Summer: park, swimming, squirrels, and snakes

Summer is here and the kids are out of school. We have a busy summer ahead but are looking forward to it. This is the first summer that has been a lot of fun for me too (so far hehe). I know this sounds bad but the transition from kids at school to kids at home is usually pretty rough. I was ready this year with everyday chore charts. Also, Cruz helped me make a 10 to 1 point chart for good behavior and if the kids say on 9 or 10 for two days in a row they get treasure box. It's so helpful. We have been playing a lot and I have been taking time off from my usual painting schedule to be with the kids.

 Silly Kian wanted to try out the baby swing

 Cam went to Utah for his grandpa's funeral and we swam at the pool while he was gone.

 The day was warm, but the water was so cold since its early in the year!

 Noelle was loving the kiddie pool and wanted to stay there the whole time.

 The hard part was keeping 3 big boys from splashing all the babies in the pool while Noelle was there!

We went to the mall and got ice cream as both boys did great on report cards. This is picture is from the play area there.

 We have been harvesting lots of vegetables and a few fruits from the garden (more on that over on the house blog). Cruz was home recovering from an illness during church this Sunday. I stayed home with him but had to teach my primary class so I left for an hour and came back to this bowl of garden produce he picked. Blueberries and peas on the bottom, lettuce, basil, and mint. We had salad for lunch today! Seeing what he did while I was gone made me feel like I was doing something right as a Mom.

Noelle has also been a sweet little helper in the garden. We were shelling peas and she was really good at it!

Cameron has been helping lower the squirrel population around my garden. Ugh, I never knew squirrels could be such a problem but they have dug and ripped up way too many of my seedlings. Also, they are eating my blueberries and that's when the madness had to stop (sorry animal lovers). He has killed four so far...

We also found this a copperhead snake hiding under our front porch step! What a way to greet people haha! Cameron was very careful in killing this one since it's poisonous. Cameron tried to get it once, and it hid. The next day, it poked it's head out and he was able to smash the head (gross, I know).

Just another week here at the Porter house :)