Week One of Summer

The first week of summer has been fun.  I feel it has been a good balance of family time, working, and hanging with friends.  It always takes a bit to get into the summer routine.  I don't think we are there yet, but we will get there.  

Part of our summer routine is doing chores.  That is thrown off balance with Parker, Brinley and Tanner planning on working quite a bit this summer.  We will just have to see how it all works out.  

Our morning chores usually include: picking up room/bathroom/closet, reading for 30 minutes, drawing a chore (We put three chores and a free on little pieces of papers and they draw one out of my hand.  They usually are things like walking Buttercup, sweeping the back porch, dusting, windows etc.), and doing their assigned everyday chore for the month which rotate between scoop poop, sweep kitchen, gather and take out trash, load or unload the dishwasher.  When everyone is home there is definitely more of a mess but they are good workers and help keep things cleaned up as well.  

Tanner was going to start mowing with Brian this week but it's been impossible due to rain.  He didn't mind the delay.  He had Julian, Tate and Mason over Tuesday night and they played basketball for hours.  He had Gavin over on Wednesday and headed to Gavin's house on Thursday.  On Friday he and Brian were finally able to get out and do some lawns.  He was a little disappointed that two of his friends had invited him to the water park but he was working.  

A little b-ball at the Browns

Parker is working 30-40 hours a week at 3N this summer with three friends: Austin, Harper and Reese.  Austin's dad owns the company.  He has been doing random tasks around the work yard. (picking up trash, organizing tools in a closet, peeling stickers off trucks)   So far he likes it and he is not quiet about liking it SO MUCH MORE than mowing lawns everyday like he did last summer with Brian and Tanner.  He looks so old coming home in his dirty work clothes, steel toed boots and hat.  He's still made time in the evenings for two of his favorite activities: eating out and hanging out with friends.

Brinley had her orientation just yesterday and starts Monday at her new job at Saulsbury.  This week she swam with friends, played volleyball two evenings, slept in, had a dentist appointment and geared up to buckle down for working this summer.  She hasn't had a summer job before and Brian and I wanted her to have some experience with working before heading off to college.  She is on a mission to buy cute clothes and have extra spending money at college.

 Brinley and Aubrey had "sister night."  They had a picnic, did nails and watched a movie.  Brian commented "I think Aubrey was in heaven.  Did you hear her shrieking with laughter all night long?"  Brinley mentioned they are planning on doing it once a week.  Pretty sweet.

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There has been a lot of this.  (which I LOVE)  Aub has  been reading Hunger Games and the three older kids had a movie marathon on Friday and Saturday nights watching the Hunger Games.

We also slipped in an afternoon at the park.  Brit invited us to join her crew for lunch.  Brinley, Aub and I were available.  I kind of feel badly for Aubrey being on the tail end.  She has had a lot fewer  family outings like this than our older kids.  Brit is good to let her join with her group at the park, pool or wherever.  (Aub loves it and is a great help with the Bird kiddos.)  Yesterday Brinley and I stayed for about an hour and then left Aub and the Birds to the fun. (We were stuck at the dentist all morning and ready to move on with our day.)  It was really fun to hang together at the park.  Brit, Bryn and I even joined in on the playground fun.

Bryn stepped on the lava and became a slave.  She had to climb up this roller slide to win her freedom.  (Her knees may never be the same.)