Summer- 6 Days In

Last year I made my summer post right on time, this year I'm 6 days late!  Last Wednesday, at 11:30am, Summer finally began.  Well, I guess it was a little later since I had to wait for parents to pick up their kids for about 20 minutes.  Then I stayed in my classroom until around 2 or so to make sure I could check everything off of the "Check Out Procedures."  & I did.  I didn't want to come in the next day or even the next week to get things done, so I stayed a few hours later to get everything done, and then I turned in my checklist and my keys and walked out the school door.  A door I won't have to walk back into for 9 more weeks!

 

The last two summers, I worked.  Two summers ago I worked part time at the Summer Camp at my school and last year I did tutoring.  Last year I worked 132 hours over the summer and made a few thousand dollars extra, but this year.. I won't make any extra besides what I already get paid.. But I'll get an extra 132 hours with the three best things in the world, Elyse, Ryan, and Jake.  Sometimes, or allthetimes, making memories and spending time with what matters most is a bazillion times better than making some extra money.

 

I have been SO, SO excited about spending everyday at home this summer.  My summer calendar is already filled with all sorts of fun/free things to do with the kids!

 

 

Day 1.  I had signed up the kids for a Color Me Mine event (FREE!!) with the kids club at our local mall.  I was going to be watching a little girl who lives by me and who also was in my class two years ago.  I took her and the boys to paint some pottery and we met one of my friends there who was also with her two year old.  Ryan had a good time making a coffee mug for Daddy.  I need to go pick it up, we'll see how it turned out.

 

 

 

We also went to the library where Ryan got to check out some books.  Curious George, of course.  Ryan loves checking out his books all by himself (with a little help from Mommy.)  We have read these books over and over.  I'm glad he has the patience to sit on my lap and read story after story with me!

 

 

 

 

Day 2.  We made today a zoo day!  At the beginning of the year I bought a family zoo pass.  We've already used it about 5-6 times, and it's already paid for itself.  Our zoo is pretty small, but it's perfect for a 2 year old who loves to be independant and run around by himself.

 

 

 

Today was also mine and Tim's 5 year anniversary- which deserves it's own post!  We celebrated with Papa Murphy's pizza, cookies, and the two perfect little babies we made along the way.

 

 

Day 3.   We spent our day lazying around at home!  Jake was sooo cute on our walk tonight.  He kept looking back at momma and smiling.  He makes my heart so full!

 

 

Day 4.  Church!  I didn't take any pictures today.  Ryan LOVES church!  I am so glad because he spent the first few weeks crying when we dropped him off and now he walks right in, happily.

 

 

Day 5.  The kids woke up early and I wanted to take them for a walk before it got too warm out during the day.  We brought along pancakes and milk.

 

 

When Tim was working, we spent some time outside in the water table.  First time using the water table this year.  I tried my best to clean it all out, only to have Jake & Ryan throw in lots of dirt and water.  They got pretty messy and I had to give them a bath and put Jakey down for a nap afterwards.  During naptime, I cleaned the bathrooms and swept and mopped the house.

 

 

Grandma R had invited us to a petting zoo near her house.  We met up with her and Kylie and the kids had fun in the petting zoo.  Ryan was walking around by himself, Kylie was picking up chickens, and Jakey was just standing there staring, like always.  He's so funny- when he wanted to touch an animal he stuck out his pointer finger and poked it a couple times.  I tried teaching him how to pet the animals, but he had more fun poking them. :)

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we went to Peter Piper Pizza for a couple hours and then raced home to catch "The Voice" at 7! 

 

 

 

Day 6.  This morning I took the kids to story time.  We read some books and sang songs and then made flowers out of tissue paper.  We made two.  I kept one in my purse on the way home and I let Ryan hold the other one in the backseat.  When we got home, the one that was in the backseat with Ryan was ripped into a bunch of tiny pieces.  I guess he thought tissue paper made better confetti instead of a flower.

 

 

 

The boys were helping Daddy decide what to eat for lunch.

 

 

Tonight, after dinner, was Ryan's first gym class of the season!  I took him last year and loved it so we signed him up again.  They took out these basketball hoops and a bunch of balls and Ryan played basketball for about 15 mintues.  Most of the kids stopped playing with it after a few minutes, not Ryan.  He loved it.  After each basket, he would look up at a teacher and hope they would clap for him or tell him good job.

 

 

 

What a great way to start off 2 months of summer :)