June Photo Dump

Here are some of my June pictures that never got shared.

Crazy monkeys eating bananas.  Typical Logan face.  He cracks me up.

Olivia made Logan a sleeping bag. That is him pretending to sleep.

Then she made herself one.  Um... they do have sleeping bags they can play with. Sillies.

On one of our Hobby Lobby runs, Olivia was dancing through the aisles.  I had to look back at a text I sent to Michael, because her wording was cracking me up.  She said, "Look at these darling pumpkins!  It's like a whole new world of wonder!"  Ha ha ha!!

This was post spin...  we went to another aisle and she said, "I just adore all of these blue dishes."  She's an old soul, this one.

Logan was "swinging" across his crib because he was a monkey.  Then he said, "Take a picture!"

Building a Lego masterpiece together

Michael takes the kids swimming at night sometimes while I work.  But we went as a family for the first time over Father's Day weekend.  Swimming in a pool was on Olivia's bucket list, and since we could check that off--she set out to accomplish another task.  Playing blocks.  What can I say? We love lists! ;)

 Have I mentioned that he's a character? :)

Remember that video interview I did of Olivia?  Well, she got her phone from her kitchen and was doing a video interview of me.  She was asking my name, my age, and any other question she could recall.

In the midst of my mom being here and birthday party planning, I had my MOPS steering retreat.  We met at a hotel, went for dinner, planned all night long, and then went to bed late.

We stayed at a nice trendy hotel.  Some people decided to go home, since we had finished at night and didn't need to meet in the morning.  To which I said they were crazy. A free hotel room?  No one waking me up at 7 AM? A bed to myself?  No, I am not going home at 3 in the morning.  Y'all are crazy!

Not the best lighting, but I love this picture of these two right before Olivia's party.  Michael hopped up on the counter to take a seat, and Olivia insisted on sitting with him. I love their bond.

We haven't been able to make it to too many church OR MOPS play dates this summer because of scheduling conflicts, but we did make it to a church play date at the splash pad.

We attempted to go to a Michael's craft camp while my mom was here. That way she could stay with Olivia and do the crafts, and I could watch Logan.  I thought it was a come and go type of thing, but that is apparently only on the Saturday morning times. The weekday camps actually start at a specific time.  So we were a little too late.  Instead, we roamed Michael's, bought some treasures, and had a little fun.  Michael's craft camp is going to have to wait until next summer when the little guy can participate too.

Our Weekend--Swim Lessons

One day I might actually be caught up, and I can do our weekend post on a Monday like normal bloggers. ;)

We had a gift card, so we started out our day with a special breakfast!

Then we headed straight from breakfast to the gym.  The kids had their swim assessments a few weeks ago, and Saturday was finally their first lesson.

talking to Olivia's teacher

We decided to do lessons at the gym because of price and location/convenience.  Olivia has taken lessons on and off through the years (but is still a beginner!), but this was Logan's first time.

One of my children thinks he's Michael Phelps, and the other cries when she gets water on her face... so they both needed lessons for their own reasons.  I was super proud of Olivia when she actually did bob under the water multiple times--getting her entire head wet.  She loves "swimming", but she isn't a fan of water... if that makes sense.  So this is big for her!

The parents have to sit off to the side in the parent gallery.  Which I get, but as you can see, Olivia spent half her time looking over at me to make sure I could see that she was doing it. :/  And you can see Logan and Michael in the background in the baby and toddler class.  There were multiple different lessons going on in the different lanes at the same time.

Olivia working on her back and Logan jumping in.  The teacher had him jump in, and she left him under water a little longer than he would have liked, so then he refused to jump back in for her.

The last 5 minutes the parents come over and watch what they've learned.

I know there are other kids her age that are already great swimmers, but this is a big deal for her.  She doesn't like being on her back in the water.  I think it makes her feel like she doesn't have control.

I liked Logan's face and little wave to me in this one.

After the lessons were over, Olivia wanted to show Michael what she had learned.  So we headed out to the outside pool.  In the future, we will have to come more prepared.  We could have stayed a lot longer had I brought my suit, and if we had puddle jumpers for the kids.  So that may be our new Saturday morning routine.

We headed home for lunch.  We actually had to wake Logan up a little after 9, so I knew a nap wasn't going to happen.  Instead, we packed up and headed to the library.  There is a library about 2 minutes from our house, but it's small.  Instead, we headed to the larger library.  There are more things for the kids to do, and a better selection of books.  Plus, every Saturday from 1 to 5 they have board games in a room for families to play together.  So we played things like Jenga and Sorry that we don't have at home.  We all got some new books, and the kids got a DVD each as well.

We were there for a while, but then it was time to go.  We were trying to think of something to do that was cheap and fun and family friendly.  We eventually decided on the splash pad.  There is one at Olivia's favorite park, and she is always begging to go there and play.

There was a birthday party going on and there was an Anna and Elsa all dressed up and in the water. (Crazy!)  So Olivia was observing...

We played in the water, took a break and ran around the playground some, then went back to the water to cool off.  An hour out in the heat was more than enough.

We picked up some Canes, headed home for dinner, took showers and got in our pajamas, and then ended the night by watch a library DVD.   It was a fun, (mostly) free family day!  Just what we all needed.

We kept Sunday kind of chill.  We read our library books, cleaned, played, and set up the majority of our homeschool "classroom".  Olivia is in love, and I'm pretty happy about it myself!!! Pictures to come!

