A very Happy Birthday to my mom today! The girls spent the morning at the Botanic Gardens to celebrate and we all got together for breakfast and time in the pool yesterday, so it’s been a couple of very fun family days ❤️ The weekend also involved a sleepover with Grandma Lori for Lydi, dinner and Star Wars for the other three of us and then a very chill Saturday of chores and a normal bedtime for the kids. It’s also Dempsey’s last week of preschool and I’m feeling both 🥺😭 and 🎉😮‍💨 about it!

Rewind to Friday. I spent the first half of the day working and the second half relaxing with a facial and a book. I finished The Return of Ellie Black and even though my initial reaction was annoyance, I ended up really liking it. Helped that it was a real page turner. Lydi and Lori brought Dempsey home then headed out shortly after and my girl seemed so excited for her sleepover! We took Dempsey to dinner at Fire on the Mountain and it POURED while we were sitting outside — luckily the staff quickly rolled down and zipped up the tent we were in. Back at home, we started Attack of the Clones and Dempsey was SO FIDGETY!!!! He seemed pretty invested in the movie but just couldn’t stay still and I think he was actually just tired because he feel asleep immediately after we tucked him in. Mid-movie we FaceTimed our girl and she and Grandma had matching pajamas that she was very excited about 🥹 Dempsey got such a sweet photo of her too!

Saturday started with waffles and then Dempsey and I tied together a skeleton that he’s been chiseling out of a block of sand since Christmas 😂 Actually kind of nice to be able to give him my undivided attention though. Mid-morning we picked Lydia up and it sounded like she had a great time at her sleepover! Back at home, lunch, adult chores and some rest time. Joey and Dempsey started a project in the backyard too and were out there for so long. Dempsey is such a work horse with that kind of stuff! Later, the kids made some shaving cream marbled hearts and then I made us all fajitas for dinner. They turned out so good, so we’re two for two on recipes from my new Ina Garten cookbook. Got the kids bathed and to bed, then finally fired up Thursday’s episode of Big Brother before going to bed ourselves.

Our Sunday Funday started with workouts for both parents but once the kids were up, we finished our movie (Lydi even watched with us!) and Dempsey said he really liked it and was already ready to watch the next one! I did not grow up being a Star Wars person, so it’s been fun forging a connection to it through Demps ❤️ He’s ready to make his own light saber in Disneyland now 😂 Afterward, we loaded into the car and headed to my parents’ for a birthday breakfast. After breakfast, we changed into our suits and headed to the pool. I convinced Dempsey to jump into the pool with me but he got a bunch of water up his nose and told me he was never doing that again 😅 Post-pool, lunch, cake and presents. Then we loaded up the kids and headed home. Such a fun day and I hope my mom loved it as much as me!

At home, we rested and ate dinner, then we all took baths/showers (Dempsey has been SO SCARED of showers for years and this weekend he just decided he was fine with them! 👏) then got the kids to bed before watching TV and taking our tired selves to bed. I hope everyone has a nice week!

Does anyone else feel like it’s the 14th week of July?? Maybe it’s because it’s been so hot here in Colorado, and oh my gosh, I’m realizing the heat makes me IRRITABLE. Anyway, we had a very real weekend and by that I mean Joey and I saw The Odyssey, we did an outdoor movie night with the kids, attended Lydia’s last soccer practice and two birthday parties on Saturday, then the girls got their hair cut and we all spent Sunday afternoon at my parents’ pool then had dinner together but also the movie theater was so hot, we had technical difficulties and didn’t start our outdoor movie until 9 PM, Lydia spent like five minutes on the soccer field, the kids stayed out late on Saturday night, Lydia had THEE biggest meltdown on Sunday afternoon and bedtime was rocky and ended with her in our bed. So not perfect, but very real 😅 Perhaps three late bedtimes in a row was not our best parenting decision!

Joey and I snuck out early on Friday to see a 2 PM showing of The Odyssey and I guess we weren’t the only ones because that IMAX theater was PACKED! SPOILER ALERT! I wasn’t as immediately blown away as I was by Oppenheimer and there are definitely some sections and some performances that I wasn’t completely on board with — Christopher Nolan and I must have different opinons on Benny Safdie 😂 — but overall, I really loved it. I adore me some Greek mythology and my high school education came rushing back to me. I looooved the Circe section. And how amazing to just see a really big scale act of filmmaking by an auteur filmmaker with all the star-power and budgeting that befits a story of this scope. Truly the loudest movie I’ve ever seen though. Bring your earplugs if you don’t want your eardrums blown out!

Afterward, we picked the kids up at Chad and Lori’s, then went home for dinner and a movie on the new projector screen. We had the hardest time signing into our steaming accounts and had to pivot on which movie we watched but finally got How to Train Your Dragon going and watched until 10. Lydi and I just saw the 2025 live action remake in the theater a few weeks ago but I hadn’t watched the animated version since it came out 2010. I forgot how good and cute it is! Got the kids to bed then went right to bed ourselves.

My second time seeing the Trojan Horse in one weekend! 😂

Lydi had some trouble waking up on Saturday! I made us all some whole wheat banana pancakes and then we got ready for soccer and walked/biked over to the field. She was mostly on cone duty but Joey got her to kick the ball a couple of times. Can’t say I’m sad the season is over, though it was sweet to see Dempsey and his friend from school play together every week. Went home for chores, rest time, an inaugural playing of the BTS album I got for my birthday and Joey took the kids to Home Depot for a Halloween decoration check before we all headed out to celebrate Auntie Lauren’s birthday. It was HOT but food and drinks were good and the kids had fun playing pinball and mini golf. How cute is Dempsey very seriously filling out his score card?? 🥹 Our neighbors were having a party too and we told them we’d stop by after so it was another late night for the kids but I think they had fun. We put them to bed, then started some frozen palomas for the next day and put ourselves to bed.

The kids slept wayyyyyy in on Sunday, unsurprisingly. Joey went on a run and I worked out and then we finally woke them up at 9! Lydia and I both had haircut appointments, so we headed out around 10:30 and don’t we look so beautiful? 💁‍♀️ She did so good and we cut a couple of inches off. Headed back home for lunch and to watch the World Cup halftime show, which I thought was so good! I thought the boys sounded amazing and how beautiful is Shakira?? I love that Coldplay is so secure that they can cede their song to a group of kids and just stand in the back and hype them up ❤️

Afterward, we loaded up in the car and headed to my parents’ pool. It was SO HOT yesterday, so the pool felt amazing! Dempsey loves the water so much but he has such a sensory issue with water on his face/in his eyes and we are forever working with him on it. By the end of this pool day, he was jumping in from the side and using Grandma’s tip to just use his hand like a windshield wiper to get the water off his face. I love that for him! Headed back to my parents’ for frozen palomas, burgers with all the toppings and some really good corn. Ina is not messing around with that paloma recipe, it almost took me out 😂 Lydia fell asleep in the car on the way home, then woke up on the transfer and was a mess afterward, hence ending up sleeping in our bed. Wasn’t too bad for me but I can’t speak for Joey, who got a middle-of-the-night slap in the face 😱

None of us wanted to wake up this morning, but is it even summer if you went too hard all weekend and forgot what time bedtime is?? Happy Monday!