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.

Why Aspen is the Awesomest Dog Ever

I always have a hard time explaining what Aspen means to us as a family. He's not only not-just-a-dog, he's such an integral part of this family it isn't even funny. His patience with the kids never ceases to amaze me . . .

He not only puts up with photo sessions


he puts up with fights that ensue over him


and STILL manages to give Garrett smooches, which makes Garrett smile bigger than anything else.
He is always in the thick of it, even when "it" is campout sleepovers with four kids.

And even though Summer tortures him in many ways, he never makes a single complaint.


This past week we had a house guest for a week. We fostered Lilo for This is The Dog while her usual foster mom was out of town, and he loved having someone big to play with. (Someone who wasn't 1/4 his size and always grumpy, anyway). He's just about the best, craziest, sweetest grey pup we could ask for, and I can't believe he's 7 this year.

Happy 4th!

We had a wonderfully busy 4th of July weekend. We made ice cream and festive 4th of July ice cream pops, had a sleep over with our friends, and more. Here's a few pictures to tide everyone over until I get a chance for a real update. In the mean time, pictures from the entire weekend are on facebook.

Five

I never did my nostalgic "I can't believe he's five" post for Garrett's birthday. I CAN'T believe he's five, but as previously mentioned, we've been too busy doing stuff to really sit back and reminisce. But for some reason, the birthdays of friends always make me more weepy than the birthdays of my own kids. Today is Garrett's best bud Xander's birthday. Its pretty awesome that these two boys have been friends since they were six months old. At first, it was the mommy friendship more than the boys, but now, its all of us.

This past year, the Shumans and the Compton families have boated, bar-b-qued, attended school events, and just generally hung out more than we have any year in the past. And that's saying something, since most of our major holidays have been spent with our "Florida family"

We have had a LOT of great friends come and go in the past few years. We've been so blessed to have such excellent friends. I grew up as an only child, so I love that not only will Garrett have his sister to play with, he also has his wonderful neighborhood friends to call on. Its pretty awesome to say you've been friends with someone your whole life.

And Jess and I were talking that even if they have their little falling outs as life goes on, they will have to make up because even if they don't want to hang out with each other, the families still will.
They've had so many "firsts" together in the past five years . . .
And goodness knows there will be plenty more.
Part of the reason I've been putting of the "five" post is because I haven't been too sure what to say. Garrett is amazing, he's reading and busy and incredibly adventurous. He can be mean to his sister, then incredibly sweet to her in the next breath. He loves his dogs. He loves to play. He's always busy. Its hard to summarize all the changes and amazing things in a few paragraphs. But if I ask him what he wants to do on any given day, his first responses is almost ALWAYS "Can Xander come play?" He declares to me on a daily basis "Xander and I are best friends!" He even asked if he could take Xander with him on the much anticipated trip to Grandma's house in a few weeks. So, I can't believe they are BOTH five. I'm really looking forward to watching them share the next five years of this wild, crazy ride together.

And, since I haven't given you any new pictures in this post, just a recap of the old ones, enjoy this one of Garrett going off the diving board at Xander's 5th birthday party!

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.

Catch-up : The end of school and the end of Grandma's visit

Garrett finished his first year of school on June 9th. June has been/continues to be a total blur. The first 2 weeks of June were insane--Grandma left, work was absolutely out of control, and I had extra kids several days to help out our neighbors. INSANITY. Complete, UTTER insanity. Which is why I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.

We remembered to get a picture of Grandma with Brad and the kids while she was here:
Garrett was SO proud of himself on his last day of school. He told me "I'm ready to start Kindergarten TOMORROW". He loved loved LOVED the bear the school gave him.
And I will forever be greatful to his amazing teacher for giving him such a wonderful first year of school, which has set the tone for the rest of his education.

Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives. ~Andy Rooney

Kindergarten starts on 8/22, which is only **59** days away. I can't believe how fast summer is flying by. We're really happy with Garrett's intended school, and its finally a sure thing that Xander will be going there as well. X is actually going to come stay with us every day after school--which will make our neighbor's life easier since they won't have to make to seperate stops to pick up their kids from different schools, and will make MY life easier because all Garrett ever wants to do is have Xander over to play anyway. We're loving summer but I know its going to be over before we know it.

Next up: how we're spending our summer (so far)