First Day of Summer! sort of....

Today the kids had a day off and will return to school tomorrow for their LAST day of school this year. Really it's a celebration at the park for 5 hours! No school really, just all fun. So today gave us a taste of what it will be like this summer.
We definitely need to set up a new routine/structure to the day, which we trialed out today. A friend mentioned that she does a "Big 5" in the morning and evening, which is the basics, getting dressed or pj's on, brushing teeth, shoes on or away, reading and saying prayers. You get a high 5 for every one that you accomplish and a Big high five or lots of hugs etc when you do them all. I really like the idea, let's see if we can get it to stick here in the Blunier household. I also made a list of things I would like them to do before we go off and play with friends or before they get electronic time. The daily emptying of the dishwasher, playing the piano, and tiding up something, their room and an area of the house. Also instituted earning money for doing extra chores. Kaylee was the only one to take me up on the offer today and helped me weed the garden and earned herself 50 cents! :-) We are hopefully going to Disneyland this fall for my brothers wedding so they need lots of  their own spending money for that trip.

The day went fairly well, had moments of calm, and chaos. the fighting has already started, it seems on twin is in a good mood, and the other one is just on one and is whinny, or demanding or calling names etc and just is so exhausting! Today was Renee's turn to be the off on, and she got plenty of punishments today, but ended up on a good note being nice to her baby brother, taking a bath all by her self nicely and not throwing a fit when I said that there wasn't time for an evening show that she just needed to go get a book, and she did! She also got a book for her sister and told her that she needed to start reading the chapter book that she finished a while back. It was so nice to see, and I was so grateful to have my nice girl back after dealing with the not so nice one all day!

We went swimming which has become a regular thing to do, we go several times a week. Jordan is getting quite to be a confident swimmer in his little floaty ring. So it makes it nice not to always have someone clinging onto me every second. He must drink the water or absorb it while we are there because he has to go potty 3 times in an hour or hour and half time period. Glad he isn't peeing in the pool I guess! haha

We ate salad harvested from my tower garden tonight, and the kids ate Kilbasla for the first time and loved it! We practiced baseball with Ryan and the kids and enjoyed the beautiful weather we had tonight playing around in our yard.

Early Mothers day celebration

The kids have a Muffins with Mom morning and they get to eat breakfast with me and give me their creations they made in class. It's a fun morning for all of us!

Cub scouts in action

On one of my morning bike rides with Wrigley I noticed that one of the ditches next to a corn field was scattered with beer cans. It literally was like an Easter egg hunt! So I had Ryan and a fellow cub scouter help pick them up, they could sign off and cub scout achievement and also get the money for turning in the cans. that motivated them! They picked up over 80 cans! they earned over $2 each.

Mother's Day

Today was a nice day. I got to sleep in a little, until 7:00, which was better than usual. but I was up late because I went out to see a play in Keokuk and didn't get home til late, and I didn't get to bed until after midnight. Jordan woke me up and I cuddled with Kaylee a little bit before really getting out of bed.
I had prepped things for making French toast for breakfast, which Kaylee and I made since Joe worked. It was De-Licious! Heaven, dessert for breakfast. Kids were good and playing really well together, and did fairly well getting ready for church. Renee surprised me when I went in her room to tell her 2 mins, to find her still in her PJ's. Oh boy. But we got to church in time to get a chapel seat to be able to see the kids sing. They sat fairly well, Jordan gets super wiggly but did alright.
YW was nice I gave them a "Happy Future Mother's day" gift of  some canoli type wafer cookies. and gave the Leaders a package of mints. We drove around after church to get Jordan to sleep which was a success, and had a nice lunch of left over tomato basil soup and chicken salad sandwiches and the kids had quesadillas. Then they gave me their cards they made with daddy yesterday which is always enjoyable. Then they went off and played Lego's and I jumped into the massage chair and relaxed and attempted a nap for 30 mins. Then we video chatted with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa john, Great Grandma and Grandpa Ray, Andy and Megan's family, Steven's family and even David jumped on. which was nice to see him.
Then we cuddled and watched Frozen and Daddy came home and joined us around 4:00. We were stuffed from lunch that we weren't even close to being ready for dinner at dinner time, so Joe took the kids downstairs so I could have some peace and I blogged a bit. He got dinner set and ready, leftovers again, but good none the less. Then we immediately started into bedtime routine since it was so late. Kaylee had such good behavior today, was such a sweet and helpful girl. Renee on the other hand struggle quite a bit with making good choices, even with  my reminder that today was the day that they were supposed to act their best and obey mommy's every word. Well she tried, but didn't do so hot. but they all went to bed nice, expect Jordan since he took a nap, but the break during the day was worth it.
It was a nice day over all. Nice to be loved, give love and be reminded of my blessings.

Annual Parire burning

Here in Nauvoo down on the flats, they do a cool demonstration every year of burning an acre of  prairie grass. They light one side and within 5 minutes the whole acre is in a roaring flame, then it's done. It's the best 5 minutes of entertainment and we don't want to miss it!

mini mi