July Happenings

Our summer has not been boring.  In fact, we’ve kept quite busy.  I just haven’t prioritized blogging.  But, I thought I would highlight some of the things we have done in the last couple of weeks.

We went blueberry picking a week ago.  Between the boys, my mom, my sister, and myself we picked quite a few.  My boys love blueberries, so they definitely did not go to waste.  Both boys had their own buckets and did a great job of picking the ripest blueberries.

They were so hot and tired when they were done.

We also hung out at my cousin’s house to visit with her and her new baby.  The boys really enjoyed swimming in her pool.  Nicholas also got to hold his new cousin.  It is hard to get everyone to look and smile, but I did my best.

Cousins!

Nicholas spent three days last week at cooking camp.  He did this last year and loved it, so we let him pick which week he wanted to do this year.  He picked the fair food week.  Nicholas made walking tacos, corn dogs, homemade pizza, funnel cake, elephant ears and more.  I didn’t have to feed him lunch those three days.  Daniel also enjoyed when we picked Nicholas up.  He was able to eat some of Nicholas’ scraps.  There are no pictures though because Nicholas feels that it would have been too embarrassing for me to take any.  Oh well.  I still have a few years until Daniel feels that way.

Daniel and I did keep busy those three mornings.  We ran some errands, played at the mall play area, and met with a group from church at a local playground.  It was so much easier to keep him busy this year and we were able to do so much more.

At the mall

At the play group

He loved this type of swing!

We ended the week by going to the zoo with my mom, my aunt, and her grandson.  It is a smaller zoo, so it was perfect for our younger crowd.  They liked seeing most of the animals – except for the bats.  Daniel did not like that room.  It may have been that it was dark or the fact that there were lots of them flying around in their display, but he did not like them!  Thankfully, he found plenty of animals he did like.

This slide went through the water.

Nana and Daniel took a ride together.

A very friendly goat

In the exhibit

Evan’s birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated with his family this past weekend.  We had a cookout and the boys got to spend a lot of time playing outside with their cousins.

Daniel really wanted to help Evan blow out his candles.

Here they go . . .

For his real birthday, the boys made Evan homemade cards.  We also got him a gift that he really loved – his favorite shampoo and conditioner.  Really, he was happy!

Each boy made their own card.

Of course, Nicholas doesn't need any help from me anymore.

 

Mine was not homemade

Hair product heaven!

Then, we went our separate ways for a while.  He went golfing with one of our pastors while the boys and I headed back to my cousin’s for some more swimming.  We both enjoyed ourselves and got home within a minute of each other. 

For dinner, Evan chose to have pizza and then, he and Nicholas had homemade root beer floats.  Daniel opted for just ice cream. 

We still have some fun summer days ahead, but school does start for us in less than three weeks!  I’m excited for some of the things that we will be learning this year.  We’ll miss all of our summer activities, but having a routine will nice as well. 

Gotta Dance

Evan and I have always had a child-like spirit when it comes to some of the movies we watch.  Maybe it is the innocence of them.  Maybe we just have simple tastes.  But, there have been some musicals on a certain kids' station (think Mickey) that Evan and I have seen them more times than we can count.  The newest one just came out and our entire family has pretty much memorized it.

Just to show you what things are really like around here sometimes, I took some pictures of the last couple showings.

Crazy dance moves

Sometimes we join in too.

If you can't sing and dance with the ones you love, who can you?  Sorry, no pictures of my moves.  Somebody has to take the pictures.  ;)

Here I am!

I started a post over a week ago, but never got the chance to finish it.  So, here is a bit of a recap of what we’ve been up to:

Last week Nicholas went to a Lego building camp.  For three hours every morning, I dropped him off and he did activities and Lego building all based on a Star Wars theme.  They also were able to take home a stenciled Darth Vader t-shirt with their name on it.  I’m not sure who “Nick” is, but that’s what Nicholas’ shirts says.  Ha ha.   He spends a lot of time playing with Legos in his room, so this camp was great for giving him some new ideas.

Daniel and Evan had eye appointments last week.  I came along to help with Daniel.  We spent almost 2 ½ hours at the eye doctor that morning (almost the entire time Nicholas was at camp).  Our eye doctor is great because he makes you feel like his only patient.  Unfortunately, he does that for everyone, so he always runs very behind.  Daniel did great though.  He was patient.  He didn’t meltdown. 

The eye doctor thought he’d give the eye chart a shot with Daniel.  I knew he knew some of his letters, but he did so well!  Three-year-olds don’t normally do the eye chart with letters.  I remember that Nicholas used pictures for his first couple of eye exams.  His eye sight is 20/20, which is really good for his age.  I guess a lot of preschoolers are still at 20/30.  Hopefully, his eyes stay that way for quite a while because one thing I don’t enjoy is boys and glasses. 

We had a nice time celebrating the 4^th of July last weekend too.  On Friday night, our small group from church had a cook out.  We all brought something.  I highly recommend the blondie brownies from Trader Joe’s.  That’s what I made and they went pretty fast.  The boys had a good time too.  Nicholas and the rest of the kids spent most of their time running around outside.  Since Daniel is the youngest of the group and needs a lot more supervision, he found some Legos and spent a lot of time building.  I can see a Lego camp in his future someday too.

The next day we went to my aunt’s house to celebrate the actual 4^th.  All the guys in my family are like fish and loved spending time in the pool. We also got to officially meet my cousin, Jessica’s new daughter Alyssa.  Somehow I left my camera at home, so my mom had to take pictures with her phone.  She’s having trouble e-mailing them to me, so we’ll see what happens with those.

Sunday afternoon our town had a parade.  We weren’t sure whether we were going to go or not.  It was based on Daniel and his nap.  He had a small one in time, so we were able to attend.  I’m not a big fan of parades, but it was nice watching it through the boys’ eyes.  They did a lot of waving at the floats and a lot of candy collecting. 

Ready for a parade!

Afterwards, it was off to Nana and Poppy’s for a sleepover.  Evan and I were actually getting a date night.  We ended up going out to eat and then watching a movie or two.  Unfortunately, I fell asleep during the first one, but I saw enough to get the gist.  The “date” continued the next day when my mom and sister kept them for most of Monday too.  The boys had a good time and we got some major cleaning done.

Little did we know that the cleaning came at just the right time.  We got notifications of two showings this week.  We already had one and we have another one tomorrow.  We’re hoping this house sells soon.  Sure, we want to move, but it is hard to keep the house the way you want it with two little boys running around.  Well, at least it forces me to constantly pick up the house.

We went for ice cream to kill time during the showing.

No complaints here.

We’re hoping to have a play date with people from our church tomorrow.  They are meeting at a park once a week for the month of July.  I’m hoping we don’t get rained out. 

In closing, I’m starting to get e-mails about the coming school year for CC.  We have about six weeks left until our school year starts at home.  Then, CC starts a few weeks later.  I’m trying to enjoy our summer while also preparing for the weeks ahead.  Thankfully, I like the planning part. 

He likes to put his pencil behind his ear when he is done with school.

I’m hoping not to let the blog go this long again.  Sometimes life gets in the way though.