Week in Review: Summer Activities, Surgery Updates, Sailing Camp and Shows Completed

Last Friday my friend texted me and asked if we could meet at the beach after work to let the boys play.  I picked them up from sailing camp and we drove to the beach to spend time with friends, then to my brother's house for a big family cookout and it ended up being such a nice summer day!  I'm glad I always try to say yes to invitations and experiences even though my introverted first answer tends to be "no".

Snack Time

On Saturday, Phil brought Eamon, Xander, Declan and Brendan to the Seekonk Grand Prix, because we had a gift certificate that was expiring soon.  They had lots of fun!

On Sunday morning, Maggie took the little guys on a bike ride while Phil and I went for a long walk and then Phil took Maggie, Xander, Declan and Brendan to an outdoor YMCA pool while I went to the shop and made waffle cones.

It warms the cockles of my heart that the kids are able to do fun summery things because I was worried we wouldn't have time with the shop open, but we are carving out ways to make it happen.

On Monday, after a day or work and camp, Xander had a piano lesson, Declan had a violin lesson, Maggie had volleyball practice, Phil had a Religious Ed meeting with his catechists, and Xander had a swim evaluation to see if he can join the swim team at the Y.  He did so great and the coach said he swims all of the strokes so well, and he will improve greatly in speed once he's practicing 3 times a week.  I'm glad Xander likes to swim and may have finally found his sport at the age of 12, after retiring from soccer at age 4 and basketball at age 6 :)

The three youngest are in sailing camp this week:

They are so salty and tired when I pick them up, that we drive right home and take showers and put on pj's and I let them watch a movie.  I don't feel guilty about movie time when they've been outside getting Vitamin Sea all day from 8-2:30.

They have been collecting shells and seaglass and bringing their treasures home, even including a dried-up crab leg in their piles much to their mother's dismay.  "But I thought you liked crabs to eat!"  Yes crabs freshly killed on a plate make me happy, not crabs deader than dead on the beach.  It's the thought that counts!  Another "treasure" was found in our driveway and I was called down to take a photo:

Can you see the "stick caterpillar" that Brendan was so excited about?

Treasure is in the eye of the bugholder, I suppose!

Our special flavor at The Cottage this week is Chocolate M&M:

And we created an Ice Cream Flight so you can get four of your favorite flavors to taste:

Phil and I watched Quarterback and it was really good.  I definitely have a love for Kirk Cousins now and dislike Patrick Mahomes a little bit...sorry not sorry.

 

We had some good surgery-related news when my mom got her neck brace off almost 6 weeks of constant wear after her neck surgery!

Her text said "Out of prison, free at last!"

But then we had bad surgery-related news when my dad needed to go to the hospital on Tuesday night because he was having chest pains.  Phil took him to the hospital because my mom can't drive until she gets clearance after physical therapy for her neck.  They were there until 1:30 am and my big kids and I kept my mom company until late in the night.  I just love these kids so much, they really understand what's important in life:

Lots of tests later and they figured out it was his gallbladder causing the problems and he got it removed on Thursday and is doing well so far!

He asked for his razor so he could "look good under the lights" in surgery.

This year has been way too full of surgeries for my family.  Thankfully they are all turning out well! 

Happy 1st weekend of August everybody!  August is my least favorite month, but when I said that out loud to Brendan, who's birthday is in August, he got personally offended and said "Oh yeah? Well I think February is worst month!" because that's when my birthday is.  Seventh kids be feisty!