THE RATCHFORDS: Summer Fun

I signed the kids up for a Fairy and Gnome class at a really great nursery in Green River.

They read books about fairies in a beautiful little gazebo that had been decked out with fairies and gnomes and glitter and just plain loveliness. Look at these little fairy gardens. So adorable.

Then they made fairy and gnome house cakes, and the boys made garden gnomes while Grace decorated fairy wings.

It was really cute, and it turned Declan a little obsessed with fairies. He sees glittery fairy dust everywhere we go!

Grace got to travel north for a DARE leadership camp in the Windriver Mountains. It was supposed to be a three night camp, but there was still snow at their campsite and it was inaccessible so they just made it a day camp. She got to white-water raft and had a blast.

The next week she spent a week at Astronomy Camp at Western Wyoming College. My desire to give her a cool, meaningful experience totally overpowered my overprotectiveness! It was a long four days, three nights for me, but I do have to admit that our house was noticeably drama-free that week.

She stayed in the college dorms and had astronomy classes during the day, then went star-gazing at night. They also took a field trip to SLC to go to the Clark Planetarium. She had a great time. Here she is the morning we picked her up to take her home. She came home at 10:30 and fell asleep on the couch for three hours!

We've also had some more fun BOCES classes. Liam took a Children's Rhythms workshop, where they made up their own dances, learned new moves, and played dance games on the Wii. Right up that boy's alley. Sam took a class called Reading Rocks, where they read different stories and did crafts and activities for each one. He has really missed kindergarten and the social scene this summer, so this class was perfect for him.

This week Declan is taking the only class he was old enough for - Tumbling. Oh boy, is he cute in that class!

We are still taking loads of swimming lessons, which, honestly, are wearing me out a little. We are done at the end of July and everyone will take the month of August off, although something tells me we'll still be spending a lot of time in the water. You can't keep those Ratchford kids away from it.

When chores are done and classes over, it's good old-fashioned bored summer days. Which can lead to hours of fighting that make me want to pull my hair out or rare, sweet moments like this one:

Lucky for me, we have a new way to get the kids out of the house. Garreth and I spent hours upon hours (and endless bottles of Gatorade and "That's what she said" jokes) building this humdinger. And when I say hours, I mean, we bought this the last week in May. And got it finished fourth of July weekend.

Now that it's done, I can say that it was worth it.

After owning four (that's right, four) homes, I finally accomplished my goal of having window boxes with red geraniums. I have been in love with them for years: the smell of geraniums, the whole European vibe they give. It's maybe a little pathetic how happy these make me!