination.
of course they have won more games this weekend than they have all season. yipee.

ok, you may have caught on to my sarcasm here.
baseball isn't my thing. it's way tooooo slow-paced for me. and when it's 90 degrees and no shade, hhmmmmm, again, not my thing.

but still, we go. and they kept winning.


we'll play again on tuesday. oh joy.
ok, i'll stop that.

ben and anna love going.
i think it may have to do with all the ballpark food.
hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, purple gatorade. yes please!


anna loves playing with all the little sisters.


under the bleachers, in the dirt. don't all kids?


ben likes to sit on the edge of the bleachers and let his feet hang.
he loves to cheer josh on


and swing his little legs back and forth.


yes, i did take a picture of his chubby little legs.
i'm totally smitten with them.

saturday night, my incredibly hunky husband (who's also vying for the father-of-the-year award) decided to put this up in our backyard


and invite josh, anna and one of josh's friends to sleep out with him.

to say they were excited is an understatement.
plus a sleepover, in the tent, and with a fire...all on the summer list!



i think the neatest thing about the tent is how you can keep the roof like this if you want to.


the kids played in it all afternoon.





when the sun went down, they roasted marshmallows, played on the swingset in the moonlight and actually slept out all. night. long.

i didn't sleep so well--i kept waiting to hear them come inside.

at 6am john came in the house, exhausted and sore. i couldn't help but giggle at him.

but instead of complaining too much, he proceeded to make the kids green pancakes for breakfast (and announced to the children: "they're green because of all the boogers i put in them for you!" to which they replied, "GROSS! COOL! YUMMY!).

and he let me take a nap.
TWICE.

wait, it's all starting to come together now...he must want something.
oh no. i'm a goner.

the summer list

tonight we worked on our summer list.


i hope we get to do everything on it--the kids had some great ideas!
one idea...i'm not too sure about...i bet you can guess which one!



anna was so excited to think of things.
ben just wanted to grab everything on the table and throw it on the floor.
i thought josh would have been the most excited, but instead he pouted about how much he wanted to go outside and play with his friends.

and unfortunately, his begging and not listening put him in the timeout chair for quite a while.


bummer dude.

after he calmed down, i took the kids out back for some popsicles and time on the swings. anna decided to go down the big slide. as soon as ben saw her, it was all over. he wanted out of the swing and down the slide too. he's been down before, several times, so i grabbed him and set him at the top of the slide.

that was my biggest mistake.

he went down so fast, too fast for his liking too, and landed on his back.
and cut his lip somehow.

while i was trying to calm him down, josh started freaking out that he had no one to throw the baseball with and started sobbing.
anna looked at me like she knew better than to start crying about something. (thank goodness)

it was a cry fest.

we all marched in the house.
john had class tonight and came back home just in time for the drama.
poor john.

fast forward a couple hours.
ben's in bed and the older kids are watching spongebob.
a load of laundry is in the washer and the kitchen is straightened up.
john is putting together a new buffet we bought for the dining room...FROM WALMART! super inexpensive, but looks GREAT! nicer than in the pictures online too.

our summer list has been made.
even though we're not all happy about it, we're going with it.
moving forward, finding our way. something like that.

staying busy

ever since school let out, our days seem filled to the max.


anna and josh are in summer camp and loving it.
anna starts gymnastics this week.


josh is finishing up baseball (just starting playoffs).
ben is still in preschool and is taking more and more steps every day.
we are thinking of putting ben into a special speech program. (reminder to self: call speech people and set up meeting time).
and he still does occupational therapy and physical therapy every other week.


we have our plates full.

it seems like there is less and less time for myself. and less and less time for john and i too.

as a parent, i like to think that there has to be a balance.
i know there is. we only have three children and we both work. big deal.

there are millions of other families that have much more going on and they figure it out. or maybe we all move along, finding our way as we go. that may be more like it.

any way, this summer, one of my goals is to make time to be with my family, to be with john on our own, and for myself.

and have a lot of fun along the way.
after all, it is summer. my favorite time of the year. flipflops, popsicles and sprinklers. yum.

my next post will be our list of things we want to do this summer.
kind of like this list meg did with her family last year.

image from whatever

what will be on your list?