The King-Whited Family Blog

The last I posted was mid November and then I fell off the edge of the earth, well, in blog world anyway. I’m still here. And all is well. It’s been a blur of activity and goodness and it seems like every Sunday, when I used to sit down and blog, I am too exhausted to recap our life.

But for my sake, I like to have a record so I don’t forget. Someday I will slow down and I’ll be glad I have everything documented because right now, life is a blur of little boys and bulldogs and a messy house, and a calendar that never stops.

The holidays were great! We went to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. We had a magical Christmas season with daily visits from the elf on the shelf. It was a blur and I can’t rewind enough to recap it, but we all loved every minute.

January kicked off with a “glitter and glam” New Year’s party, followed closely by my 20th year at Youth in Government. The boys joined me for one night and it was as fun as always.

In February, I joined the ladies of the neighborhood for Galentine’s night out. We hosted the neighborhood Superbowl party. Our elf on the shelf added a magical door at Christmas. And at Valentine’s he decorated and left tiny Valentine’s for the boys.

Also in February, Nate and I went on a kid-free vacation for the first time ever. I knew the boys and Grandma Debbie would be fine, but I was still incredibly anxious to leave for a whole week. But this was a trip Nate earned (Edward Jones has a travel-reward program) and we were excited to celebrate his accomplishments. It was a spectacular, relaxing, first class week of pampering. The boys were assigned to write something down each day, and I did the same, which ended up being a nice summary of our trip. When we got home, the boys had decorated the whole house with welcome home signs and beautiful decorations. It was wonderful!

In March, a leprechaun visited, leaving green milk, green footprints on the floor, decorations, some little treats for the boys, and once again, the elf door had some surprises.

In Cabo, Nate and I had so much fancy food and one of the things we had was a chocolate dome that the waiter poured hot fudge over to break open. I was eager to re-create that for the boys.

At the last minute, I had to go to Camp Menogyn for work, but that weekend, Xander had both a basketball tournament and a lacrosse clinic. I decided to bring Augustus with me to be my assistant. We dog sledded, cross country skied, sledded, sat in the sauna and then jumped into the lake through a hole cut in the ice. We drank unlimited hot chocolate and had a blast.

Augustus has been playing soccer, Xander has been playing basketball. I have been making lots of macarons and taking crossfit classes. Nate has been hanging with his buddies playing on an indoor golf simulator once a week. Both boys are obsessed with legos. Danny built an obstacle course in our basement which is ideal for boys with lots of energy.

Augustus continues to do patch time each day to strengthen one eye. For a while we called it “pirate time” and I tried to come up with fun activities. Then we switched to heavy bribes, resulting in a lot of new legos, but less fighting about patch time. Every day he wears his patch, he gets to move a space on his game board. When he hits certain points, he gets a lego reward.

The dogs got a lot of new toys from our neighbor dog, which means that at all times, my floor is covered in a layer of so many stuffed animals you might think we were one of those crazy hoarder houses. We have a basket for them, but dumping out the basket is their favorite activity, so I’ve given up. Someday, in many years, when there are no more bulldogs and the little boys are civilized big boys, I am going to buy all white furniture and have a fancy formal living room. But for now, it’s not a matter of IF everything is going to break, it’s just WHEN, literally everything will break.

March is almost over and the Spring is coming. We’ve had a few warmer days and we are all READY for happy hour season.

November-January is officially “Holiday” Season. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, Christmas, Friendsgiving, work holiday parties, etc. Some of these holidays get celebrated multiple times, with different sides of the family or friends. There are Secret Santa gift exchanges, theme days at school, cookie exchanges, Elf on the Shelf, and all things “holiday fun”. You want to make the holidays magical for your children. You want to celebrate with every side of the family and friends and neighbors and there’s so much holiday cheer how can you say no to anything?! 

My list looks like this- My husband’s list looks like this- 

Host Holiday (multiply this by how many holidays you host)  -Clean the house  -Menu plan  -Shop  -Cook  -Coordinate with guests	Buy gift for wife
Prepare meals for all parties we are invited to
Buy all Christmas gifts for kids
Stocking stuffers for kids
Buys all Christmas gifts for relatives
Donations for school and work holiday collections
Decorate
Travel logistics Pet sitter Pack Unpack
Stock up on wrapping paper, tape, batteries, etc.
Kids to see Santa
Kids to see lights
Make gingerbread houses
Make gift idea lists for a the kids for relatives
Christmas card
Holiday outfits for kids
Teacher gifts
100 other things not listed above but also necessary

Do you know what doesn’t pause during the holiday season? Menu planning, grocery shopping, packing lunches, cooking meals, house cleaning, laundry, work deadlines, meetings, kids’ sports, kids’ schoolwork, library day at school, snack time, pets, dishes… ALL THE NORMAL THINGS.  

