Summer in AZ

Seriously from October to April I just love where I live. The rest of the year I am absolutely ready to move at a moments notice. ;-)  It is just so not my style to have it be so, so hot ALL THE TIME. I know I complain about summers a lot but seriously, can you blame me? It is just about my only real complaint about living here.... but it's a big one. Yikes.

Anyway, I always try to make the most of it. We swim a lot and I try to make plans the night before of things we can do the next day. It can be hard to have all our outside activities that aren't the pool or splash pad taken away but we make it work.

This summer has been pretty good. In May we had a couple milder days so we capitalized by spending some time outside in the shade. This picture cracked me up - they grabbed a grocery store ad I'd just pulled out of the mailbox and enjoyed some light reading. ;-)

Michael and Matthew went to Father's and Son's and had a blast. Matthew loves camping SO much. 

While the boys were gone, I really tried to make it fun for Kate. I have grand plans for things we can do in the future during Father's and Son's, but since we had Joshua with us this year we had to keep it pretty low-key. 1-year olds tend to be pretty high maintenance. ;-) However, I put him down nice and early and then me and Kate had a fun Girls Night In that involved s'more dip and The Little Mermaid.

Matthew and Kate took swimming lessons with Miss Judi, who lives about 2 minutes away and gives lessons in her backyard. It was Kate's first year with her and Matthew's second. They both did really well. Matthew can pretty much swim unassisted and Kate will be getting there soon. We've spent a lot of time at the pool. I especially like to go on Saturdays so that Michael can be there and it's not quite so difficult. Having 3 kids under 5 at the pool by yourself is no joke.

Donuts by the pool:

And clearly we're big fans of throwing pictures, haha: 

I got a great deal on Groupon for a family summer pass to the Arizona Science Center. Not as fun for little kids as the Children's Museum or an aquarium, but cool nonetheless and we've enjoyed going there a few times.

There was a random free Preschoolers Yoga class at the library one day that I signed Matthew and Kate up for. I watched through the window and it was hilarious! Kate told me after that she "felt peace" and I almost died laughing.

Mommy/Son date to see Finding Dory. Matthew had been looking forward to it for MONTHS and it did not disappoint!

I also finally took Kate to see her first movie in the theater this summer. She, Matthew, and I all went to see The Secret Life of Pets. It was also really cute. Kate did okay but got pretty antsy. Might be another several months before I take her to a movie again. ;-) (She did fine though.) 

Splash pad fun-

Father's Day 2016. These kids are so, so lucky to have such an amazing dad.

Kate took gymnastics! She missed 3 classes from traveling (one of the trips was super last minute) and was late to a couple others due to it overlapping the tiniest bit with swimming lessons (argh! I didn't know our swimming lessons time until a few days before we started) but it was still great. She learned a lot and had a lot of fun. (More coming on that later.)

And unfortunately, we seem to get hit the hardest with illnesses during the summer. Pretty strange! We do quite well in the winter and then get slammed with awful bugs in the warmer months! I seem to always forget this and end up surprised when we get sick a lot. About time I learn. Anyway, in June poor Joshua got the flu. As much as I loved the snuggles, (which are basically unheard of at this point) it was so so sad. I just wanted to him feel better. :-(

Pretty much as soon as Joshua got better, Matthew and Kate were both hit hard with the same flu. I set them up on the couch and they pretty much just watched shows for 2 days straight. Joshua loved way too much that he was no longer the weakest and kept trying to hit/attack them. Stinker.

 Neither of these two nap anymore, so it was crazy to have them both napping in my bed. And it only took a few minutes to get them to sleep. SO sick! Poor kiddos.

And then, just four days before our Hales Family Reunion in LA, Kate got slammed with a stomach bug/flu. I kept thinking it would be a really quick illness, and then she'd start to act better so I'd give her some food.... but then she'd throw up the little food I'd given her and go lay back down. It was so so sad. The flu lasted for about 5 days and she'd usually throw up about twice a day. The poor girl was on the mend when we left for LA but it took her another day in LA before she was fully better. Miraculously, NO ONE else got this illness! Praise the heavens! Also praise the heavens that Kate loves medicine (?) and would always take Advil or Pedialyte or whatever I'd give her, including plenty of water.

And then we finally escaped the heat for LA!

Preschool Graduation

Matthew absolutely loved preschool with Miss Debbie. He made great friends there and learned a lot. I am so glad he got to have this experience. It was so good for him.