VBS, Take 1

There are some people that sign their kids up for a different VBS every week of the summer. That's exhausting to me.  I like to stick with the church that is by our house.  It's our friend's church, they have a fantastic preschool, we are familiar with it, it's close, and it just works for us.  She went last year, and I registered her months ago for this year's.  One VBS is fine by me.

But then I got an email from her preschool director.  If you had completed Pre-K and were heading into Kindergarten this year, then you could join their VBS.  So I decided we'd do it, and attend TWO weeks of VBS this year.  I mostly did it because she loves her preschool, but also because I was hoping she'd get to see some of her classmates.  And three of her favorites did attend.  Unfortunately, they weren't all in the same class.  But she was still happy to be there all the same.

Most churches do one of two different themes each year.  Everyone buys their materials from the same place.  (Which is also why VBS hopping every week seems a little weird to me.)  But her preschool is a smaller Presbyterian church, and they just did their own thing.  The case of the Scottish Sleuths was solving the case of the Baffling Beginnings.

She's trying to stand "like a detective" :)

There were decorations everywhere.  At first, Olivia thought they were trying to solve the case of the broken window.  We were discussing it on the way home the first day, and she said, "Well, someone left paper footprints on the ground for us"... LOL!  No fooling this girl. Then she gave me a few scenarios of who could have done it.  Then she said, "But I think I solved the mystery.  I think someone just drew a broken window and taped it to the wall."  This still cracks me up a week later.  Do not try to tape some construction paper to a wall, people.  She's on to you!!! ;)

She had lots of fun every day. She loved the crafts, snacks, songs, and goodies she got to bring home.

The last day was suppose to be a water day, but it rained so they just stayed inside.  Then the parents came a little early and watched the kids sing the songs they had learned and viewed a slideshow of the weeks activities.  Someone got a little too into the songs and was jumping around like an epileptic.  So our stage performance issues aren't all cleared up, but what are you going to do?! ;) LOL!

It's not as big or as flashy as some of the other churches in the area, but it was still a win in our book.

Music Camp

I mentioned earlier that I didn't want to sign Olivia up for a bunch of expensive camps this summer, but I did sign her up for one mini camp.  It was at the church we play at sometimes.  It was affordable, we are all familiar with the place and the director, and it had a music focus--which is not my strong suit.  So I thought it would be a perfect fit for us.

It was an under construction type theme.  It was the week after the 4th, so it was for four mornings.  It was sort of set up like a VBS, but with more of a focus on music.  She did crafts, had play time, had a snack, and learned new songs.  She made new friends, and came home every day telling me how she loved it.

They were suppose to have a performance on the Friday night of that week.  My intention was to skip it, and the director said that was fine.  So I didn't take off work.  I've taken off quite a bit lately (Target doesn't have a problem with it, but my checks reflect it!), and I didn't want to take off work just to go sweat through her being a train wreck on stage.  But come Friday afternoon she was going on and on about how she was going to sing on stage.  I told Michael it was up to him if he wanted to take her, and he happily agreed.  So off they went...

And don't you know, she did GREAT!  No meltdown.  No acting weird.  Just a perfectly normal performance.

And it was the biggest stage she had ever been on--with the most kids and the largest audience.  So who knows with this girl. But she apparently had a great time.

Logan and Boppa watched from the balcony.

And she was thrilled that she got a cookie when it was all over.

So that was our one camp experience!  

They left there and headed to her preschool to pick up her t-shirt for VBS.  On to another week of fun.

Sno Cones and Trains

I'll be honest and say that we northerners would rather have ice cream or custard over shaved ice any day.  But sno cones are a thing here, and we did discover The Sno Cone Lady last year.  She's by far our favorite. I figured we'd visit at least once this summer, so it got added to the bucket list.

We were in Frisco for a stop at IKEA, so we headed over with grandma and got a treat.

That's a small!!  And only for $2!  Win!

I like the ones with cream in them.  I don't think the kids are all that picky.

After we ate about half of our sno cones, we walked over and checked out some trains that were sitting there. Logan loves trains!

Cuties with purple mouths!

Conveniently he's wearing his train shirt... just not looking at the camera.

Willow Bend Mall

One of the area malls has a kids program every Thursday for the entire summer.  We had plans to go last summer, but never made it.  The only bad thing (for us) is that it's at 1 o'clock and that is usually nap time.  But I decided to just push through this year.

It's about a 20 to 25 minute drive for us, so we went a little early to make it worth it.  The kids played in the play area for a bit.

and my mom paid for them to take a ride

After about 45 minutes, we headed to the food court for lunch.

We were finished with lunch and ready to find a spot by 12:30, and it was already packed!  There is a pre-show with one of the local businesses or something.  So everyone was already enjoying that.

Sooo... we just rode the escalator up and found an uncrowded place to sit and watch.  Neither of my kids minded.

There were a few activities for the kids to do, so my mom took Olivia down to make a puppet.  She ran into the fairy, who was part of the pre-show. 

Every week is a different presenter. The week we went it was a Trash Vocal group.  They played music on things like trash cans and water barrels, and sang songs and jumped around.  It was right up Logan's alley! :)

Logan was dancing and clapping, but Olivia was tired and probably a little over stimulated from being there a while.  So we only lasted for about 20 minutes of the show.  But it was enough.  We went home for naps, and it worked out nicely.