And so, in the midst of the hurricane shitshow inside your brain that is desperately trying to keep track of the normal list and now the holiday list too, something (seemingly not that big of a deal) happens, and then next thing you know, you are MELTING THE FUCK DOWN because someone just suggested a last-minute white elephant game. You just need $10 gifts for each member of the family- wrapped and ready to go by tomorrow.  

 And your husband, who doesn’t seem to have a clue that your list and his list are WILDLY DIFFERENT says something like, “what’s he big deal?” and your head spins ALL THE WAY AROUND while steam shoots out of your ears. Because you’ve already been to Target 14 times in the last 2 days and you were just barely keeping your head above water and it’s not the one thing, it’s the 150 things collectively over the course of just a few weeks. And you just can’t be responsible for one more thing, even if it is a simple request.  

And so I present HOLIDAY MOM BINGO.  

My sincere wish for all moms everywhere is that you make it through the holidays without checking any of these things off the list. Because even one of these can push you over the edge and result in you shoveling handfuls of candy into your mouth while crying while yelling while stomping around while… whatever it is that you do when you’re DONE.  

Share this with your friends. Don’t share this with your husband. He won’t understand.  

I think I start every blog post the same- the month has flown by. But we are just so busy all the time. I can’t keep up! I sometimes think I need to say “no” to more things, but everything is fun and stuff we want to do. So we keep the calendar packed and we’re all happy. But for the record, if it wasn’t bringing all of us joy, I would pull back. I don’t think you should be busy just to be busy.

The beginning of October is front loaded with Xander’s birthday (October 2) and Nate and my wedding anniversary (October 4). A lot of celebrating in a short period of time.

Nate and I had a lovely kid-free night planned- dinner out, brunch reservations for the next day… unfortunately grandma Debbie got the flu and we had to postpone. We ordered pizza and had family movie night and rung in our 10 year snuggled with 2 boys and 2 dogs. Two weeks later we had a make up anniversary and I didn’t take any photos, but we had a fancy dinner, a really nice brunch the next day and it was wonderful.

Anniversary/birthday weekend was also the Twin Cities Marathon weekend, so before we had 11 excited kids to our house to celebrate Xander, Melissa and I went to cheer on Aaron as he ran the marathon. The weather was gorgeous, the crowd was happy and it was really fun to be a cheerleader.

Xander’s birthday party was “sports theme” and we had a bunch of fun games, an ice cream cake and 11 very excited kids running around screaming. It was a great day! For school, his treat had to be nut free and dairy free. I had a dairy free butter and decided to make rice krispie treats. He didn’t think they were quite “special” enough, because, well, he is 100% my child, so we turned them into custom baseballs and he was satisfied.

Lacrosse continued on Sundays and ended with a 2 day tournament. Are we a sports family? I don’t know. I was not thrilled to give up a whole weekend for sports, but it was pretty fun and the boys did a great job.

I spent a weekend at Camp Widjiwagan for their 95th anniversary event and the 4th issue of my magazine came out! https://www.ymcanorth.org/adventure/alumni

I saw a video on Instagram of this climbing thing in someone’s basement, so I sent it to Danny and asked if he could build it for me. Instead, he came over and started brainstorming an entire ropes course. And as soon as Xander heard the word “bouldering wall” (which is like a climbing wall, but low so there isn’t a harness), he was obsessed. So last weekend, the boys and Danny spent a long day transforming the basement. They aren’t quite done, but have made a lot of progress. While Danny was working, the boys were pushing him out of the way to try things out, so I think it is going to be a hit.

In the 4 years we’ve lived here, we haven’t done any house projects (except for painting my basement steps rainbow). Now we have a ropes course. And as of last week, we have 8 brand new windows!! Half of our house already had new windows and it was such a drastic difference in the rooms with new windows vs old ones. We have been talking about this project for a while and they switched all of them out in a day!

October= Halloween! The weekend before Halloween is Heather and Andy’s annual neighborhood halloween party and it is possibly my favorite neighborhood event of the year (and that’s a big statement!). Heather hosts a scavenger hunt where you have to run through the neighborhood and take a photo with each halloween decoration she has listed. She has a candy hunt (like easter eggs, but candy), games, a signature cocktail and a costume contest.

The boys said they like the halloween party better than actual Halloween.

