What time is it...summertime!

As Troy and Gabriella are fond of singing, "School's out, scream and shout!". And man, have we done some of that. Yesterday was the beginning of the first week of staying home with all three kids - no preschool for the Mag. I had all these high hopes and dreams of staying put, baking cookies with the girls, reading Chronicles of Narnia with Maggie while the twins napped simultaneously each day. Suffice it to say that by 1:00 yesterday afternoon I had signed Maggie up for day camp this week and next week. Whew. We do have some fun things planned this summer and some friends are coming to visit so that'll be great, but Maggie just needs more than I can give her right now. That's not a cop out, it's just the truth. Although we have turned quite a corner with the twins, I am still just one little ole mommy and I can only do so much without losing my mind. So now Maggie gets to play with her friends three mornings this week and next week and I get to pretend the twins aren't crying and ready to get up after a 45 minute morning and afternoon nap.

As I mentioned, we spent the past two weeks at the beach with my parents and my brother and sister's families. Ian's mom got to come for a few days, as well as Mr. Alvarez, a sweet friend of our family, so it was really fun. The pics are from the past two weeks. The twins had birthday party number three up there and it was hilarious. Maggie learned to swim like a fish while we were there, and she also got a boogie board which she mastered in a couple days thanks to Uncle David. It's just so fun to see my kids interacting with their aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. I'm not kidding - it just makes my heart so happy.

So now we're back. Back to fencing in the twins, cleaning up poop from the floor and my daughter's mouth, listening to the girls as they crack up at Maggie, watching them crawl-race for the same toy, answering Maggie's questions about everything under the 95 degree heat from the Florida sun. It's good to be home - we really love it here. It's always hard, though, to leave family. And I know, I'm very blessed to be able to say that and mean it.