From left to right: Anna, Matthew, Caleb, Claire, Jack, Blake, Stella, Jaxon, and Cason

Graduation was in May. His teacher put on the most adorable little program at her house. A couple weeks prior to graduation Matthew was sent home looking like this:

And this is what the "diploma" was when I opened it:

Cute huh? Anyway, the whole thing was just too cute. She gave them all a line to say about what they did that year and they performed a few songs. She gave each of them a diploma, a candy lei, and gave each of them an award and spoke about why they got that award. Matthew got the "Chef Award" because he was always talking about how he wanted to be a chef and took his job as the snack helper very seriously whenever it was his turn to be the snack helper. :-) It was funny that she knew Matthew well enough to mention that he was quite a picky eater for wanting to be a chef. ;-) Haha!

After the ceremony we had snacks and mingled and Debbie had a little book for each of us with pictures of what they'd done that year as well as goodie bags for all the kids.

Matthew and Debbie

Matthew has one more year until Kindergarten since I don't want him to be SO young going in, and he won't be going to preschool next year since Michael will only pay for one year of preschool, ;-) (and I can't fault him too much for that!) so he and Kate will both be doing "Mommy School" next school year. ;-) We're all excited!

Girls Weekend and Mother's Day 2016

Girls Weekend! So fun! And I went kidless this year! :-) The theme this year was Jungle Safari. As usual, my mom went way above and beyond and had everything decked out top to bottom in safari decor-

On Thursday we chatted, laughed until we cried, did pedicures, learned to make some seriously amazing caramel apple pie apples, and made the yummiest dinner ever. (Well, ok, my mom made it.... I think I just chopped some lettuce.) Seriously it was so good:

Ummm, that cheesy bread was one of the yummiest things I've ever tasted. So so delicious. I am afraid to make it myself because I will eat it all in one sitting. 

Anyway, it is always good to be with these ladies.

On Friday we got up and hiked around the Hollywood sign. It's seriously nuts that I've never done that before! We also walked around the Griffith Observatory, which I have been to before but it has definitely been a while so it was neat to see those views of LA again.

^this pic cracks me up

That afternoon we went to the yummiest bakery ever and then that night we went out for pho and laughed and laughed again all night. :-) 

Oh, and we wore these awesome elephant pants that my mom picked up in Thailand earlier this year-

The next day we went shopping in downtown MB and I headed back to my family in AZ. I am very grateful for all the work my mom puts into Girls Weekend every year. My sister took this picture of all the Girls Weekend pictures through the years (we're only missing one, from the year themed "Pink") and I love it. Good memories!

And I definitely need to mention that Michael seriously does an amazing job when I'm at Girls Weekend every year. It's his tradition to take off work and have his mom come help out and then they basically just make the weekend a party. They do fun activities galore. I love that he makes the weekend so fun for the kids. This year they went swimming, to the Mills Mall Aquarium, out for donuts, to the gym, to the library, and to Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Lucas' house.

Mother's Day was awesome. I was lucky to grow up with an exceptional mother and sister who made it easy to respect womanhood.  The great women have only become more and more common in my life. My in-laws are all wonderful and of course I'm lucky enough to mother the three cutest little crazies in the world. Matthew gave me this card upon my return home that he'd made in preschool -

So thankful that I get to live my motherhood dreams with these kids! (And Michael!) They are the best!

Little Chefs

My kids LOVE helping me in the kitchen. Especially Matthew! If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he'll quickly inform you that he wants to be "a missionary and a chef!" Seriously, the second they hear me preparing food, they'll be begging to "help." This is especially true when they hear the KitchenAid mixer going, since they automatically assume that means I'm making cookies or some other treat. (They're usually right.)

Anyway, I found a cute little class through the city called "Crazy Chefs" that was basically a cooking class for kids. It was perfect for them and I especially loved that they could do it together. They are BFF's these days! Every week they enjoyed going to "chef class" and were super excited to show off to me their cooking masterpieces. They mostly made kid food, such as cookies, pigs in a blanket, english muffin pizzas, and simple cream cheese danishes.

I know that they probably won't always be so excited to help me in the kitchen, and I know I'll miss it. (Even though sometimes their "helping" isn't always super convenient.) ;-) Love these cuties and their love of creating good food, or ANY food really. Haha. Seriously, could this preschool age be any more fun!?