Xander and I won the scavenger hunt (I was screaming at him to run faster, and he was yelling that he had a cramp and could we please slow down… and I screamed at my small child, “we can stop once we’ve won”… so, ya know, mother/son bonding time…). It was so fun. Augustus won the kids best costume contest, which I considered a personal win because that thing took a LOT of engineering and hot glue. Pinterest made it look so simple, but it was NOT. Nate helped me and even with the two of us working hard, I wasn’t sure it was going to come together.

Xander did some brainstorming with Aaron and Melissa and decided he wanted to be wheel of fortune. I bought a lazy susan and we crafted the wheel together! He and Nate watch Wheel every night and he was very committed to having the wheel look accurate. Nate and I went as a hot dog and macaroni and cheese. It was a great party and I am already excited for next year.

On Halloween, we crammed 30 people into my house for pizza skull dinner. I didn’t take any photos except the pizza skulls! I didn’t take any photos trick or treating. I don’t know what I was thinking! The weather was cold and windy and it snowed a little bit earlier in the day. We were not in a rush to get outside. But once we were walking, the wind had died down and it was actually a nice night.

The street that runs parallel to ours has been dubbed “halloween street” because the whole street shuts down and the lights and decorations are over the top. I should have taken video- it’s such a spectacular sight. The boys have no idea how cool their trick or treating is. We don’t even knock on doors- everyone is just standing out in their yards and the kids walk by collecting candy in front of these amazing displays. It was so cool. We walked up and down that street and ours and then both boys were done. They wanted to go to Sam’s house and trade candy, and help answer the door for other trick or treaters.

Halloween was on a Thursday and they had Friday off, which I was grateful for. We were supposed to have a Halloween book party the weekend before Halloween, but the boys were so busy with Danny in the basement that we didn’t have a chance. The day after was actually the perfect, low key activity. We gathered all of our Halloween books and lots of snacks and snuggled into my bed and read books. I had decorated the bed with Halloween themed bedding and I found lots of Halloween themed snacks to eat. I’m feeling like my babies aren’t going to be babies much longer, so I was happy to read all of our favorite little kid books.

October weather has been beautiful and we’ve been outside a lot. We’ve done a lot of legos and had a few movie nights at Kelly and Silas’s house.

At school, they do a lot of kid-led learning and there was a suggestion that there should be a student representative on the school board. There were 8 kids who wanted to run from Xander’s class, so they gave speeches and voted. And guess who won?! Xander was chosen by his class to run.

On Halloween, 18 students stood up in front of the whole school and gave their speeches. Nate and I went to watch and I was so so proud of him. This is such a weird thing- kids from 1st-6th grade are all going for one position. There are 18 kids. I think they probably need to re-work the concept for next year, but I love that he was confident enough to give a speech and be involved. We’ve talked a lot about it being fun to win, but either way, he should be so proud.

The school will hold the official election on election day. So more to come…

School started and we were off and running! And like a blink of an eye, September flew by! I love summer so much and I am so sad it’s over. But I was also very excited to get back to a school year routine. I think the boys were ready too. Every week of the summer was something different. And every weekend was jam packed. The school year is a little more reliable in terms of what we are doing on a daily and weekly basis.

The boys headed back to school the day after Labor Day. Xander in 3rd grade and Augustus in 1st. Xander has the same teacher as last year (who we like) and Augustus has a super awesome teacher, so I’m excited for both of them. They both like school and missed their friends. The school moved buildings this year and the new building is even closer to our house than before (less than a mile away) and is really nice. Their school is only 5 years old, and I am happy to see it growing and evolving.

We biked to school several times in September, which the boys loved. We celebrated the first week of school with a pizza party in Melissa and Aaron’s back yard. I piloted an event called “Soup Sunday” with Kelly and Silas and Aaron and Melissa (soon to roll out to the whole neighborhood). We came together to eat soup and salad and bread and fancy dessert. I imagined a cozy event with chunky sweaters, but the weather was still warm and gorgeous, so we wore shorts and had the windows open. I plan to do this event every month and eventually invite the whole neighborhood.

We went to a beer tasting event at a nearby liquor store.

The boys started lacrosse and had games every Sunday. Nate, Grandma Debbie, Danny, Heather and I all learned about being youth sports fans in the fall- some Sundays were FREEZING (I called D&H in a panic and begged them to bring me coffee and a blanket) and some were so hot we almost fainted (not pictured- my mom and I huddled under an umbrella, trying not to burn alive). The boys really enjoyed themselves but I still have no idea any of the rules of lacrosse.

My baby cousin who is, I swear to God, an actual toddler, not a day over 5 years old, got MARRIED. I was personally offended by her being an ADULT, because, like I said, she is 5 years old in my mind. But she’s actually a gorgeous, wonderful, amazing woman who married a great guy and it was so fun to celebrate them.

