Monday, June 30, 2014

Summer Fun-Month of June

We've had a fun filled summer so far. I've been trying really hard to plan a small activity every weekday. Weekends we take it easy, but during the week we try to keep busy. 
Day 1 of Summer vacation we wrote letters to our favorite disney characters. Bailey colored a picture for cinderella and then I wrote down what she wanted to say in her letter. It was pretty adorable. 
Tanner colored a picture of buzz lightyear and wrote his own letter. He's getting so big. 
We mailed the letters the next day (on June 3rd)

A little over a month later, We got postcards back from disney. Bailey's was a postcard from cinderella with all the princesses on the front. She absolutely loves it. Tanner got a postcard from Mickey Mouse and friends. He was a little sad it wasn't from Buzz Lightyear, but he was still excited to get mail. 
We are happy the letters worked and we got replies- it made my kids so happy. 
Day 2-5 were spent with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Johnny- which I already blogged about
day 2-Pool and burgers
day 3- Roger's Aquatic Center
Day 4- Splash pad
Day 5- Krispy Kremes- National Donut Day

Day 6- started a new week. We made chocolate dipped frozen bananas with some friends.
These were a big hit and not too unhealthy.
Day 7- color bubble science. These were fun. I found these little kits at a grocery store and knew they'd be a hit with Tanner and Bailey. Tanner really loved mixing the different color bubbles in their test tubes. He kept saying he was doing experiments and forming theories. I was cracking up. 

Bailey just loved blowing the bubbles 
Chris left on the morning of day 8 for the first phase of OCS training. He was gone for 18 days. So everything after day 8 was done without Daddy. It was hard to have him gone, but staying busy helped.  
Day 8- we did a nature scavenger hunt around the trails at Crystal Bridges museum. This was really fun. I gave each kid a list of things to look for and we found everything except "animal footprints". 

These random animals around the trails were a big hit with the kids too. 
Day 9: Home made puppet theater and hand puppets. Bailey wanted to make a "Cinderella" puppet and Tanner wanted "Jake" from "Jake and the never land pirates". We put on puppet shows and Tanner was quite dramatic about it. I laughed a lot at the little stories he came up with. 

Day 10: Donut day. Totally Delicious. 
Day 11: The next week started off with planting tomatoes. We really wanted to have home-grown tomatoes this summer. Hopefully they survive Bailey, she keeps trying to pick them before they turn red. 


Day 12- Gymnastics class at "Little Gym." It was fun. This little gym offer a free class, so you can try it out and see if you want to enroll. If we didn't get lots of cheap classes through the walmart gym, I would totally enroll here. The teacher was awesome and Tanner LOVED it. 
Tanner was completely into it. It was fun to watch him. Bailey didn't last long- maybe the first 20 minutes. 
There is Bailey before she decided she wanted to bail. It was an hour long class, but Tanner lasted the entire time and loved the whole thing. 
Tanner on the bars. 
Day 13- Pool time. We finally got "puddle jumpers"  and it makes going to the pool so much easier. 
Even Tucker got to enjoy some sun and soaked up some vitamin D. 
Day 14- we saw "Epic" at the carmike Cinema in Bella Vista with some friends. I was worried about taking three kids to the theater, but it actually went really great. Tucker slept in the ergo the entire time and Tanner and Bailey were really well behaved. 
After the movie, we drove over to Mtn. Home for the weekend. 
The next day -day 15- we got to see some friends who were visiting. My best friend from grade school was home visiting so we got our kids together. Adrian has 3 beautiful girls. The older two are twins and her new one is just 11 days older than Tucker. It was fun to hang  out with them for the day.  
Week 4 started off with rain, so we spent day 16 playing in the rain and splashing in muddy puddles. (after driving home from Mtn. Home earlier that day). The kids loved playing in the mud and they loved getting clean in the tub afterwards. 
They were completely covered in mud and soaking wet. Aren't these little faces awesome? 

Day 17- was sunny again so we headed back over to the pool. Our neighborhood pool is only 3 blocks away and takes us about 5- 7 minutes to walk there. It's fantastic. We try to go swim there at least twice a week. The kids love it. 



Day 18: Splash pad fun. We met a bunch of friends at the splash pad and let the kids play until we noticed a storm rolling in. We hopped in the car and just beat the thunderstorm home. 
day 19: We went to the "Science of Music Story time" at our library. They make different instruments each week and this week it was Popsicle stick harmonicas. The kids loved them. 
Day 20- Marble races- These were fun and way easy. 



And the next day was Saturday, June 28th- and that was the magical day that Daddy came home. We survived having Daddy gone. It was hard but we did it. But we are so happy to have him home. Our Summer is 1/3 of the way over already and I can hardly believe it. We still have lots of fun things planned for July and August so stay tuned. 

Oh and since Tucker is usually in my ergo or napping during all our fun adventures, here are some pics of our sweet little man. This little guy is always smiling and happy. He is such a laid back little baby and makes life so easy for me. 
He really loves to be swaddled. When he gets fussy it usually means he's tired so I just swaddle him up and rock him with his binky and he's asleep in no time. He's such a great baby. 
He's really chunking out lately. You've got to love this round little face and naked little body. 
And he's getting really great at "tummy time". He's a pro and doesn't mind it at all. The doctor told me he acts more like a 4 month old on his tummy as opposed to a 2 month old. Crazy. He's getting way too big, way too fast. We sure love this happy little guy.