iPhone Post: The Last Weeks of Summer

 1. July 10: home from our epic road trip out west, Quinn and Noah went with me to get our rental minivan washed and vacuumed before we returned it. 

2. Quinn, Mr. Cool

3&4: Heading to a nearby park to try out some Pokemon Go hunting. How sweet is that hand hold between Lucy and Noah??

 1, 2 & 3: We call this "Po-Go-Walking", and the kids had a blast. 

4: then we headed to Menchies to get some frozen yogurt as a reward. 

 1. Bed snuggles at Quiet Time.

2. Hey! A Bellsprout in our very home! 

3. Kinetic sand keeping kiddos busy when it's too hot outside to play. 

4. And this belly, man. July was the month I finally FELT PREGNANT, ya know? Walking stinks, deep breaths are tough, and she keeps growing and growing. 

 1. We made it to one kid movie this summer, and it was fun! Secret Life of Pets... oh, and we Poke-hunted while the previews played. Hello, Paras! 

2. And then we did the indoor mall playplace, and this Venonat visited me. 

3. Target stop, and Quinn fell deeply in love with this toy train, the "Tumble Train" and made us stay many extra minutes while he stood here and gazed at it. 

4. And look-- a Gloom visited me while I spent one of my many many nights at the computer, trying like mad to get caught up on client photo sessions. For the record, almost a month after this photo, I'm still not caught up. Sigh. 

 1. Not my fave right now--- Fiona and her "pee on our couch" issue. 

2. Red Robin one evening, thanks to a birthday gift card from my awesome brother and his wife. Hooray for not making dinner!! 

3 & 4: Cool cats having breakfast in the sunny dining room. 

 1. A stunning baby quilt, completed by my bestie Melanie for  my birthday in spite of her also being in the middle of a major job and house and state change. What a girl!! 

2. Snapchat filter fun, whenever the boredom really starts to creep in. 

3. Quinn at my now-weekly dr. appt, getting some iPad time while I have a NST session hearing my girl's heartbeat on the monitor for 30 minutes. 

4. Noah had a week of evening Cub Scout camp in the middle of July. He mostly LOVED it! 

 1. Lucy requested a floor "nest" this night.... Maybe she was missing all the floor sleeping we did on our vacation?

2, 3, & 4: Monkey Joe's playdate with our friends the Meuns. The kids played HARD! 

 1. One last Monkey Joe's image... 

2. Morning sleepy faces.We're stuck with each other most of the day, every day, but somehow we still mostly love each other! 

3. Morning peeks out the front door with Q and Fiona. 

4. IKEA trip with L & Q while Noah was at scout camp...We picked up some cubical shelves for when I rearrange the kids' room to accommodate the new baby moving in.

 1. Quinn is POTTY TRAINED! (Mostly.) This is his incentive chart to earn the "Tumble Train." He's not perfect at it yet, but he's 85% there! 

2. More indoor play. I'm just too pregnant and July is too hot for much outdoor time. 

3. Having said that, we did head to a nearby park one evening for a goodbye picnic hosted by the Meun family, who is moving back to the Netherlands in a few days. *sniff*

4. Lucy ended up with a cold at the end of July, and one of her "sick days" she felt sure she'd throw up. So out came the famous Hess Puke Bowl, though she never ended up needing it. She DID, however, pass her cold to Quinn, who passed it to me. AWESOME. 

 1. I have a lofty goal of making three quilts for my kiddos for when they all share a room... to tie the room together. Here is my fabric, ready to be cut for patchwork squares. Fun! 

2. Finally sick of the cat pee couch, we have retired half of our sectional to the garage and we negotiated this loveseat from a nice Craigslist seller. This was his ad photo. He said Pikachu was not included. I thought it was pretty clever of him to include Pokemon in his ad. 

3. Quinn attempting some #2, with the help of an iPad cartoon propped up nearby. Sorry, future Quinn, for the photo. 

4. And new-to-us loveseat, in it's new home in our living room. With Lucy enjoying some screen time on it. Cuter than Pikachu, even!! 

 1 & 2: We ventured out in the heat to a fun park in St. Charles, making sure to choose one with a water feature. 

3. Lucy headed to Grandparent Camp for the last few days of July. Here is her "goodbye" face to me. 

4. Noah and Quinn and I, without our Lulu, headed to a fun popcorn/candy shop near us, then headed to Forest Park to go Poke-hunting. Fun day! 

 1&2: one evening we went swimming. The water felt AMAZING. 

