Summer Series : Week 4

We'll call last week the week of friends moving (boo) and lots of pool time!

But first, when the boys arrived home from enjoying a few days of cabin life we had a surprise waiting for them -

Yay, vacation! We knew we were entering what would be our last chance of having an opportunity to get away before school starts AND before we become a family of five! Nathan has been saving his $ , wanting to spend it on a ticket to Disneyland (we were happy with that - glad he's learning to save instead of rushing out to just buy a bunch of toys!) We knew we wanted to go to California but asked the boys
input on what they wanted to do, and that was what they came up with. They were giddy and, not surprisingly, have begun a countdown to our vacation. Less than a month away now!

The following day brought our last opportunity to visit with our friends that came down from OK. We invited them over to play and swim.

Wednesday began our farewells - after swim lessons we had another pool playdate with friends we met at school that are returning to Paris :(

We are used to seeing and talking to them after and sometimes before school, so we will miss them! Their time here was up, after having already extended their stay for a year.

Thursday morning brought another farewell pool playdate! This time another friend of ours that we met through my Mom's Club is moving to North Carolina. We've decided summers can be sad, seeing as that's when friends possibly move away in between school years.

On Friday the boys and I grabbed breakfast then had an art afternoon!

What I made for Preson's room

The name of the place - Pinspiration! Clearly based off of Pinterest, and it was!

It was every crafter's dream

The boys made a Paris frame -and got Paris themed drinks and snack

Projects I could choose from to do

Don't forget the Paris props

...and macaroons!

Aaron proudly showing off his bag he decorated

Of course in general, every late afternoon we have just been enjoying our pool! Unless monsoon weather prohibits this I imagine we will be in it everyday. Between swim lessons and just daily use of our pool, I can already tell the boys' swimming skills are improving.

This past weekend we took advantage of our long counter space we have now in the kitchen, yay!

Making apple cinnamon breakfast cookies and cinnamon muffins

Meanwhile, the parents continuously are working here at home on house projects! Always something to do...very much the year of housework!

Summer Series : Week 3

Had to hurry to put in this week before I totally forgot what it was all about - since it was almost two weeks ago, yikes! See, fast summer.

The boys had their last week of their first session of swim. That Monday brought us an important time - signing our closing papers on the new house, woohoo! That day we also found out the boys' teachers and got supply lists for next year - we're very pleased! We've heard good things about Nathan's teachers (first time he will have teachers who job share, meaning one teaches on MWF while the other does TTH). He also has a few buddies in his class that we're happy with. Aaron got the same kindergarten teacher Nate had, so we're really excited for him too. First day of school is less than a month away now!

That Tuesday we met up with some friends who, sort of conveniently , were visiting from Oklahoma but we met as neighbors - Sami, JR and their two sons Eli and Jack. Eli is close to a year younger than Nate and Aaron is also about a year older than Jack. We met up with them at Butterfly Wonderland and then had lunch afterwards.

During our free time we were busy packing for our move, as well as cleaning our home since we were obligated to show it for our buyers, who are planning to rent it out. We agreed to show it while we lived there until we moved, however we were a bit disappointed they asked to show the night before they knew we were due to move. I tried to swallow my disappointment knowing we only had one more day to deal with the situation!

So, that Wednesday the boys had a playdate at their friend Ben's house (thank goodness) which allowed me to do some errands/packing/cleaning, as well as pick up the keys to our new home!

Early AM Thursday was the big moving day!

Helping Granddad take apart beds

Hanging out in the new digs

My mom took the boys to their swim lesson as well as recreational swimming afterwards for a bit while we concentrated on moving. We were done moving everything by lunchtime, then just got things settled and began the unpacking process. We still have the POD to get (that we packed up initially when we began to show our house) but otherwise, everything is unpacked and put away.

Conveniently, that weekend of moving we had planned months ago that the boys would go with my parents to my sister's cabin in Flagstaff for the weekend. That left hubby and I a whole 3.5 days to unpack and get a bit organized without distractions, it was good.

Taking a house break to cool off

Josh and I also went out to dinner with our realtor, and we went out to breakfast on Father's Day. Otherwise we just romantically worked on the house! Oh well.

The boys had a good time that weekend - saw Finding Dory, played at the cabin and then they had a big day taking a train from Williams to the Grand Canyon, where they then also boarded a bus that took them for a tour around the canyon.

At the Grand Canyon - 2nd time

The boys had left on that Friday and returned the following Monday. It was such a relief to be done with everything house - be done with our buyers (and give them keys), be done with realtors, be done with seller, just be done with the whole process. Everyone was pretty nice and everything went pretty smooth, but it's nice now to just do whatever on our own time table and not be writing all these emails and signing all these papers. Definitely sentimentally I am missing our old home still, but in the ten days now we've been at our new home we are very happy.

Summer Series : Week 2

Yep, June will be over in a flash, I'm pretty sure of it. We're already halfway through week three! Next week it'll only be a month before school begins again. Wowsers.

As typical summers have gone, and especially now that we will have a pool, the boys began swimming lessons last week, which they do four times a week for two weeks. They'll end their first session this week, and hopefully will start their next session next week.

Waiting for brother's swim lesson to finish - being silly with his snack.

After the first day's lesson, we met up with Nate's good pal Ben for more swimming.

That evening, the boys started Vacation Bible School (VBS). They LOVE it. It worked out so well for us to have it in the evening this time, as Josh and I got to take advantage of some dinner dates and had some other house stuff going on. Attendance was way down from where it usually is, however, so I hope this doesn't mean they'll discontinue it at our church next year :(

Used up some tokens and had lunch at good ol Chuck E Cheese.

After a stop at Michaels, the boys HAD to have these coloring books- black pages that you scratch off to reveal different colors and designs. It kept them plenty busy this day!

We hit up our first splashpad of the season

Then, last Friday through this past Monday, Nathan and Daddy got to go on a special camping trip with Cub Scouts!

Checking out the weekend's schedule

Archery

Nathan's favorite part - horseback riding with his horse Bambino. He said his horse did a good job following directions.

Shooting paper rockets

Making dreamcatchers

Shooting BB guns...

Where my eight year old suddenly looks like an eighteen year old

Bummer daddy, our tent is broken! (luckily they had brought our bigger one too)

Ice cream contest

Pinewood derby racing

It was great to see Nate come home with a huge grin and smile on his face. He had such a good time and took awhile to tell me all about it.

I tried to let Aaron pick and choose the things we did while everyone else was gone. He was so excited about going to a summer movie, which we unfortunately ended up having to miss with some car trouble so he picked out a spot for lunch one day.

...and asked for an ice cream cookie

Shhh...I also took him out to do an art project for daddy for Father's Day! We made him a grill plate.

We got together with relatives to celebrate great Grandma's 89th birthday. Aaron just fell in love with his four year old cousin he doesn't get to see much!

What is so great about Aaron is that we don't need to have " a schedule" :p He seemed plenty happy just spending time at home, too, I think while brother was gone (probably just to be able to enjoy whatever toys he wanted at whatever given time!) One night our electricity went off for awhile, so he found that adventurous!

Tis it for Week 2, our last full week in our current home. Week 3 brings our first experience having to move with kids! A little different than 10+ years ago!