The day of the wedding, I got to be the wedding manager, and help out with pre-wedding stuff, ceremony management, and setting up the cake table (Gussie was my assistant for that job). We had so much fun dancing and it was a wonderful day!

Even though summer was over, we still had a few more pool days and lots of time playing outside as September weather was beautiful.

Gussie started swim team again. Xander will start basketball in October. We are back to regularly scheduled life.

Our final 2 weeks of summer were, like the preceding weeks, jam packed..

The boys started lacrosse and had practices despite it being SUPER hot weather. They are really enjoying it so far and are looking forward to playing in an actual game.

Augustus had an eye appointment, both boys went to the dentist, and we went to back to school/meet the teacher night. Nanny Ben’s final week was our second to last week of the summer and we were really sad to see him go. He was very fun and practiced all the sports with them and it was really great having him with us this summer.

The boys spent one day with Grandma Debbie while Nate and I went to the fair. We took the boys last year and they complained the entire time. So we decided to leave them home this year and enjoy the fair kid-free. We met up with Christine and Derek, ate lots of good food and didn’t have to hear anyone whine about walking too much or being too hot.

On Friday Aug 23, I spent the night at Danny and Heather’s house. Danny made a nice dinner and I relaxed on their couch in the inflatable leg massage thingys. It was like a mini vacation! The next day, Heather and I competed in the Maple Grove Triathlon- 1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run. I wasn’t planning to do a second tri this summer, but I’m glad I did it.

Months ago, I saw a prank on Instagram where someone hid tiny ducks all over someone’s house. I immediately ordered some and planned to go to their house and hide them. I hadn’t had time to pull my prank, but finally being at their house, I had the chance. I hid 100 tiny ducks all over- in their silverware drawer, bathroom cabinets, all over the kitchen, in closets and on top of picture frames. It wasn’t hard- I had a pocket full of them and I just snuck them everywhere.

The morning of the tri, Danny found one in his pocket and asked Heather, “what is this from?” She said, “I’m sure Lily or TJ [niece and nephew] gave it to you.” Danny nodded- it seemed to make sense. Later in the day, after I went home, I got a text saying, “how many of these am I going to find?!” And then later that night, another text letting me know that Heather was obsessed and hunting for ducks!

The following week, my mom was babysitting Buddha and so on the day we went to the fair, I dropped the boys at her house, but then she took them to a play place in Maple Grove and they hung out at Danny and Heather’s house until we picked them up at the end of the day. When I got there, there was a pile of about 20 ducks that they had found. The boys and I re-hid all of them. I doubt they will ever find all 100.

Our final weekend of the summer was one last chance for maximum fun. I spent my fifth year as a camper at Unglued Camp, this time with my bestie included in our little group of camp friends. We crafted, we ate amazing food, we competed in color war camp battle, we got dressed up for the dance party (theme- medal vs metal- as in olympics, heavy metal, and even one cool person who dressed as a meddling neighbor). It is one of my favorite weekends of the entire year.

While I was partying like a rockstar, the boys headed to Iowa to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Whited, cousins, and some of the extended Whited family. They had a really good time camping, riding bikes, playing with their cousins, chopping firewood, and swimming in the lake. One last hurrah for the summer!

Monday was a day of rest for all of us. I took the boys to get haircuts, I picked up groceries for the week. We set out backpacks and decided on first day of school outfits. But mostly we just hung out, relaxed and rested after a busy weekend.

And with that, our summer is concluded. Whew. I am glad I wrote it all down, because we did SO MANY FUN THINGS. In some ways, I wish summer would last forever. But also, I think we are all ready to go back to a consistent routine. The boys are super excited to see their friends every day and I am happy to go back to working from an EMPTY house. Bring on the fall!

What a week. The boys were at a cabin with my mom all week, so Nate and I called it our DINK week. For those that don’t know that term, it means, Dual Income No Kids. That was us. For the week.

My mom and the boys had a blast at the cabin. They were right on the lake, the weather was gorgeous, there were plenty of snacks, and much to do. We weren’t sure how long they would last before they got homesick, so this was an experiment. They were supposed to be gone Sunday-Saturday, and they made it until Thursday, which was pretty good. My mom sent regular photos, so I was able to follow along on their adventure. It was very quiet at our house and I didn’t have to do laundry or make any meals or snacks. It was fantastic.

