How we've spent our summer vacation - Part 2

Seriously, I can not believe August is here. It seems like it was just 4th of July weekend. Insanity. With a scant 3 weeks until school starts, it seems like summer is already over. We'll be spending the next few weeks getting on schedule and (gasp) prepping for Kindergarten. Insanity, I say!

A quick fly-by of the things we've been up to since last update.

We went to see Cars 2. It was cute, but not nearly as good as the original. Summer did amazingly well at it.

We've had sleepovers and hung out with friends.


We made homemade ice cream for the 4th of July

and made homemade ice cream sandwich pops.



Summer has been acting like such a big girl! We're STILL potty training, and while she was in a big girl bed for a while, we moved her back to a crib because she wasn't getting enough sleep, but she's doing so well in expressing her emotions and absolutely has a crazy fun imagination.

We went to see Bob the Builder at the Childrens Museum. It was the first time we've been in a while, and BOTH kids really enjoyed it all.





Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit




and took Garrett home with them for a week, where he did awesome things like drive a 4-wheeler. (Thanks Aunt Stephie for the picture!)

Summer and I enjoyed some girl time while he was gone, but we were glad to have him (and Grandma) back.

The best thing we did while they were gone, though, was go to the Seaquarium. I don't generally like that place, but we both got in for free and Summer was absolutely over the moon about the dolphins. I wish I had taken the camera on that trip to document how in awe she was of them.

Brad and I enjoyed a night at the Hard Rock in Hollywood while Grandma was here and THAT was fabulous. Its been almost a year since we had a night to ourselves, so it was long overdue. We stayed up until midnight listening to live music and just generally enjoying each other's company, then spent the morning soaking up sun by the pool. Absolutely priceless!

And we've crafted, created, and made stuff . . .
A cement stone for Grandma

Awesome butterflies from milk cartons, inspired by Filth Wizardry. Garrett's is on the right, Summer's is on the left.

And of course a model or two.


I've read a couple of books, the most notable of which was Water For Elephants. I wasn't really expecting much, but it was so good that I am really not sure I want to see the movie.

Brad and I have been watching Psych, after Brad's parents and sister told us how much they liked it. Love it!

And we had a really stinky life lesson when Garrett's turtle, Crusher, died while he was at Grandma's house. That one is going to get its own post though (hopefully)--too lengthy to write about on this already lengthy post.

How we've spent our summer vacation (SO FAR)

I can't believe there are only 58 days left before Garrett starts Kindergarten. So far, this has been the BEST summer we've ever had. I know that it comes from the fact that this is our first summer since Garrett started school, and that I've been completely focused on being in the moment with the kids as much as possible. Garrett and I take turns calling the shots for the day--he'll pick something fun and when that's done, I'll pick something structured.

We've been reading a lot. We just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and began The Goblet of Fire. In addition, Garrett is working on reading his Bob books and a few very simple Level 1 readers on his own. Everything he reads on his own gets a link for his reading chain.

We're participating in the summer reading program at the library AND Garrett has his reading list for kindergarten, so we also started a reading journal for the books we read together. These are helping him get in handwriting practice, which he really isn't too keen on doing.

We're playing a LOT of games. Uno is by far our favorite. We had a party favor uno laying around with tiny little uno cards and its his favorite thing.

We swim on a daily basis. Thanks to Grandma Sherry, Garrett is signed up for private lessons. The kid is a fish, and we decided we'd see how much he could learn in the way of swimming stokes. He also couldn't really float, because he just can't be still for that long. He can now though. We both love his teacher.

We had decided not to sign Summer up for swimming lessons because she has been a little bit of a scaredy cat in terms of being on her own in the water. But yesterday at the Y she finally discovered she can swim on her own holding on to a noodle and now she loves swimming all over the pool. We'll probably sign her up for some group lessons at the Y once she turns 3, for both social interaction and to get her used to swimming without me. She loves the water.

We do lots of fun things in the back yard. For some reason the kids think hitting the bouganvilla with sticks is one of the most entertaining things ever.

Garrett has taken to climbing the huge oak tree in our back yard. He also likes to "look for dinosaur fossils" in the lake.

And of course we occassionally play in the front too. Summer likes to take Minnie and Mickey for walks in her stroller.
And we've been going to the park occassionally, although it is hot. They BOTH decided to be monkeys at Audubon the other day.

We've been building things with our legos. Here's an awesome boat he got from Ms. Leanne for his birthday.
We've played with our friends a lot. We've had friends over to swim, we've picked up the Shumans early from school to come over to play, we've gone to the zoo with the Davis clan.

Xander's birthday is coming up (in fact his party is today), so Garrett and I have spent some one-on-one time for that--he and I went shopping together for his gifts (which Garrett picked out). I HATE buying gift bags and/or wrapping paper, I think it is the most wasteful thing on the planet, so Garrett and I crafted this cute gift bag out of an up-cycled T-mobile bag. He had a blast putting the presents in once we were done.

And of course we had to make the card too.

We've gone to the free movies at flagship. We go for bike rides, usually to the pool or to the grocery store. We spend a lot of time at the library. We've done science experiments, learned about the phases of the moon, and talked about the diet of almost every animal imaginable. We've enjoyed having no real place to be at any set time. Most of all, we've just enjoyed each others company. It has truly been an excellent summer.