Water table

Since Ashten had her ear surgery in May, she isn't allowed to go swimming for a month.  And she isn't allowed to go in any natural bodies of water till the tubes are gone, so no rivers, oceans, lakes, etc.  That'll be a tough one if we go camping, otherwise, hopefully not too hard to avoid. 

Anyway, we've still gotta do something on these hot days when the temps are in the 90's.  So I get out the water table and let her go to town.  There's no chance her ears will get water in them, but she still gets the coooling effect of being all wet. 

Breakfast buddies

Ashten loves to sit with Chris at breakfast and "help" read the paper.  Good thing she's cute, I don't think Chris would tolerate just anyone sitting on his lap, eating his cereal and messing up his paper every morning.

Fire muster

Last weekend, we took the kids to the Fire Muster.  I don't really know what a "muster" is, but there were a lot of different kinds of fire trucks and booths with free stuff and stuff like that.  The boys had a lot of fun, but I think their favorite part was definitely getting a free stuffed animal!  They were giving out stuffed animals by the ambulance and  then you pretended like your animal was hurt and took care of it.  My camera died about halfway through, but at least I got pictures of them on the fire trucks!

Bakugan battles

The boys are really into Bakugan lately.  They know all the "lingo" and have fun battling each other. 

Summer Boredom Jar

We were probably not even 8 hours into summer vacation (give or take 7 hours!) and I was hearing "mom, I'm borrrred!!!"  My response?  "GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!"  Well that worked for maybe 3 days and then I heard "mom, I'm borrrrred and going outside is boring too!"  You'd think they enjoy the break from doing something everyday and getting to do whatever they want whenever they want, but apparently, not so much.

Enter the Summer Boredom Jar (DUM, DUM, DUM....).  (And before you get the idea that I'm super creative and a fun mom like that, let me tell you that I got the idea and adapted it from here).  Actually making the jar was a fun activity in itself.  I asked the boys for fun ideas of things they could do around the house over the summer.  Then I printed them out and put Brayden and Logan to work cutting them into strips.  Then we put all the paper in a jar.  Brayden suggested using a bandana so that the person choosing couldn't see what they were picking.  He also suggested taping a baggie to the side so we could put the activities we already did in there and not repeat them.  Good additions I thought!

So after the jar was complete, they immediately wanted to pick an activity out to do.  The first one they picked was "Lemonade Stand".  I was thinking, oh man, just more work for me!  But they were determined and it actually turned out to be really fun.  The boys made and decorated a sign and brought out the table and chairs to the curb.  We actually did Kool-aid because that's what we had and we just did it for free because I didn't have any change and didn't want to have to be right there monitoring that each person got their change.  However, even though they had a "free kool-aid" stand, they made more than $7!!  People are just generous when they see cute kids out with a little lemonade stand. 

I think our first Summer Boredom Jar activity was a success.  Logan even said "this is more fun than playing Mario Kart on the Wii!!!!"  And that's saying a lot for him!

Discovering the sandbox

Ashten found out we had a sandbox last week, and now she can crawl in and out by herself and loves to squish it in her toes.

Monkey on a swing

He's got quite the acrobatic moves....maybe we should get him in gymnastics or something?

Working in the yard

 A few nights ago, Chris had some work to do in the yard and enlisted the help of our three strapping boys. 

The older Brayden gets, the better helper he is in the jobs we give him. We aren't just giving him busy work, he actually helps us complete a task faster and does a good job. This paticular night, we (and in "we", I mean Chris and the boys!) were pulling up dead sod and planting seed to hopefully grow some new grass. 

Brayden, hard at work

Look how much I did, mom!

And I've got the dirty hands to prove it!

Logan, is also a very good helper, although easily distracted!

He starts out so good, helping and working hard!

But then he finds worms, and it's all over!!!!

Preston, on the other hand, has passed the age where helping is cool, but hasn't quite reached the age where he's motivated to help because he feels like he actually accomplishes something.  I think he spent most of the evening running around the yard.

 Ashten has figured out a new way to get her sippy cup when I'm not listening or being too slow.....

3 Piggy Opera

Logan's kindergarten class put on a play/opera for their end-of-the-year thing.  It was very cute.  Logan played the part of the daddy pig.  He had two lines:

"So don't forget to write,
And visit each Sunday night.
And then I'll cook for each of you,
delicious, nutritious, garbage stew,

delicious, nutritious, garbage stew." (said to the 3 little pigs when they were about to leave home)

See his cute little piggy tail?

"It'll be alright dear". (said to the mommy pig when the 3 little pigs left home)

Instead of saying their lines, they sang them (hence the opera!).  It was very cute.  They even had choreography and they did their own set design.  They had been working on it since after Spring Break I think and Logan was very proud of it.  He did a great job.