I took one photo during our week- the first night, when Nate said, “we should have puppy chow” and I made a giant bowl and we ate that and drank cocktails. One night we ate a charcuterie board on the couch for dinner! We ordered thai food. We went out to drinks on a patio and dinner with our DINK neighbors Andy, Heather, Aaron and Melissa. It was all very relaxed.

A customer who bought cookies from me made a random post in the neighborhood facebook group, and as a result, I got a TON of new orders. So I was busy baking while the boys were gone.

By Thursday, the boys missed us a lot and so they came home (sporting new snazzy matching shoes). I really enjoyed our child-free week, but I missed them so much and I was happy to have them home. Thursday and Friday were casual days- a trip to the batting cages, lots of playing with toys, video games, scooter-ing, and early bedtimes.

The boys will both be playing lacrosse and so on Saturday, we had to go and get all their gear. Luckily, our next door neighbor Aaron played lacrosse and so he gave the boys a lesson in throwing and catching. They are both very excited for practices to begin.

Sunday has been the day we’ve been looking forward to for weeks now- Augustus’s birthday party AND the Sorenson’s corn boil.

Corn boil was first. I know I’ve said it before, but my neighbors can cook! We had a delicious lunch and hung out (not for as long as I would have liked, but what a great start to the day!).

Finally it was time for the birthday party. Poo Augustus has been SO patient but so so excited. He’s asked every day for 2 weeks if it was his party yet. The theme was Plants vs Zombies, which is a book series and a video game. Gussie and I have been reading all the books this year (there are 25 I think) and everything was based on the books.

We had super fun treat bags that included chocolate brains, “popsmarts” which are a brain flavored treat for the zombies (in our case, poptarts), zombie squish balls, slime, and stickers. I also had a big planter filled with stuffed plants and zombies as prizes. We had a three layer cake covered in zombies and brains.

The kids started with a little project, which was using little planters and they filled them with chocolate pudding and crushed oreos (dirt) and then added their “pea shooter” spoon.

I had 3 theme games- the first was using marshmallow shooters to shoot at targets I had hung all over the yard. The targets were pictures of zombies. Eventually, the kids just shot marshmallows at each other and the yard was filled with mini marshmallows.

Next up, we headed to the front yard to walk the tight rope. Once each kid got to the end, they got a balloon that they had to pop and inside was a clue. Every kid popped a balloon and then they sat together to go over the clues (which were 10 different pictures of random objects).

Once they had their clues, they returned to the back yard to find those 10 items that were hidden around the yard. Once they collected them, they had to follow a diagram I had made to build a sun vacuum. In the books, Zomboss (the leader of the zombies) builds a sun vacuum, but it explodes and their parts go everywhere. The good guys rush around trying to collect all their pieces before Zomboss can rebuild the machine.

I had a very loose design from the book. I attached everything with velcro and little hooks. Everything was color-coded. The kids followed the diagram and assembled it very successfully! Once they did that, we awarded their prizes and then had birthday cake.

After cake, it was time for the run around and be insane portion of the party. The kids were sugared up, excited, and ran wild for about 20 minutes until parents arrived and we handed out treat bags and sent everyone on their way. Success!

The party ended, but, like this entire summer, it wasn’t the end of the fun. Sam and Abby stayed and the 4 kids went right into the pool. Kelly, Silas, Nate and I sat and had drinks, then we ordered pizza and had dinner in the backyard. After dinner and more cake, the kids played a little longer, but then it was inside for showers and early bedtime. They were exhausted!

We have 2 more weeks of summer fun and while I never want summer to end, I am looking forward to a little less nonstop fun and a little more routine. But until then, 2 weeks of summer ahead!

August has arrived and summer is not slowing down.

This week the boys were at Hamline University for All Sports Camp. They got to choose 4 sports and then switched between them each day. Both boys were in baseball, basketball, soccer and swimming. They also got to eat in the University dining hall, which included pizza every day, unlimited pop, ice cream and the independence to choose whatever they wanted. They definitely enjoyed sampling Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew and all the pops they’ve never been allowed to have. They also enjoyed the sports and it was a really well-run program.

On Friday night, we had a barbecue at my house and I only took one photo! Jason, Michelle and their boys were in town from Texas, so we had a nice little family gathering! The weather was perfect, the food was good. Aaron and Melissa came over from next door and Danny attempted to teach the 3 of us to double under (which is jump roping when the rope goes under twice for each jump). We also had birthday cake and presents because it was Augustus’ birthday the next day.

Jackson and Sawyer are 22 and 20, but were drawn to the slack line ninja course and ended up playing with our boys for over an hour. I wish they lived in Minnesota! It was such a wonderful night!

