Summer Break : Week 4

The fastest week of summer yet! The kids left last Sunday afternoon for their annual summer trip/quality time with my parents. This year my parents took them to my sister's cabin in Flagstaff for three nights. Woohoo! And I say this for all parties concerned :) The boys and my parents had a great time and hubby and I got some things done around here we wanted and squeezed in a date night one night they were gone.

So without further adieu, some pictures from their trip!

1st day fishing!

First trout caught

Reading under the stars

Fun at the Deer Farm!

Fishing trip #2 - Trout Farm

Aaron's fish! The boys brought home lots of trout for mommy to gobble

Generally, the kiddos were outside a ton in Flagstaff (for good reason- the weather was twenty degrees cooler than in town! They actually wore warm pajamas to bed!)

The day after they got back I had a date morning with Nate while Aaron spent time with Josh's mom. I took Nate to an open gym at a gymnastics place with friends.

Phone camera not so good with movement. He had a ball jumping into the foam pit!

Afterwards I took him out for lunch to a wine bar. Here with his PBJ bruschetta - to my surprise, he loved it! Wasn't so sure how it'd go open faced.

We saw another summer movie and spent the weekend swimming - Nate had his last swimming lesson for this session and we headed over to my best pal's close home for some afternoon relief.

Aaron, daddy and Nate racing on their floats

He's been so much happier at lessons with goggles!

Details of what hubby and I were up to while the kids were away in another post ;) This coming week we're looking forward to having some family in town - cousins my boys have never met yet! Should be fun. Not to mention daddy having a three day weekend - yay for more family time!

Summer Break : Week 3

I realized I forgot to post pictures of Nate's surprise he got when he came home from his last day of school! Oops. CAR WASH!

With my idea (okay, Pinterest's) and hubby's know how, we made the kids a "car wash" out of PVC pipe, rags, pool noodles, and even some old shirts. We just made a bunch of holes in the pipes and connected the hose. Perfect! Surprisingly to me, though, the kids haven't used it much since those first few days of summer. I'm guessing because we're usually busy in the morning and it's too hot in the afternoon! Not that I blame them. So for now it is just collecting a bunch of sun.

Anyhow, back to last week.  On Monday and Friday mornings we're very thankful for the help of both my mom and Josh's mom who each take the kids for a few hours those mornings (we had done the same sort of thing last summer, too). I think it's a nice tradition for as long as the grandmother's are willing. So Monday morning my mom had the kids for a bit and took them back to the pool play structure we had been to before. As usual, they enjoyed it. That afternoon, we had a frozen yogurt tour! I must say, it was the best kids tour we've ever been to. It wasn't free, but for everything we did/got, it was well worth it!

If only my phone camera worked better! Picture with the frozen yogurt mascot

Enjoying our yogurt after the behind the scenes tour

Coloring t-shirts

The kids also got a balloon, made hats, they gave each child a yogurt container that had stickers, chapstick (!), button....we have found our new favorite yogurt joint! It actually was better tasting than any other place we've been to, the yogurt was creamier, and I also loved that we could bring home our own carton, too!

Nate again had his cooking class. I can't believe this teacher teaches twenty kids on her own without help! The amount of stuff they make is incredible. This past week they made spinach/artichoke dip, bruschetta, lemonade, and she had a large fruit spread that they made a chocolate fruit dip with.

So happy he tasted everything! I did, too, and it was yummy!

Had many craft items to buy at our local craft store so I signed Nate up, conveniently, for a craft class they had going on at the same time. I paid $2 for it and it ended up being about an hour long! Not bad (and it let me shop peacefully at the store!)

One evening we met up with our friends, Lauren and Jack, for a farewell party before they left for Colorado the following day. They had it at a bouncing place, which the kids loved. It was just fun to spend time with our friends one last time before they began their next adventure.

Aaron didn't care much for the bounce houses - he just wanted to play air hockey!

Friends gathered around

Had to take a picture of my friend's cake she got - the baker spelt "farewell" wrong!

