June part 3

Summer is all fun and games until you get to the end of June and the novelty is starting to wear off some. I'm done answering questions about how long it will be until X happens to people who can't tell time. I'm also done answering, "What do we have?," when asked if they're hungry. The same shit we always have, that's what. I finally solved that problem by making Asher a picture menu of all of the foods he will eat that we keep stocked. I redirected the "how long?," question to Siri. I will tell them X is happening at Y time, ask Siri how long until then, so now they can ask the AI their questions 500 times instead of me! Ha!

Asher is all about the questions and it exhausts me. He can't do anything without affirmation that whatever it was he did, he did well. Even if I lead with praise, like, "Good job with that puzzle!," he'll still say, "I know," and then ask, "Did I do a good job with that puzzle?" 🤦🏻‍♀️. Sometimes he'll follow that up with, "I'm smart!" 😂. And he is, but he's not the least bit humble. 

When he's not seeking affirmation, he's repeating himself or asking me nonsense questions, and is it September yet?? 😂. Not really. I'm not ready for summer to be over by a long shot, but man are some days longgggg. If you would've told me a year ago that it would be this child driving me crazy instead of his brother, I wouldn't have believed you. 

Nana and Juju got us a pool pass for a Christmas gift (which is the best gift ever!), so I like to keep track of how many times we use it. We've already gotten their money's worth in the month of June alone. Our pool visits are free from here on out 😎. 

During the last week, WV Birth to Three lead a playgroup at Bruce Park and offered free mini golf to all who came. The boys had fun playing. When Ash goes to school this fall, I'm gonna miss attending all of these fun events! 

The boys had a dentist appointment with a new dentist, thanks to a change with our insurance 😑. The both did great and didn't have any cavities. I still brush Ash's teeth for him, and sometimes still go over Quinn's if I think he didn't do a thorough job. I care a lot about the health of their teeth! Quinn hasn't lost any teeth yet, but it should be happening anytime because kids typically lose them around age 6. The dentist checked one that Quinn said was wiggly and agreed it may some out soon. Quinn is hoping it does by his birthday in two weeks, but I doubt it. 

I thought I was being super efficient planning our day around two events, which should have had just enough time in between them for us to make it to both. We had a magic show at PC library, followed by Kate's summer league basketball shootout. My scheduling would've worked out perfectly if it wasn't for that damn train that frustrates everyone in a 20 mile radius of this town 🙄. Ash really enjoyed the magic show, while Quinn spent the majority of it telling me he knew how the tricks were done. Six year olds know everything, if you weren't aware. 

Amazed ✨

We were late, but we made it for the first game of the shootout, and then stayed for the second, too. Magnolia kicked butt and won all three of their games. How in the world Kate is old enough to play high school ball, I don't know 😭😭😭.

We took a trip to the Tanger Outlets to do some shopping and to surprise the boys with Planet Bounce. It's a big, indoor bouncy house, and they loved it. 

Ash was a complete maniac in there.

There was also an arcade, and one of the machines was a candy claw machine. Ash walked out with two handfuls and he was very pleased with himself 😅.

On the way home, we stopped at Target so the boys could use their allowance money to shop. Ash found a K Pop Demon Hunters shirt and puzzle. The puzzle is 100 pieces, so I assisted by sorting pieces that went together and separating them into groups, but he put them all together.

I have a bit of a pattern recognition super power that enables me to find four leaf clovers, often when I’m not actively looking for them.  Like, I’ll just be walking along and look down and spot one. I got this from my mom. Many years ago, she and I once found over one hundred 4 leaf clovers in one day! 

On Saturday morning, Ash and I went for a walk and when we were heading toward a bench for him to take a rest, I spotted two 4 leaf clovers. I asked him if he could find them, and while looking for mine, he found another one all on his own! He went on to find the ones I spotted, as well. As we walked further, this happened again, and he was able to find two more once I gave him an area to focus on. 

I’ve suspected that Asher may have also inherited this skill because of his proficiency with jigsaw puzzles, and I now have confirmation. 

We didn't go to the Back Home Festival this year, but we tried to enjoy the fireworks on the last day. Ten o'clock is way past their bedtime, but we waited it out anyway. I chatted with people who were there who said they couldn't see anything from the festival grounds, so I think we may have had the best view, watching them from Mandy's porch.

 

We made it even more fun with another round of Sterno roasted s'mores

We finished out the month with a fun filled day with Iris at a playgroup at Sistersville Park, where we extracted dinosaurs and played at the park. When Iris went home, the boys complained they were "steaming," Quinn's favorite, though inaccurate, word to use when he's hot, so they begged me to play in water. I went scavenging in the garage to see what we had. I came up with an old splash pad that was missing the plug, and a dinosaur sprinkler. The sprinkler provided ongoing water since the splash pad didn't have the plug and couldn't spray. I tossed them some soap paint and called it a bath 🤪.

The difference between boys and girls: Quinn was done super fast because he stabbed at the egg dangerously. Ash was done second, having injured himself with the sharp digger as he went out at it on high speed. And then there was Iris, who dug at the egg gingerly and had multiple people ask her if she'd like them to help 😂. She declined and got it out herself...eventually 😅.

Definitely counts as a bath ✅

 

June 2026 part 2

 The second and third weeks of June were filled with lots more activities and arguing 😂. The way kids just confidently say shit that they have absolutely no idea about just blows my mind 😂. Quinn, especially will argue with me about literally anything, and I've taken the bait way too many times. I have finally started telling him that I'm going to let him be wrong and that I'm done talking about it. However, I think there's a valuable life lesson in learning that if you don't know what you're talking about, you should just zip your lips. There are far too many adults walking around already who didn't learn this lesson, I don't want my kids to be one of them someday 😂. 

