This Week at the Brennans’

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Another busy week of summer in the books! Man, we can’t wait to get back to normal life with Brookie Cookie again 🙂

Here’s what happened this past week:

We sweat our royal taneenees off on the 4th of July. You can read my post and see all the photos here. We had plenty of fun with some friends, enjoying a brunch and then going out for a dinner picnic with even more friends. It was so so humid, but fun nonetheless with sparklers, flag cakes, popits and going to bed at a reasonable hour. Haha! We’re getting so old.

We’ve switched our basement around! So I haven’t really showed or talked much about our basement situation, but we have two ‘parlor’ levels which essentially means we have two basements that aren’t connected; one at the front of our apartment and one at the back. The one at the back is Brooke’s small room with attached bathroom, washer and dryer and a door to the backyard which is just a glorified postage stamp. We don’t use it for anything right now. The front basement is much larger, with our playroom (where the tv and toys are), another half bath and then a very long and skinny bedroom which we’ve divided into two. One section for the boys to sleep at the back of the room and one section for storage, at the front of the room when you first walk in. The boys twin beds used to just run along the length of the wall at the back of the room, but after going over how to better use the space, we decided to turn their beds back into bunks (2/3’rds of the triple bunk bed!), move it towards the front part of the room and essentially switch spots with all our storage shelving. By doing this, we get more room to create a little play area for the boys with a play table, rugs, books, toys, etc.. and get a little extra room at the back of the room, by the storage shelving to create Gordon a mini gym. (Can you tell this was Gordon’s idea?! Haha!)

We have been going back and forth over whether we could even make some sort of indoor gym situation work with the new baby coming and not having enough space, but we figured it out and though it’ll be small, it will be cheaper and easier to workout for the both of us at home in the long run. I still want to get a peloton bike (I talked about this a few months ago on my instastories!!) but am not sure if we could make that fit too. But where there’s a will, there’s a way! My current gym membership only takes babies starting at 6 months old which is great, but I’d like to start working out before then.

Since we moved everything in the basement around, I ended up finding a bin of 3T clothes that I thought I gave away. I have never been more happy or pleasantly surprised. Before I got pregnant with this baby, I was taking fertility meds and none of them were working. You might recall this post. There was a time we stopped everything and gave up and were happy with just three kids. Hence me giving away all the baby clothes I was storing. But then I got pregnant miraculously and couldn’t exactly go back and ask for everything back. So, to find a box after I thought it was all gone was a definite tender mercy.

I did some much needed retail therapy this week. After having to return, rebuy and then return some items for the living room and now entry, boys room and baby’s room, things are finally coming together. Still working away on finishing things so they’re *just so* but happy about the progress we’ve made.

Since this is the summer of limited technology for my kids, Gordon bought a ton of sports equipment to use inside and out. A lot of footballs, soccer balls, baseballs, frisbees and more. On Friday morning and then again on Friday afternoon when Gordon got home from work, we went out practicing those baseball skills. Gordon grew up playing baseball and loves it as a sport and wanted Blake to at least experience it. If little league was a thing here, we’d totally do it…maybe there is and I can’t find information about it anywhere, but regardless, we are trying to give him a few sports skills because he enjoys being physical and using his body so much. (Same with Eddie.) Truth be told, I wasn’t much help (hiiiiii pregnancy) but I’m great at documenting it all.

Speaking of no technology, I got my boys these Kiwi Co. Crates and they have been such a fun addition to our summer. I was hesitant to shell out more money for something that would potentially get thrown out down the road, but we got our first boxes and we all totally LOVED them. They are science based activities, according to age level. Blake got an ‘Arcade Claw’ and Eddie got a bunch of rainbow themed crafts to do. Since I ordered from them and actually totally dig them, here is a 50% coupon off your first box. If you are running out of ideas for your kids this summer/are bored out of your minds, this might be a great option for your kids! Probably also makes a great gift from the grandparents.

Saturday afternoon was spent on Roosevelt Island, exploring this little spot in the city Gordon has been wanting to check out for weeks. I mostly just wanted to ride the tram to say I did it, but man was Roosevelt Island the prettiest, quietest little spot in the city! It’s like it was the best of both worlds. Quiet, hardly any cars, cool breezes because you’re right on the water, with easy access to the city. It was pretty darn idillic. If they had a better school/restaurant/grocery store situation, then we’d love to eventually live there. But we have a pretty great set up here that we aren’t ready to part with.

I got my boys new sandals and they showed up in the mail. LOVE love love Natives. I keep raving about them because that’s how much I love them. I have gone through so many different pairs for my boys and Brooke. Brooke is starting to grow out of them a little bit because they aren’t ‘cool enough’, but they still are the perfect summer shoe for Blake and Ed. These are the exact ones I got for my boys to change things up, though the Jefferson style is the one I continue to rebuy because I love the look.

For those who continue asking, here is the link to the mattress, couch and ottoman I have (and love!)

Coming up this next week:

Lots of laundry and packing because we are going to get our Brooke!! We have been missing her tons and tons, so it’ll be great to get her back in my arms again, even if it is just for a hot second.

And of course our vacation with my side of the family up in Canada! Can’t wait to go strawberry picking, eat a few timbits and go canoeing on the lake…if I can fit the life jacket over my belly 😉