On Saturday, Augustus turned 7 years old! I can’t believe how much times flies. We started the day with birthday pancakes. And then it was time to spend the day celebrating my cousin Deena who had her first (of 2!) weddings. Deena married Chris, who is Hmong, so they had a Hmong wedding and in September, they will have a Western wedding.

Once again, the weather was gorgeous. Deena and Chris were beautifully dressed. There were drinks and appetizers BEFORE the wedding began. The wedding was in both Hmong and English. It was a lovely and special day. But after the ceremony, that’s when it got more interesting.

Chris’s family was the warmest, most welcoming, fun, inviting group of people I’ve ever been around. They were so kind and absolutely wouldn’t let us sit back and not party with them. They initiated MANY rounds of drinks, which led to Nate, Danny and Jason, as well as Jackson (for the first time) taking multiple shots. A large group of people took birthday shots in honor of Augustus, so, yes, my 7 year old learned to take shots (with coke).

We had such an amazing time. I love my family and we just don’t get to spend enough time together, so that was wonderful to begin with. But Chris’s family were unbelievable hosts and I am so excited to see all of them again in September.

By the time we left the wedding, I was exhausted. It was such a great day, but I am an introvert and I was tired. We got home and ate some leftovers from the night before and I was ready for bed, but no. Nope.

Aaron and Melissa had their nieces over for the night. Earlier this summer, they visited and really hit it off with the boys. So they were so excited the girls were back. We all ran next door to help put up the tent, and then the kids all got in the pool. Shortly after that, one of Melissa’s friends came over and brought her 2 kids, which just added to the fun. The 6 kids ran between the pool and the sauna and then Aaron hooked the Switch up to the projector and it was time for outdoor video gaming.

Next up, Melissa brought out PILES of candy and bags of popcorn, and all the kids snuggled into chairs, a hammock, on pillows, and at 9pm, we started an outdoor movie. Candy, snacks, movie, staying up until 11pm- could summer get any more fun?! I don’t think so. I was deliriously tired, but just having the best day/night ever.

Sunday morning, the boys slept slightly later than the usual 6am, but they were up and ready to go.

8:50am text from Melissa- “Waffles are ready and the fire is hot! Come over!” You don’t have to tell me twice. What a way to start the day!

The original plan was for me to drop Augustus at my mom’s house at 9:30, but waffle s’mores were quickly followed by pool/sauna time, so we had to alter the day for more fun.

Nate and Xander went to a Twins game (we had to make up for him missing our when all of us went while he was at camp). Eventually, I dropped Gussie at my mom’s house.

My mom has rented a cabin for the week and the boys will be staying with her until Saturday. Nate and I will be living the child-free life and I’m a little anxious as I’ve never been away from the boys for this long, but I am going to try to relax.

Xander and Nate has a great day at the game (Xan got a free backpack!) . And my mom and Augustus texted me right away to let me know that the cabin is awesome! It’s going to be a quiet week for me and Nate, and an fabulous week for the boys!

Our second year of Camp Juliet was a huge success. This tradition started 3 years ago when a group of us camped in our backyard and had so much fun that we decided to actually go camping last year. This year we were back and better than ever. 21 of us headed to Silas’s parents’ cabin to spend the weekend hanging out. It is becoming one of the absolute highlights of my year.

We had a pre-camp tie dye party earlier in the week and I felt such joy seeing everyone arrive in their new shirts! Even Boyd (the dog) had a fancy new bandana to wear. Stephanie designed the logo (the outline is the shape of Mac Groveland on the map) and I am just tickled every time I look at it.

We had 21 of us (Eric and Sarah were missing when we did group photos but they were there too!).

We all arrived in the early afternoon on Friday. The kids were in the water within minutes of arrival while the adults got tents set up, coolers unpacked and very shortly afterwards, were also at the beach with drinks in hand.

This year, we decided to have a “choose your own adventure” board and the kids worked QUICKLY to get as many stickers to check off their lists. They wanted the prize I promised to anyone who completed it (unfortunately, I waited until Sunday to hand out prizes).

Kelly and Silas had a brand new “hot dog” that we inflated and the kids were obsessed all weekend. On Sunday morning, Kelly, Melissa and I rode it and I finally understood why that was the first thing out of the boys’ mouths every morning- it was incredibly fun. The kids swam, spent hours catching fish in little nets, fished with actual poles for a while, caught frogs and built houses for them, ran around like wild children of the woods. The adults relaxed, swam, ate good snacks, drank good drinks, and laughed a lot. Grown ups helped whichever kid needed something and kids didn’t shout “mom!” the whole time, instead, took advantage of a plethora of helpful adults to hand out snacks or untangle fishing lines.

