Bumper Floats & Friends

Even more than swimming, our favorite summer activity has to be having friends over to hang out and grill! (Besides the fact that it forces us to clean house.) We love to hang out on our deck and let the kids run in the yard. This year we added a bounce castle to the fun and redid the deck.

Our newly favorite pool game: Bumper Floats! Auntie Zaza supervises as Nellie & B-Bee chase each other in the pool, the whole while giggling like crazy, all of us.

A couple of my favorite cuties joined us for supper....another Big Brother and Little Sister that love the spinny chairs.



Swimming & Baseball, Done.

Picked up a hat to adorn with a beautiful flower. In my opinion, this is a yellow peonie - what else would be so huge? - but it could just as easily be a fully open rose. Either way, it and it's vintage pink sister are my favorites. Both are available as hair clips or on headbands. I'm not sewing my own hats yet, but can pick another one up if wanted. Anyways, was so excited about this hat that I took pictures of Nellie wearing it until she started getting into trouble. So I took pictures for about a minute. I may have been especially lucky that day and gotten 2 minutes of trouble-free Nellie.

Yes, I know swimming has been mentioned a time or two here. B-Bee's 2-week session finally came to an end, just as he was beginning to like swim lessons. The instructors brought cookies for the kids' last lesson and they got to take their animals (rubber duckies) with all the stickers home. He will have to do this level again, but he's more comfortable in the water now - will attempt a backfloat with assistance, will go underwater, and now hangs on the side of the pool....and we know he can get in and out by himself. It was a good experience for him and he got a few more lessons at summer camp later on in the month.

The T-Ball session came to a thankful end. Daddy-O enjoyed taking B-Bee, but it just wasn't his thing. It seemed to bring out all his "spectrum tendancies". We would like to put him in something this fall, but are having trouble deciding what: gymnastics, soccer, ice skating, or more swimming lessons? B-Bee's most consistent inconsistent answer has been "skating". He likes to rollerskate - but rollerskating lessons are at the same time preschool is.

Is there such thing as a "puzzle team"? Like the chess team, which I was on for 1 year. It was a middleschool "boy thing"; I can barely play chess. He's loves puzzles and is pretty good at them too. He even helped me put Nellie's birthday present together. I told him it was a puzzle.

Know we will be busy with preschool this fall and I don't want to over-schedule my kids. Now that he's old enough I would like him to be able to try one thing at a time. Perhaps find an activity that he really likes and can be passionate about. Opinions? Ideas?

Swimming Lesson, Fountains & Monsoon - Can We Get Any Wetter?

Have I mentioned swimming yet this summer? Yeah, just the thought of it his Nellie passed out on the couch next to me right now. Good thing we're taking a morning for quiet today - with B-Bee at summer camp it's just us 2 girls (and our doggies).

B-Bee also had swim lessons at summer camp this year. He was excited to see his swimming teacher, Casey everyday and now insists that all "swimming lesson teachers" are named Casey. Nellie SO wanted to join him in the water and made a beeline for the pool every chance she got. She's my little fish.



After swim lessons we headed to our favorite park (Peter Pan Park) for a picnic. Nellie was all tuckered out by then. Don't worry though, she didn't miss out on all the fun. It was our last MamaMia! meetup since the group has disbanded. As our kids get older and start going to school, mommies in the group weren't able to participate as much anymore. I'm realizing that these early years are only a phase. So glad I can stay home and enjoy them with my children.

Inspecting the soft "rocks" in the stream between the picnic tables. I love that this park has tables right by the water feature and playground. Beware though, the rubber playground surface gets very hot. I definitely recommend water shoes or flip flops - though my kids don't leave them on.

Oh the anticipation! It took B-Bee a little while to warm up to the fountains last year and earlier this summer. But, as you can see, there's no fear now...just excited anticipation. The big kid have even taught him how to put his shoes on the spout to see them fly up in the air when it goes.

I love this picture! What would you put as the caption?

Nellie made a friend. These 2 just followed each other around for awhile, babbling away to each other. We started packing up to leave just as the monsoon began falling. Had to wait it out a little and then make a run for the car.

Had to snap a picture of this. Not sure why it was "parked" there. Maybe it belongs to someone in the apartment complex? On its way to the air show? I have no clue.

2 Babies In A Tub

Swimming has, by far, been our favorite activity this summer. I couldn't let all the cute suits Nellie has this summer go unused....and they haven't. Last year I just HAD to buy an adorable one with butterflies for full price and then pulled it out of the too small clothes this spring, still on the hanger with the tags. Someone wanted to offer me $1 for it at the garage sale. I just couldn't part with it. Anyways, there have been fountains and "water features" (because we really just don't know what to call the cool water playgrounds that we wish were around 20+ years ago and are so popular now), swimming lessons, pools, pools, and more pools. It's been a great swimming summer! The kids already had the tans to prove it in early June.

I didn't know what to do with the kids on the 4th of July. I really wanted to do something with Daddy-O, but he had to work. So I put a FB out there and my friend, Audrey invited us over for lunch & more swimming. It was great to chill and get to know each other better....and then put the kids in the baby pool to chill. Short post, simple day.

