End of July Summer Report

I can't believe June and July are over. Summer is so precious. How does it go so fast? We are a summer lovin' family. Last summer is kinda a blur (having a newborn baby kinda cramped our summer style). So we have been bound and determined to make this summer count. And for real, we've taken summer to a whole new level around here. Big happenings in the most simple of summer-time things.

K & O have taken tree climbing to a whole new level. It is C-R-A-Z-Y. They have discovered two new trees to climb on our property-- in which they can get very, very high. The question I had when I first saw this (that is, after asking myself, 'Is it really ok to let them do this?') was, yelling up to them way up there, "How the heck did you guys get up into the tree in the first place?" "We climbed up," they nonchalantly said. "Well, yes, but how on earth did you get up to that first branch???" At which point they simply scurried down and showed me. As if it was nothing to just jump way higher than you are tall, grab a branch with your bare hands, and pull your whole body up via a sort of chin-up-flip-type-maneuver. Which I probably wouldn't have believed unless I had seen it right there in front of me with my own two eyes.
And the trampoline jumping, too, is at a whole new level. Meera is IN on the action.
And the obsession (K & O's obsession) with the lawnmowing guys... that, too, is at an all time high. It is the highlight of K & O's week: Thursday afternoons = LAWNMOWING. They dictate their love notes to me, and then they shuffle out quickly to leave them by the weedwackers so that when the mowing ends and the weedwacking begins, their heroes will find their little treats. Iced tea one week, oatmeal cookies another, chicken sandwiches yet another. Seriously, I keep saying to Braydon, we need to give these guys big tips (the little snacks just don't cut it)-- the stuff they put up with-- really, it is quite something. (I can only imagine the stories these guys tell at the bar after they leave our house on Thursday afternoons)
And playdates... playdates... they are louder than ever. The most recent, with friends from school, another set of twins the same age as K & O (playdates with two sets of twins the same age are even crazier than C-R-A-Z-Y).... sort of took the volume to, yes, a whole new level. I seriously thought I was slightly deaf for a few hours after this one.
But other things have sort of bombed. Like our tomato plants. It is pathetic. And most pathetic is the boys' eagerness to watch the tomatoes grow (or not grow, as the case may be). They check them every day (sometimes many times a day). So far we've eaten exactly one tomato, and it is looking like that might be it for the summer. Mostly, the plants -- Kyle's (on right), Owen's (on left), and Meera's (in the middle) -- are just plain pathetic... although, admittedly, Meera's is doing by far the best (maybe because I'm in charge of watering that one so it doesn't get watered 100 times a day like the other two do??!)...
And there has been some summertime drama. Like the other day, when our cat brought a squirrel into the house through a door that somebody (i.e., K and/or O) had left open, and then cornered the squirrel into a corner in the kitchen behind the cookbook shelf. Now that was some drama. 4 out of 5 of us were right up front to view that drama unfold. I was the one shrieking and screaming and standing several feet back.
I'll end this with a pic of The Boys of Summer...
...and The Girl of Summer...
Here's hoping that August doesn't fly by...