Wet & Wild Summer Fun

It's been a fun, fun summer this year. We've been out a lot more than last summer;  I think that's because it's been a lot hotter this summer than last. There's been hose play, pool play, and fill up bowls and dump them out play.

Our area has been hit pretty hard with storms this summer. We've been very blessed not to lose power for more than five minutes at a time. We've had a lot of big branches come down but none that have caused any damage. We've flooded once, which is a big pain as we've had to totally disinfect the entire basement floor. During one rain, Steve went out with the kids to float boats near the curb.

There's also been lots of crazy, silly fun, too.

This is their "little old lady" look.

They like to pile every blanket and pillow in the house to make a "roller coaster."

Jared LOVES to tie things up, even himself!

June 20-24

We've been weaving together days full of slow, random fun at home with busy days full of activities away from home. I think the days at home are the most creative. Lately games have been put to different uses than what the developers had in mind :)

My daughter would be on the computer, or with her nose in a book all day if I didn't suggest other things to do with me. She LOVES anything to do with different cultures or animals. We found two great computer games at the library she's been playing the past two weeks.

Explorapedia (we actually bought this later at a thrift store) is really more like an encyclopedia than a game, but it's all about animals. Alexa loves reading facts about animals and telling us what she's learned.

Travel the World with Timmy follows Timmy the Turtle to different countries of the world.

The kids ransacked our underwear drawer and decided to play "underwear warriors."

We were over one weekend to my husband's brother's house. They have a new huge trampoline that the kids adored. Fun, fun, fun!

First Day of Summer!

It's the first day of summer! As a kid summer was always my favorite season, and understandably so. Now, most of the time my life feels like a summer vacation, so spring is now my favorite season, followed closely by fall.

The weather has fluctuated so much this spring that it's often seemed like winter, spring and summer all in the same week! We tried to take advantage of the hot days by getting outside as much as we could. A few weeks ago we met my sister and her son at Phillip's Park in Aurora. There's a free splash park there, but it's small and gets pretty crowded, especially on really hot days. Jared and Alexa liked the spray gun, but they didn't spend too much time running through the water.

On the not so great days, we've been opening up some art kits the kids received for Christmas and still hadn't opened up yet. I bought this clay kit at Michael's.

After not picking up a camera that much, Alexa has gone back to taking pictures again. She only wants to use my new camera, though, which makes me a bit nervous. I love how she likes to be a photographer, but the camera was so expensive! She likes to open pages of her favorite books and take pictures of the pictures.

Jared still loves to line up his figures, something he does for hours every day.One day he brought in a branch from outside, laid it on its side and pretended his soldiers were marching through the jungle.

Some days I wish the kids would go outside more. Sometimes days go by when they aren't interested at all in going outside. They still love to mix up concoctions, which they call their science experiments.

They HAVE liked going outside at night, though, especially since the fireflies have come out.

We've been taking a lot of family bike rides after dinner and then coming home to catch fireflies. The kids see how many they can catch and put in their bug holder, and then release them before we go inside. The past few months have been a bit stressful for me, but lately I've just been amazed at how much better I feel when I just make myself relax,sit and just be with the kids. I've built up so many great memories in the past few weeks from just the simplest times together. I love travelling with the kids, but these memories are just as special.

Scooby Doo & Legos

I've said this in a previous post, but my kids LOVE Scooby Doo and the gang, especially Jared. He will spend hours with his Scooby Doo figures, tying them up, hanging them from his pirate ships, and shooting them down with his nerf gun.

We found the five pack figure set for only $10 at Toys R Us. They are his co-ultimate toy. The other has to be Legos. Jared is such a right-brained person. He is so creative, a deep thinker and has a built in sense of order and sequence. He loves to be read to, but I think he will not be ready to read for quite a few years. I thought things would be strange since Alexa started reading words at 2 and now reads longer children's books like Stuart Little on her own, but she reads books to him on the couch and he doesn't seem to think it's strange that he's not reading them on his own yet she can. I'm so, so, so thankful for this. They both would be so out of place in a school classroom. I guess it might party be the way they've been given a lot of freedom growing up, but it might also be their in-born personalities, too.

How great is it that they get to grow up knowing that playing Scooby Doo and Legos is just as valuable as reading a book or watching an American Frontiers DVD (which they just did this morning!)

Hanging out with Family & Friends

We've had some great fun hanging out with the family and our friends these past few months. The week after Christmas we went over to my friend's house to exchange presents with the kids. Both Jared and J love pirates so that was fun.

We also went a few times with J to the Max for their Bounce Days.

 We checked out a new place,  Jumps N' Jiggles. This place is so cool. They have an indoor carousel that you can go on unlimited times with the price of admission ($5). Wherever the kids go, they always find instant friends. They found a little boy they became attached to and loved playing with him on this helicopter play equipment.

We went to see Steve's dad play volleyball at the church.

We also made a few visits to their granddad at the church. Jared always wants to hold the dagger set someone gave Larry from Pakistan. Then we usually head down to the gym for paper airplanes and floor hockey.

We were also able to meet Steve at his job once this winter. He left early and we headed to the mall for a train ride.

A big part of our winter has been the kid's weekly gymnastics class. It's great because it's just a few minutes away and only lasts a half hour. For the most part, the kids seem to like it, although they don't do so well when the coaches have the kids standing in line too long (who would?)

And we've celebrated a few birthdays, too. We had a party Steve's dad at their house in February and for my sister's husband the beginning of March.

Pretend Play & Crazy Faces

Lots and lots of figure playing in this house....

...and pirate dress-up...

...and Spiderman...

...and just Jared.

Steve was off the week after Christmas so we watched a new Star War movie for six days in a row. Jared had never seen them before, and,  let's just say he's now in love with all things Star Wars.

Jared methodically made playdough spaghetti out of all the red and blue playdough and arranged them into rows.

We can't go a day in the house without playing hide-and-seek. I don't know if it's an age 4 thing or what. Here's a picture of one of their more clever hiding spots, with the doors closed of course.