On Friday night, we ate hot dogs and a pot luck of one million amazing foods (my neighbors all know how to cook!). Then we boated over to a nearby bar for some drinks, a little bit of karaoke, and kiddie cocktails for the kiddos. We were quite a spectacle, 2 boats of people in matching tie dye shirts.

We put the kids to bed in the tents and then sat around the campfire until way too late at night. Sean had made several brackets for us to argue about- think of a typical basketball bracket, but instead of teams, it was categories like appetizers, cheeses, 90s movies, etc. He had pre-made the brackets, so we got to vote (and debate and in some cases yell) Snickers vs. Twix, or Cheddar vs. Brie, or whatever category it was until we had an overall winner. So fun.

On Saturday morning, each tent could be heard having the same 6am conversation- “it’s super early, try to go back to sleep” followed by “can we go tubing yet?”. Kids were RARING to go.

The kids were in the water right away, while the adults sipped coffee and gradually woke up. Some people went for runs, some of us went for a long swim. Silas took the kids on the hot dog.

There is a super cool sandbar that we went to last year. This year, I found inner tubes on sale at Target, so I stocked up! We loaded up the tubes, dragged the kids on the hot dog, and headed over for an afternoon of relaxing, frisbee, drinks, floating, and chillin’. After we had been there for quite a while, the sky started to get a little dark, so we headed back to the cabin and did a mad-dash clean up- bringing chairs and everything else into the cabin in case of rain.

Once we got everything secure inside, we all headed to a little restaurant nearby to get pizza for dinner. The rain didn’t let up, so when we got back, I brought out an emergency stash of lego kits (I was prepared in case either of my boys needed quiet time away from everyone) and most of the kids piled in one room to lego. Toaster oven s’mores were just as yummy as over a fire, and we had plenty of other treats as well. Eventually we put the kids to bed (even in the rain, our tents all held up nicely, although I think it helped that we all had air mattresses that kept us off the ground and completely dry). We stayed up late playing games and relaxing- it didn’t matter that we were in a circle of chairs inside, rather than around a campfire.

On Sunday morning, we did more tubing, swimming, a campy craft project, and all agreed that we might need to extend camp by another day next year. It was just too much fun to only have Friday-Sunday.

July has been a nonstop series of fun things. Xander got home from camp on July 3 and so we ended up having a pretty low-key 4th of July. It was a rainy day and so we spent the day playing games and hanging out, then we had a pizza and movie night and the kids were in bed early. Sometimes in the midst of an insane calendar, you have to pace yourself, even if it is a holiday.

Our second week of July was spent at YMCA Camp Northern Lights for family camp. This is my FAVORITE week of every summer. We were unpacked and on the beach in record time this year (I think it was less than 30 minutes from when we pulled in to when the boys were in the water).

Water trampoline, kayaking, paddle boarding, staying up late, all camp soccer, art barn, age group time every day from 9-12, s’mores, family board games, ice cream at the camp store… we were busy but also relaxed.

Not my best planning ever, but when family camp ended, we had one day at home before leaving for Door County. The boys spent the day with Grandma Debbie at Como Town. I am so grateful for my mother- I literally don’t know what I would do without her. I was very relieved to have a quiet, uninterrupted day to unpack, re-pack, clean, and prepare. It was a quick turnover, but the next day we were off to Door County, WI.

The Door Co Triathlon has been on my vision board for a few years now and I finally signed up and was ready this year. .25 mile swim, 18 mile bike, 3 mile run. I didn’t have nearly enough time to train and had never actually biked 18 miles going into it. But I told the boys that I was going to do my best and show up and do the hard thing and that’s the important thing. I think sometimes society puts too much value on winning and being the best. I like to succeed and I would love to win a triathlon. But what happens when that’s not the case? Does the person who comes in last place deserve as much celebration as the winner? I think so.

I want our boys to understand that showing up and doing your best IS the win. I went into the race not knowing if I would be able to even finish (18 miles seemed like one million). I completed the swim in 8 minutes, the bike in one hour and 30 minutes, and the GRUELING run (by that time I was exhausted and it was also about 90 degrees outside) in 40. Not the winner, but not the last either and truly, I felt like a gold medalist. I was really proud of myself.

After the tri, we spent 3 more days relaxing and having fun. Regardless of what we did, the boys just wanted to wrestle with Nate and I in the hotel pool. That is their favorite activity in the world. So we spent a lot of time tossing little boys in the air. We also went to the beach, picked cherries, tasted artisan cheese, went to a distillery to taste local bourbon, did some shopping, ate lots of ice cream, relaxed with drinks, and ate amazing food.