The kids are just going to do what they want.... :)

Nate has talked about wanting to go back to the museum that he went to for his field trip this year - the Phoenix Children's Museum. It so happened that I got really lucky and managed to grab some free passes, so we took advantage of it! I managed to remember my good camera :)

Hot dogs for sale!

They spent a long time re-stocking "store shelves"...poor kids couldn't keep up with demand, though!

Aaron thinks this is the life :)

Large castle for them to paint. What a clever idea!

The kiddos went swimming at Josh's mom's house and, just yesterday, we went with the boys to see Aladdin Jr! The room was much more intimate than I pictured it to be, which made it all the more fantastic. The kids were really into it since it was happening only a few feet away. We completed the trip with a visit to a cupcake store afterwards!

Whew. Week Three done. I can't believe we're entering into the last full week of June! Wow. Looking forward to Week Four...the kids get a little vacation with their Nana and Pap Pap!

Summer Break : Week 2

So far so good! This summer actually feels like one that might  go fast :)

We started out the week having found out who Nate's teacher is for 1st grade! Exciting. We love that our school does that and we get a welcome letter from the teacher along with a supply list (most teachers prefer we bring items the night of Meet the Teacher, which is only a month away!)

Starting last Sunday night the boys were in Vacation Bible School (VBS) each evening for five nights at our church. I was nervous how it would go because of it being a little late (late for us, anyway, 6-8pm). I was also a little nervous how Aaron would do once he got separated from Nathan without anyone else being there (for his first time). As predicted, at first Aaron was upset and they had to bring him to Nathan to calm him down when they were divided into age groups. But by the next night, Aaron was fine the rest of the time. He would tell me in the car, "Mommy, I'm not going to cry anymore". They LOVED it. However, having it in the evening didn't go so well for Aaron. He was extremely tired. I'm sure it's just an age thing, but I do hope they bring it back to mornings next year!

The next morning we had some splash pad fun!

We had another playdate with Nate and Aaron's friends Lauren and her brother Jack - so sad they're moving out of town this week :(

Cute cuddles

I didn't get pictures of it, but while Nate had some quality time with his grandmother Aaron and I went to a local recreation center to see his first puppet show - "Old McDonald". He did so well and laughed throughout. Though it was nice that it ended up being ~45 minutes long. Perfect length for his attention span!

Another morning the boys were signed up to do a play camp together - first time Aaron was "dropped off" at a camp! I can count on knowing that as long as he's with Nathan everything will be ok. He finds comfort in being with his brother and Nate right away snaps into "big brother mode" when I leave. Honestly, I'm glad Aaron is at the age now where I can start doing that - knowing that they have a fun time, and I can get a little bit of fresh air :)

Playtime!

Finally, to wrap up the work week I took the boys to a local public pool - they are obsessed with pool play structures and you can't beat the price! In fact I just bought us five visits for the three of us and it only cost me $13. That's MAYBE the price of one admission to a water theme park?!

Slides, bucket that dumps..total water bliss to my boys

Bracing for impact

Nate loves being "dumped" !

We had a pretty chill Father's Day today - we made hubby breakfast, relaxed at home for a bit, then went to Josh's parents house to swim some and out to dinner for pizza. Ended with a "Super Dad" cookie for dessert :)

Boys helped me make the morning feast! Eggs, bacon, potatoes and fruit

I hope this doesn't sound bad, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the boys have gotten along so far this summer. They have been doing a lot of self-play/ self- entertaining in the afternoons when we're home. This has been new to me. Maybe because Aaron can talk more/keep up with big brother a bit more? I don't know, but I sure am enjoying it. I feel a little guilty, that I'm somehow not always initiating an activity or actively participating every minute like I usually do. Now I sort of figure if they can entertain themselves (without electronics) that's great. I want to encourage that. I don't want them to think I need to entertain them every minute and that I need to be included in everything they play. Guess we'll see, perhaps Week 3 will be different!