London, here we come!

Jon's been in London all week for work, so we decided to join him after his week wrapped up and make a little summer family vacation out of it!

We are 3 hours into the flight as I type - doing great, currently enjoying some sorbet and TV before we try to catch a few zzzzz's. The kids have been (rowdily) challenging each other to various games on the screens in front of them (which, I realize, is still screen time, but somehow feels like a nice break from the iPad time they normally have). 🤷🏻‍♀️

Some light bedtime studying

Logan is watching/listening to a Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture on "History's Mysteries". ❤️❤️❤️

A midnight snack

I'm guessing this is the same guy/gal who's visited our front porch for a midnight snack before!

It must be summer. ☀️☀️☀️

Spotted this cutie walking around the house with wet surfer hair and a major tan.

Hard. Core.

Mom, my wiggly tooth is really bothering me tonight.

So pull it out.

And then he did! 😱💪🏼

A hot summer day! ☀️☀️☀️

Logan had a few of his good school friends over for some Minecraft play and pool fun today.

After, the boys had their swimming lessons, and then Logan and Jon took off for a soccer game while Callum and I stuck it out lazying around the backyard a bit longer.

Sure do love Saturdays like today! 🤙🏼

Shhhh! It's a secret!

Logan saw some video on YouTube recently about making a t-shirt and really wanted to give it a try. I suggested they each make one for Jon, for Father's Day. They loved it! :)

Our turndown service

Tobey's becoming quite skilled at his turndown service. 🙄

Counts continue to look great

I'm now way out of order, since this was from last Thursday, but I haven't blogged about Callum's health in awhile - and, for good reason! He's doing fantastic.

He was being his usual weirdo self in the waiting room, so the first few pics I snapped here were of his goofy faces. He actually did some little jig in my bedroom that morning and then stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me (with one of these faces btw), and said, "Mom, I'm so weird huh??"

Yes, yes you are. 🤣🤣

His counts are well within normal ranges - his physical exam went great. He's also in the normal (to a bit tall) on the height and weight trajectory, which his oncologist likes to see. All in all, just a really happy go lucky kind of guy, with a lot of spunk and personality. And, you'd never know he's finished an intense battle over cancer, just months ago!!

While we still do monthly check ups - once we hit the 1 year post end of treatment mark - we will then move to an every other month schedule, which will be nice.

Right now, Callum knows he has to go in for a blood poke every month and, while I don't post it on our family kitchen calendar, I just recently discovered he's keeping track of it in his head. A couple of weeks ago he said to me, Mom - didn't we already have a hospital visit this month? Yes, we did - but that was for May, and next week we'll be in June.... 😬😢

Basketball Camp!

Today kicked off our plethora of summer camps!

I asked the boys if they'd rather go to swim practice in the morning, before camp, or in the evening, after camp. Surprise surprise, the lazy bums picked the evening time. ;-)

So, they slept in and lazed around this morning before the morning Ladera Camp - which is nothing more than fun and games and arts and crafts at the neighborhood Rec center.... but the boys love it and it was one of the first camps they asked me to sign them up for again this year.

Only, when we showed up, moody Logan didn't see anyone he knew (well), and didn't see any of his favorite (fun) counselors, so he was wearing a bit of a scowl on his face as I left them for a few hours.

I came back just after lunchtime to pick them up, change them into tennis shoes, and then walk over to the neighborhood school gym, which is where their basketball camp is this week!

BOTH boys were pretty grumpy about it tho - telling me they "hated" basketball and didn't want to play and just wanted to go home. Logan had also hurt his back during Camp Ladera somehow, so he was complaining about that too. I thought GOOD LORD THIS IS A ROUGH START.

So, I hung out for a little bit with them until the Head Coach started making the welcome announcements and getting the kids gathered into groups. I could tell he was a pretty funny guy and even managed to crack a smile or two out of my grumpy boys, so I was sure they'd eventually enjoy it - but they definitely didn't make Coach Will's job easy, I am sure of it!

I was a little early when I came back to pick them up, so I got to watch the teams playing a couple of games. Callum had a HUGE smile on his face and was running all over the court like he owned the place. Logan was much more serious (and in a much tougher game, given he was playing with the bigger kids), but was - surprisingly - playing (and not sitting on the sidelines nursing an injured back), and in the thick of it all!

Once "time was up", Callum asked to stay a bit longer to shoot some hoops, so Logan and I hung out on the bleachers a little bit longer while Callum goofed around with anyone willing to give him the time of day. :)

We headed home to rest and snack for a bit, and then suited up and went back to the Rec center for swim practice in the evening. Logan was again, super duper impressive just sticking with it and swimming his heart out. Callum, unfortunately, has continued to stay out of the water, as stubborn as ever, about not wanting to swim with the team. :(

So, 3 hours of Camp Ladera, 3 hours of Basketball Camp, and 1 hour of swim team practice later.... the boys (and I!) were pooped. Day 1 of our crazy hectic summer schedule is done! 😜

Swim Team Time Trials

Swim season is now upon us!

This last Saturday morning, the boys and I headed to the Rec center for the swim team time trials. Callum has refused to practice with the team :( so I feel like we've made some backwards progress with him (at least last year, while he didn't compete, he still practiced with the team!).

Logan has been a real trooper though - he's in an older category this year which means all of his races will be 50 meters (vs the 25 he competed in last year). He's still not comfortable diving off the block, so you'll see he's starting in the water for his time in the second pic. He's also just barely started to learn how to flip turn - and I didn't think he'd try it but totally surprised the heck out of me when he took the flip turn on his race and headed back to complete his remaining 25!

One of the coaches came over to me, while he was racing, to tell me how impressed she was with his swimming. She said he looked like a completely different swimmer out in the pool this year - and I couldn't agree more! He looks so much stronger and faster than last year. And much more comfortable over all. He still needs to work on his pace and endurance, but I'm seeing improvements at each practice, which is so fun!! I asked her to tell him the same when he finished his race, since I thought he needed to hear the praise from someone besides dear old Mom, which she, of course, did. :)

Should be a fun season this summer!!

Horseback Riding Together

I have a number of pics to catch up on!

This one was taken last Friday - where the boys got to ride at the same time for their lesson. They're getting skilled enough that their teacher felt they'd be ok on their own at the same time. They had fun and asked her if they could ride together again - so she's going to start doing their lessons together (gives them more time on the horse and they'll be able to have more fun interacting in some games and stuff together!) :)

Bed head

This kid's hair is outta control. 😱

3rd Grade Graduation Party Prep

Prepping for the 3rd Grade Graduation Party tonight - Logan will be heading to a new school next year! 🎈🎉

No graduation ceremony, but we do love our parties around here. 😜

Last day of school

And just like that, the boys are done with school for the year!

I took these pics in the morning. Callum wanted to ride the bus to school to hang out with his friends. Logan wanted me to drive him to school (I offered them a choice today). It's been sprinkling on and off all day, and while heading to school in the morning, he said to me "Even the sky is sad it's the last day of school". 😍😍

Pizza and Popsicles

Yesterday I was working my butt off, corralling ~100 3rd graders during their "Field Day" - a bunch of activity "stations" were set up across the field for groups of 16-18 of the 3rd graders to hop from. I was leading one of the stations so unfortunately I didn't have a chance to snap any pics. But the kids (and Logan) had a ball. After a couple hours of play, they all got pizza and popsicles to end the day.

As it so happened, I had won an auction item for Callum, to picnic with his teacher and a few other 1st grade winners, for the same day. So here's a pic of Callum with his buddy Evan that Callum's teacher sent me, also enjoying pizza and popsicles at their picnic yesterday. :)

What a rough life!!