We got home from Wisconsin and had a few quiet days at home, and then we had a weekend of neighbor fun. On Friday night we went to roller disco in the park, which is a free event in downtown St. Paul. It was hot and roller skating is way harder than I remember from childhood. Augustus was NOT having it. But I had a blast. After that, we went out to dinner with the whole crew and found a new pizza place that was completely dead (shout out to downtown St. Paul for living up to its reputation for being empty on the weekend). We had amazing food and drinks and let the kids stay up way too late.

The next day was the annual Zach Floyd Memorial Bags Tournament (he’s not dead, but no longer lives on our block. He made a very nice motivational video that we all watched to kick off the day). The kids alternated between sprinkler trampoline, playing bags and wandering around to different yards to hang out. Several people have compared our neighborhood to living on campus at a college. There’s always something going on, always someone to hang out with, and you can just sort of wander from group to group, yard to yard for the whole day.

The tournament started at 10:30 and continued with a potluck/BBQ lunch. Around 5:30, Nate and I brought the kids home to eat dinner, relax for a while and change into PJs, because at 7:30, we dropped them at Kelly and Silas’ house (which is across the street from Sean and Rachel’s house), so that they could watch Harry Potter with Sam and Abby, while all of the adults participated in a different games tournament that Sean had invented. We started with the lime toss (stand in one backyard and see how far you can toss half of a lime), followed by horse (the basketball version), ping pong, and more bags. By about 10:30 when we went to retrieve the children, I was EXHAUSTED.

In no particular order- July was also busy with baseball and soccer ending, lots of swimming and a trip to the batting cage to practice hitting.

We had a neighborhood tie dye party to prepare for Camp Juliet (last year we tie dyed shirts at camp, but everyone wanted to be able to wear them while at camp, so we dyed shirts a few days before camp). The kids decided to have a “kid carwash” and wash out cars. Last time they did that game, they used handsoap out of my bathroom and just dribbled it all over my van. But this time around, they had the hose, rags, and actually scrubbed my van. As payment, we all walked to the ice cream shop for treats.

Xander and I took my mom to see the musical Six at the Ordway. It was a spectacular show! The boys went to football camp and got to spend a day at the Vikings training camp. Melissa, Kelly and I went out to lunch at WA Frost for a decadent “ladies who lunch” kinda day. Gussie posed in front of “his sunflower” (at the school plant sale, the kindergarteners sold milk cartons with Mexican sunflower sprouts. Melissa bought one and grew it in our alley!).

It was a very busy July.

I’ve been updating this post for about 2 weeks. It’s July now, but here is my June recap.

School ended- kindergarten and 2nd grades complete! The last week day of school was a half day- I picked the boys up for an all school picnic at noon. I packed special lunches- sushi for Xander and everything in easter eggs for Augustus. We had a picnic and the boys played with their friends for about 2 hours. The we celebrated the end of the year with our neighbors- we had a float party- we had 4 different floats- root beer and vanilla ice cream, orange pop and vanilla ice cream, strawberry ice cream with sprite, and chocolate ice cream and cherry coke. On Friday, the boys’ first day off, we celebrated by going to the card show and buying pokemon cards.

We enjoyed a kids’ sauna and even roasted marshmallows over the sauna stove with Melissa and Aaron.

We’ve been busy with baseball and soccer, and also playing basketball and football in the yard.

I’ve made about a million cookies- I don’t know what happened in June but I had so many orders! Kelly and I have been creating a signature cocktail called “the Juliet”. We’ve been working on it for a while, but we finally nailed it.

The Edward Jones regional training was in Wisconsin Dells this year, so while Nate had meetings in the mornings, the boys and I played endless laser tag, drove go karts, and spent a lot of time in the waterpark. It was a very fun weekend.

We’ve been to the Children’s theater with Grandma Debbie. I went to the New Kids on the Block concert with my mom, Sue, Danny, Heather and Autumn. The boys have hung with Grandma and seen several movies already this summer.

Nate turned 40 and we had a neighborhood barbecue. Kelly and I debuted our Juliet cocktail (garnished with gummy corn- a nod to our Iowa brethren, a gummy bear and a strawberry).

We ended June/began July with Xander going to overnight camp for the first time. He left for 3 nights, which was a good introduction. Gussie spent those 3 days with me, Nate and Grandma. We went to a Twins game. I had another big wedding order of cookies and I am still grinding away on the magazine, so it’s been busy.

The summer is so jam-packed. The calendar is just so ridiculous. It is all so so fun, so there is nothing that can get cut out. But I’m going to need a vacation from summer vacation!