Pushing Through July

July is an exhausting month for me. There's Independence Day, Tommy's birthday, a birthday party (and this year a baptism) to plan and execute, and usually some travel that involves my family. I enjoy the first part of the month, but then always feel like I have to push myself to finish the month and then somehow, August brings sudden relief. So here's my "push through" period of the month.

Thora's plush Sofia doll was coming apart and losing stuffing in several places, so one night after getting the kids ready for bed and she told me it was her stuffy making messes all over the floor, I invited her to my room where I played Doc McStuffins and fixed up Sofia. Sofia needed surgery on her dress, right shoulder nearly all the way around, and crown, but she came through. Thora was brave and watched the whole time. Then we finished by discussing that I fix her toys because I love her.

I learned something new about Dancy: not only is she really great at hanging up shirts and dresses on hangers and organizing everyone's clothes in designated sections on my bed, she also prefers to have the hangers pre-sorted by color! Someone is a little organizer/OCDer!

Tommy finished the last project in the hydraulics kit: a rake! We might have to get into circuitry next!

The Sky Sox minor league baseball stadium is just down the road from our house and they do $5 Tuesdays...which turns out to be about one game a month that they're actually home for. So we hit that up for the last week in July because we were expecting Shad not to be home for the August game.

The whole game I kept Sam entertained by telling him to find the fox. Then we saw him walking through the concession area right behind us, so we made a run for it to grab a picture and high fives. Thora didn't want to be in the picture.

The next night was Tommy's birthday party. So after dropping Katie and Dancy off at art class, the other three and I went to Walmart to buy cake supplies and a Minecraft figure. I kept the whole day open so that I could just make sure we got the house cleaned up and the cake made. I got so excited about using my Bake-Even strips again that I forgot to prep the cake pan properly. Normally I would smear on shortening, dust with flour, then pour the batter, but I got distracted by the strips and forgot the flour. I was so worried the cake wouldn't come out of the pan, but when I pulled the cake out of the oven and saw the gap between the cake and the pan I nearly cried for joy! Cake tip: you know your cake is done baking when the sides of the cake have shrunk in just a bit from the pan.

And there's the cake!

It felt so good to create again! I do miss this art.

When friends arrived, we did Just Dance videos on youtube for a bit, then broke out the Perler beads when they lost interest with the dancing. I figured that when they got bored with the beads, I'd get out the foam swords and we'd head to the field across the street, but they never got tired of the beads! I had to give them a 5 minute warning to clean up for cake time.

The day after Tommy's birthday, we got an afternoon hailstorm that destroyed my garden. Marble-sized hail for 15 minutes. 

Well that was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so that brings us to Friday. The library was having a party to celebrate the end of the summer reading program and they had a helicopter coming! That was the only reason I was going--to get my two-year-old to see and sit in a helicopter! Anything else would be a bonus.

Bonus #1: Getting to check out the inside of a police car without getting caught TP-ing.

Bonus #2: Meeting Belle!

Bonus #3: Star Wars!

Bonus #4: 50-cent book sale! I spent $12. And they didn't get unloaded from the van, so they got soaked in the hailstorm at the zoo yesterday. I still need to assess that damage.

Helicopter time!

Each of the kids got to sit in the helicopter and ask questions. Pretty sure they all loved it! They neeeever want to ask questions and be the center of attention...

The pilot is standing in front of the chopper.

Tommy's birthday!

The day before Tommy's birthday, he asked me if I was excited for his birthday. I told him no, birthdays are stressful to me because there's so much I have to remember and if I forget something, kids are disappointed and act like I ruined everything. Turns out, I had forgotten that I established a new birthday breakfast tradition on Dancy's birthday of doing IHOP-style pancakes with strawberries, whipped cream, syrup, and sprinkles. I didn't have strawberries, so I had to run out to the store. Then when I was getting into bed, I remembered the whipped cream. Shad went to King Soopers before work the next morning and brought me back spray whipped cream so it wouldn't have to thaw. Pancakes happened as expected, but we're modifying the birthday traditions for the future to relieve my pressure and let me enjoy things, too.

After breakfast, we played Just Dance with videos on youtube for over an hour. Got good an exhausted right before Shad came home from work early to take Tommy out to lunch.

Cow Appreciation Day was on Tommy's birthday this year, so we all dressed up and picked up our lunch to take home and eat. This was the first time we've been able to participate!

Everyone enjoyed being cows and mooing. Dancy is the Statue of Moooverty.

The place was packed and I was starting to think maybe it wasn't such a good idea to do this with Shad, who stresses out in such situations, but then when he realized we got all of our food for $3, he was sold.

{Katie, Thora, me, Samson, Tommy, Shad, Dancy}

We had a pretty low-key rest of the day, just let Tommy call the shots on what he wanted to do. I was wiped out from all of the earlier birthday activities, so I told Tommy we were changing his dinner plans. He could have his Pigs in a Blanket dinner that has me in the kitchen making crepes for an hour the day after his birthday, but we were ordering pizza. He understood the next day when he saw how much work it is for me to make Pigs in a Blanket. I explained that I don't mind doing it, but that I was just too worn out to do it on his birthday.

We had chocolate pie for Tommy's dessert. This is me clamping Sam's mouth so he doesn't blow the candles out.

Dancy is 5!

Dancy's first choice for birthday activity was Grandma's Museum, but I didn't want to commit Grandma to that, so I suggested we could do the zoo instead and invite Grandma. We also changed it to be the day before her birthday for scheduling needs. Lori surprised us that morning by coming down, too.

The wolves had just had a litter of 6 pups early in the month and the mom just happened to choose the one den out of three that had a camera hidden in it!

Dad was out on the prowl. We'd never seen the wolves in all the times we've gone to the zoo!

{Samson, me, Tommy, Katie, Dancy, Grandma, Thora, Lori}

{Samson, Megan, Tommy, Katie, Dancy, Grandma, Thora, Lori}

{Katie and Tom}

{Samson, Katie, Tommy, Dancy, Thora, Lori}

Grandma and Lori had to leave before we were ready to, so we rode the Sky Ride alone. Turns out that's not so easy for a mom with five kids under the age of 12: only four riders to a seat, kids under 12 can't ride without an adult. So we hitchhiked! I waited near the entrance until someone else came along to ride, then asked if they'd mind if Tommy and Katie, two fully functional kids, could ride with them. Then I took the other three. Same thing to get back down.

It was around 4 pm when we finally left the zoo, and you know a two-year-old is tired when he falls asleep with food in his mouth.

{Samson}

The following day was actually Dancy's birthday and Katie woke up early to help me decorate. Then I made homemade pancakes so we could have an IHOP breakfast.

Chocolate chip pancakes, REAL maple syrup, strawberries, and sprinkles for Sam...

...all of the above plus whipped cream for all the other kids.

So happy for an IHOP breakfast!

{Tommy, Dancy, Thora, Katie, Samson}

Katie fixed Dancy's hair all fancy while they were waiting for breakfast. Apparently that was a pre-arranged birthday activity for them. And Dancy donned a "cape". Aka baby-sized fleece blanket.

Fancy hair!

Dancy and Katie had art class that morning and Dancy's art teachers got her gold balloons, an emoji yo-yo, and a sucker. I asked why the gold and apparently Dancy has been branching out into other favorite colors beyond orange.

We always do a pie for the family birthday celebration, cake for the party with friends. We got turtle for Dancy and I had some sparkling candles in a drawer in the kitchen.