3&4: The Saturday Lucy was gone, Joe took the boys to a local library ComicCon and I got to stay home and get some much needed nesting and cleaning done. I compiled some baby gear and cleaned off my sewing table. PHEW! 

 1-4: Mom Date with Noah. So fun! We headed to the mall and Noah did some bungy-trampolining. Then we spontaneously decided to try the nearby massage chairs. Adam Levine tried to photobomb us. And then we headed to Cheesecake Factory to get a slab of cheesecake to go. Turns out it was National Cheesecake Day-- a total coincidence!!-- and we got a killer deal on our purchase. YUM! 

 1. The last Sunday of July, my folks and two of my siblings came to spend the night (and bring Lucy home), and we had a fun time playing Cranium before the kids bedtime. 

2 &3: Then on the next day, August 1, we all headed to Johnson's Shut-Ins for a full day of water play. Lucy and I just stayed the day, but Noah and Quinn spent the night with my family and did a second day of Johnson's Shut-Ins before heading to Grandparent Camp for the rest of the week last week. 

4. Before Lucy and I headed back home after our water day, I needed a little rest and lay down on the cabin porch under the ceiling fan. The kiddos were totally into this idea and insisted on joining me. It was cute, if not very restful. 

 1. One last mama-selfie with my boys before Lucy and I drove away... Cute kids! 

2. The next day, Lucy joined me for a dr. appt, and we headed to Jilly's for a girl's lunch and shared cupcake. 

3. Lucy was so good to play with play doh while I cut patchwork squares for the quilts. 

4. And this girl of mine--- she's a sleep-in girl. So the whole week it was just she and I last week, this was a common sight even at 9:30am. It made for a lovely pace to our mornings!

 1. While it was just L and I, I planned to finally shoot a "Princess and the Frog" minisession I'd had supplies/plans for for ages. This is how she felt about it all, when it came down to the wire. AWESOME. But no really, it was really deflating to me to have her shut down and give me this attitude. I did get some keepers, but it was really frustrating. :(

2. So I let her have some screen time afterward and I went to a different room to try to get over my frustration with the whole thing. 

3. We ended up at the pool that afternoon and the cool water and one-on-one time helped us patch up our differences and we ended up having a blast. 

4. Last day together, Lucy and I headed to Walmart (along with everyone else in the area) to do the tax-free school supply shopping. Her reward was a Dumbo Ride at the Game Center as we exited the store. 

 

 1-4: After Walmart, we headed to the Magic House, and while I intended to only spend maybe 2 hours there, Lucy was still going strong 3 hours into it. I was kinda done, as evidenced by the last pic. Haha! It was still fun (and way easier) to go with just one kiddo instead of two or three. 

1. Last evening with just one kiddo, Joe and Lucy and I headed out to get ice cream at Oberweis. 

2. Then we drove to Castlewood State Park to do some Poke-hunting, and we found deer! So fun to pull over and watch these 4 deer graze at twilight. 

3. Saturday morning, Lucy was invited to a playground Popsicle party for all incoming kindergartners. She met a few cute girls who will be in her class, and got to meet her teacher, the same kindergarten teacher Noah had! 

4. Noah and Quinn returned Saturday, but there aren't any pix from yesterday or today of the boys.. So last photo of this batch is Lucy this morning at church, looking cute and playing with cardboard monsters in the chapel pews. 

*

Next up in life: One more week before school starts, so we have some summer fun yet to have. 

Three and a half more weeks til my due date, so I have some preparations still to complete.... Sorting out the newborn girl clothes for baby, getting a car seat and installing it, trying to sew those quilt tops, trying to get the house more in order after a summer of kids home and pregnant mama not feeling like doing much. 

It'll be a month of trying to get things done while also trying to soak up the last days of life as we know it.... And I'm not sure I'll be good at either of those things what with this fresh, terrible summer chest cold that has hit me, causing me great discomfort and misery. Additionally, I continue to stress about being behind on client work, and I can't walk past the clean laundry mountain without physically cringing. I'm 100% done with this gestational diabetes life, and wish I could just drown my worries and stresses in sugar.... But this is the riskiest time, growth-wise, so I need to just keep going. 

Ah, who knows? 

When baby gets here, it'll be a season of "letting go" and letting life be a bit messy and chaotic and out of order. So maybe I need to just embrace that attitude early and let the laundry mountain grow a bit more and let life continue to feel a little chaotic while I try to find a way to rest a bit and try to get over this virus. Who knows? I need.... a guru or something to guide me these last weeks. Ah well. It's all good, come what may. It'll be okay. 

Happy new week to all of you! Here's to those last days of summer...