Summer vacation and Baby Harry turns 10 (TEN!!)

Last Friday was the first day of summer break, and I woke up to see this in my not-quite-all-the-way-painted kitchen:

 Ben had some work to do, so the kids and I made a summer bucket list:

 In case you are wondering, Cooper still wants an alligator even though we told him about the Disney tragedy-- because last time we went to WDW, we stayed at that very resort and the kids played on that very beach in that very water!

 After we made our banner, the kids wanted to paint, so I set them up in the back yard because I am nobody's fool.

 Cooper painted the grass, his paper, and the dog.

 And those weren't even finger paints!

 Jack ended up walking through his, which is when I knew he couldn't come inside without hosing off.

 So naturally, I set the sprinkler up in the front yard because the back is/was/is too full of dog crap.  WE ARE DREAM NEIGHBORS.

 It took awhile, but Jack came out clean

 I kept dropping the banner on myself when I tried to hang it up and getting glitter paint all over myself, so it totally looked like I had nipple stigmata, which is definitely a front-yard look.  I was also wearing hot pink heart-print PJ pants.

 No idea what he was doing but it was intense, obvi.

 I also have like 6 slow-mo videos of this:

 WATER SLIDE

 The pool was PACKED on Friday afternoon.  I swear if it is ever that busy again, I am walking out and joining the next closest pool and tennis club.

 I got to take Jack to baseball on Saturday when it was 92 and steamy, so we grabbed a shake right after the game.  I was SO MAD when I realized that both teams officially forfeited because we didn't have enough players so the whole sweaty mess didn't count anyway.

 moar pool

 My brother took Harry fishing for his birthday on Sunday, and Harry loved it.  Also, note that he extends his pinky like a fancy fisherperson.

 Ben and I had a random date night Sunday night, which was nice because he worked 15 hours on Monday which really really sucked for me.

 Swim lessons started!

 And the after lessons, we went home and fought for a couple of hours and then I realized I maybe wouldn't want to kill everyone if we just went back to the pool.

 This worked so well that we left when the pool closed for evening swim lessons to go home and eat dinner and then we came back again and stayed until bed time.

 I was so refreshed that I baked Harry's birthday cake with Harry and Jack while watching The Princess Bride.  And now I have a great formula for SAHM Mondays.

 I got slightly rammy with the frosting and I ran out of room writing birthday, but damn did it taste awesome.

 HARRY IS 10?!  That seems so old to me.  I think he had a nice day, although he regretted his decision to have a big party.  Next year, he just wants a sleepover with friends on his actual birthday.

He loved his presents-- most of which he shopped for himself on the Internet and sent me a link to a full shopping cart.  Which?  SO HANDY.

 Breakfast cake is always a hit.

 He looks so OLD here!

And!  This is his fifth birthday in our house, which is bananas because I always feel like this is our new house.

Here he is turning 6.

Here he is turning 7.

Here he is turning 8.

Here he is turning 9.



After breakfast, we had even more swimming lessons.

 Then we packed some stuff and headed to the lake for a lunch picnic.  Jack tried to teach Dorothy how to skip rocks.

 They took a sweet little walk.

 The lake was gorgeous.

 No one fell in the fire pit.

 Ben made perfect s'mores.

 And I even got a picture of everyone mostly.

 Then, to top it all off, Cooper had his eagerly anticipated first night of tee ball with Ben as his coach.

 And today, he realized he can ride the water slide all by himself!  A huge milestone if ever there was one!

 Sometimes we get cold at the pool.