Quinn tells Ash that he's going to let him be wrong sometimes, too. Who knows if Ash is actually wrong though 😂. Quinn accuses him of being "sassy," that's his favorite descriptor for his brother, but he really means grumpy. Anytime Ash doesn't wanna do whatever it is Quinn wants him to do, he gets called sassy. Sometimes Ash is a little sass ass, but not nearly as often as Quinn claims. 

They had an opportunity to get out some of their aggression when they attended Ninja Camp at Mustard Seed Arts Academy. It was advertised as being for kids ages 5-9, so only Quinn was initially going to attend. I told Ash I would ask if he could go, too, but he said he didn't want to. However, he changed his mind the day of, so I asked and they said yes. I'm unaccustomed to dropping my kids off places, and I failed in having forethought about them needing water bottles 😩🤦🏻‍♀️. They were there for 3 hours and didn't have a drink. I left awful when I picked them up and they told me 😩.

Ash initially told me he liked it and it was fun, but as soon as Quinn shared his opinion, which was negative, as is his nature 🙄, Ash followed suit in saying it was boring and he never wants to go again. I've reiterated several times that it's okay if he likes something that his brother doesn't, but he said he wouldn't want to go again without Quinn 😑.

Iris came to hang out with us the following day, so I planned to have a picnic in the park. We went to Story Time at the library and then to Brooklyn Park. It was sprinkling a little bit, but we still had a good time!

I ordered two big balls in my Walmart pickup order and surprised them when I pulled them out at the park.

At the end of the week, we met up with my friend, Lil, who was our old neighbor, at Playgroup, and then she told me about Shiloh Days happening in Friendly, so we headed down there after. It was ridiculously hot, we watched an unusual performance by an alpaca trainer, saw animals from Oglebay Zoo, and Quinn got his face painted. It was an eventful experience. 

They had a sandbox at Playgroup and I bet they'll be sweeping up sand until the end of time

He played this catchy song called Alpaca (Not a Llama) and Ash still occasionally belts it out and gets it stuck in my head 🙄.

They got to feed the alpacas,

and pet a snake, 

a tortoise,

and an armadillo. Ash wouldn't pet that one, for some reason.

He also wouldn't get his face painted. 

Sully and Quinn as a tiger and a lion 🐅🦁

He got a compliment by a bigger kid when we stopped to eat at DQ on the way home. 

We had another eventful day the following morning at the Sheriff's Kickoff to Summer Picnic. They played on inflatables, climbed the rock wall, and practiced target shooting

I had to get creative to remove a photobomber behind us 😂. I know there is software that can do that, but I didn't care enough to find one. 

Quinn did really well. The attendant wouldn't let Ash go too high because he was afraid he would get stuck. 

 Quinn shot the outer part of the bullseye!

 Ash got all three shots in the paper!

We went to the pool after the picnic, which was a mistake 😅. Every child who attended the picnic got a free pool pass, and the majority of them used them that same day. It was packed and awful 😂.

The next day, we took a trip to Sam's Club and then stopped at Kroger on the way home. Quinn complained, as he does every time, but we let him choose some candy to buy with his allowance money. When we got home, he asked if he could have more candy since he had eaten tons of "real" food that day.  We decided to let him have the bowl that still has candy in it from Easter, and he went to town. He washed it all down with a Gatorade he also bought at Kroger. A little while later, we told me he thought he was going to throw up. As I was grabbing the trash can from the bathroom, he puked all over the (carpeted 🙄) floor of my office. It was a big enough mess that I had to get out the carpet shampooer to get it clean! Later that night, as I was laying in bed with the boys until they fell asleep, Quinn said it was the worst day ever. I assumed the cause was the vomiting, but I asked why anyway. He said, "Because I puked, and because we went to Kroger!" I was like, "What?! Going to Kroger was as bad as puking?!," and he said, "It was worse!" 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

week 3

I saw that the movie theater at the Highlands was offering a free showing of K Pop Demon Hunters, a movie that Ash has seen before, and one that he loves all of the characters from. We've only tried the theater a few times, none of which went very well. However, I told him about it and he was excited to go. We got up early to make it for the 9:40am showing, got our snacks and settled in. After about 25 minutes, Ash asked if we could leave because it was too scary 🫠. 

So, that was a fail. At least it was free 

We went to Target instead, and Ash pretended to be a hamster on a wheel 😂

Iris came to hang with us on a non-library day, so we took a walk to see Patrick at his bakery to kill some time. 

Ash and Iris loved playing tic tac toe, although I'm not sure either one of them truly gets it 😂. 

We headed downtown for Stalder's United Way Fundraiser Night and the boys played some games, won some prizes, and waited 125 years to get balloon animals from a clown 🙃. She was truly doing her best, and bless her heart, she popped the pigs she was making for the girls in line in front of us at least three times, but she kept on! They were cute when she got them done. I was proud of the boys for being incredibly patient in that long lasting line. 

Ash got a Spiderman, and Quinn got an axe that he promptly busted on the sidewalk 🫠.

I got to do another 5K in Sardis with Marsha, which was where she did her very first one 10 years ago! I used to bully all of my friends into doing them with me. We weren't trying to go fast, it was just a fun day of catching up without me being interrupted every five seconds by one of my children.

We spent Father's Day at Oglebay Zoo and we got to do all of the things this time--ride the train, jump on the Jumbo Jumper, and play on the obstacle course. 

I didn't realize until 9pm that Father's Day was also the first day of summer, so we made a last minute decision to let the boys stay up past bedtime and make smores with their friends 🔥🍫🌕

Sternos work great in a pinch 😅

Parker, Lawson, Asher, Quinn 🙂🙂🙂🙂