Pictures to Cob

We started our week out with Nellie's 1 Year photoshoot. Our friend, Greg does the kids' pictures every year and it's great to see how his work has progressed over the years. Every year he worries that they don't have enough work scheduled, but by the time it comes to schedule a photoshoot with him..... Let's just say that he's as busy as we are - maybe even busier, if that's possible.

We met at my alma mater, University of Colorado Denver for pictures. This is also where I met Greg's wife, Meka. Ah.... Organic Chemistry II, the class for those that REALLY like memorization of rules and puzzles (sometimes referred to the weed-out pre-med course, well O-Chem I). Anyways, we went to campus for pictures. I made Nellie a pink, purple, & white glitter tutu to wear and found a matching onesie and we can't forget the headbands! I just hope my serious one (Nellie) and one who can't focus (B-Bee) let Greg get a few good shots.

Gotta love the baby tutu butt! She's getting markedly better at walking everyday. Here We were getting pictures of her walking with Daddy. This must be when we were trying to occupy B-Bee by letting him snap pictures - since you can see me in the background getting her to go that way.

For family pictures we did a 4th of July theme. Thank you Old Navy! This is my favorite tutu so far! We hit up Kohl's for the rest of her outfit (minus headband, courtesy of yours truly) and found a rock guitar red & blue shirt for B-Bee. Daddy-O & I wore Old Navy shirts. At the end of the the photoshoot we went inside to get some pics playing on the blocks inside. We were pleasantly surprised to find these pretty white curved benches, tables and rocking chairs! I'm expecting we'll have some great shots here!

Busy morning....got home changed B-Bee into his swim trunks and we were off to his first swim lesson. We actually got there early, so I had a chance to sit on the edge with him for awhile and acclimatize to the pool by dangling our feet. He did great! Much better than I had anticipated.



Baby butt! (sans tutu)



He spent much of the time getting out of the pool. This is one of the moments he wasn't obviously nervous. They were playing Red Light, Green Light. Him and the little girl don't like to be in the water. In all fairness, it's 3'6" deep and he's only 41" tall.

To finish a great summer day, we had B-Bee's favorite: cheeseburgers (sans french fries) and corn on the cob. Nellie got to try corn for the first time and is definitely a fan.

Libraries & Fountains

Todays plan started out a little open-ended, with tenative plans to go to the fountains and tenative plans to go to the library.... We ended up getting to do both!

During storytime, B-Bee was really.....overwhelmed? He had the deer in the headlights look, wouldn't participate in the songs & dancing and kept wanting to sit in my lap. He did sit and listen to the stories well though. It was a rather rambuncious group of kids today. When it came to craft time though, he worked hard and intently making Daddy a Father's Day present.

We ran into a friend and her daughter at storytime, so I was able to sneak out to the kids' desk while Nellie slept and B-Bee was listening to a story. I finally registered the kids for the summer reading program. Thanks so much, Jaq! B-Bee is already 9 books into his first set of 12. After playing trains and checking out books, we went to spend 10 minutes on the playground. The fountains were going on and off, so we played some in them. Nellie really liked the doggie fountain that you can see here.

Ran home quick to pick up a towel and extra clothes - Daddy had taken the car with the wagon & summer bag in it. Then we were off again to meet up with some friends at the other library fountains. Have I mentioned that little girls just love Nellie? Think it's a baby thing.

The boys inspected the sidewalk drain. Must have been making sure there were no alligators growing in there.

Have you seen the monkey crawl? She CAN walk, she just doesn't know it yet...and will plop to the ground if noone's hanging onto her.

 

B-Bee & his buds....getting soaked and racing their cars.

And how do you get 8 kids to leave all the fun? A choo-choo train to the ice cream shoppe! There was a red, white & blue pig statue outside the shop that we tried to get the kids to pose with. This is the only shot that I got where you can see all our buds.

We ended our day out to dinner with Oma & Papa (Daddy's parents) and Great G'Pa. They drove from MN to celebrate Nellie's 1st birthday!



Near Perfect Day.

Between the 3 mommies at our playdate today, we had a total of 11 kids! What fun! What chaos! ...no, really it wasn't too bad as lond as we weren't in pedestrial transit from one part of the park to another. Here are about half of the kids waiting for the train to go and come back. Kudos to you if you recognize where we are! You've found an awesome place to spend a summer day.

Who's the ring leader of trouble? Pick a side. The Thomas fanatic in the middle goes with the flow. For most of the train ride, they were "choo-choo" - ing.

 We're serious about some watermelon; it's quickly beome a favorite - a messy favorite.

Wading & playing in the creek.

Watching the train go by one last time before we head home for naps. B-Bee & Nellie fell asleep so hard on the way home that they did the car-to-bed transfer. Ahhhh....

During this blissful nap - until B-Bee woke up crying because he wanted Annie's chocolate bunnies - I got some plants put in the garden, the pool set up and filled, and a few flowers (for headbands) pinned together. So after nap, while waiting for Daddy to get home, we played in the pool. It was a little too cold for Nellie and she freaked out whenever I put her in. So she was content to watch from the side, eating chocolate bunnies and feeding the dogs. At one point I put each of the dogs in for a short swim. Neither one would come back over after that. *sigh* Landlubber dogs.

A near perfect day.