Is it really July?

I feel like I'm playing catch-up in today's post. Most days I want to blog and record things but I just don't get to it. Thanks for stopping by today to see what is going on with me.

The May Hip 2-b Square kit (sorry--sold out) was full of fun bright colors. I used pictures from our family trip to Lake Chelan last June for all of my layouts. It seemed fitting for the summery kit.

This layout is based on a June 2011 PageMaps design.

How is your summer going? We are doing well, keeping to the daily schedules. The kids are all about doing chores and jobs to get "EARNS". They can redeem their earns for "REWARDS". The other day at the grocery store,  Krish and Bird saw a CARS 2 coloring book and wanted me to buy it. I asked them if they had $3.99. No. Well, then they could exchange their earns for the week for the book. Agreed.

This morning DH and I took Stanley for a walk. It is a beautiful day today. We haven't had too many Independence Days here in WA that were this nice. It usually stops raining AFTER the 4th of July. But it is sunny today.  DH decided to take Krish and Bird to go see CARS 2. I didn't particularly want to go and definitely didn't want Merek to see it in case there were some scary parts. At first the girls weren't going to go, but then Lina decided she wanted to go. DH told her she'd have to earn her ticket money. So she cleaned OUR bathroom (she has actually liked cleaning the bathrooms for her jobs). M decided this morning she wanted to go, too. She has oodles of money from babysitting so she could pay for her own ticket.

Gosh. Do we sound like mean parents?

Anyway, it's just Merek and me home right now. He is sitting next to me playing with cars, driving them around his peant butter/jelly toast. I have a bit of creating to get done today. This week is crazy-busy preparing for our family reunion and girls camp. But it's all good.

Tonight we are BBQ-ing and lighting off fireworks. DH bought his standard large-supply on Saturday. It should be fun.

Happy 4th! I'm grateful to live in this amazing country full of freedoms.