Happy Summer....

Tomorrow's our first real day of nothing = summer. I'm so excited!! I have been working on a summer list of fun activities to do with the kids. It's mostly pool and beach, some free movies, some free bowling, the library summer reading program, some school review stuff with Jayne, and I've come up with some afternoon projects/activities to help when the kids are going stir crazy :-) A lot we do anyway, but I like having a list so when I'm just tired I can refer to my list.

Here's some of my ideas: (I'd love some more that work for little kids)

*Make Lemonade/Ready Maisy Makes Lemonade
*Paper Garden- Use pipe cleaner, muffin cup liners, easter grass, cardstock, make your own garden
*Leaf Dieing- Die tea cloths, put flowers in cloth and smash flowers in it with mallet, will die cloth
*Difference in Water- bowl of salt water and fresh water, compare smell, taste, float, freeze
*Waves in a Bottle- Filll a plastic soda bottle half way with blue died water. Next fill the remainder of the bottle with oil. Now they can make waves by tilting the bottle.
*Make Binoculars- take 2 empty toilet paper rolls and glue together and paint
*Scavenger Hunt- go on walk to find flowers, twigs, rocks, make list before you go of what to find
*Catch the Bubble fish- Fill balloons with water and put in buckets or water table and have kids catch them with their hands or little nets
*Plant flowers or Garden Food
*Go Camping or build a fort in the family room. Do puzzles, read stories, and make smores
*Make your own hula skirt or lei- paper bag and yarn, string and tissue for lei
*Make Your own Popsicles
*Make Home Made Play Dough
*Sidewalk Chalk
*Watch the Clouds for Shapes and Animals
*Stargazing and Hot Chocolate
*Wash the Car
*Mix and Match- Cut out two of various circus shapes (clowns, tigers, lions, elephants), put all the shapes in a bowl, have them pull them out and sort however they want (shape, color, size), animal crackers for snack

Preschool Graduation

I can't believe this day has arrived. It's bitter sweet. On the one hand, she is totally ready to go. She's reading real books, writing really well (even asks me how to spell words so she can write stories), and is very social. I feel very good about her being ready to go, but I'll miss her! She's been my almost constant buddy for 5 years now. 9 hours of preschool in a whole week isn't very long. I love having her with me. We have so much fun and she's a wonderful helper. I'm excited for the adventures that await her and all the learning and growing to come.

I love her home-made hat!

They began by reciting the pledge of allegiance and singing several of their favorite songs from the year. The teacher called up each child and gave them their certificate and told several things about them. It was adorable, especially the opening processional where they marched in to the graduation song.

Her class.

Her teacher Miss Shirley and Miss Lisa.

And of course Ryan loved it! He can't wait to go in 1 or 2 years!!

Father's Day

The kids and I tried to make Father's Day special for my amazing husband! And it was really fun to get to see my own Dad on Father's day too! My siblings and I went in on a gift for my Dad. The kids and I worked on several gifts for Jason. They couldn't wait to give them to him.

He's never surprised, but I finally got him! I surprised him with a round of golf I saved for with my sewing money. It was very fun to get him something I knew he'd love. It's so expensive to golf in CA on a Saturday it's just ridiculous, so he doesn't ever get to go. Enjoy the day, Babe! I wish you could go more often!

I hope you had a wonderful day, Dad and Jason! I love you both!

Brooklynn Birthday Party

We had a fun weekend at my parents celebrating my cousin's birthday and Father's day!

Gotta love being at Grandma's and getting to lick the homemade hot fudge topping bowl! He was in heaven.

The kids had so much fun swimming! Love summer!

Check out my Baby Jayne's blog on how to make these adorable towel's that turn into backpacks. The Jayne and Brooklynn and Ryan and Dallin had so much fun together!

Fontana 1/2 Marathon

(before @ 4:30am)

This past weekend I ran the Fontana 1/2 Marathon. It was very fun. I've done 2 full marathons (SD Rock and Roll and Carlsbad), but always by myself. My parents decided to run this one with me. My mom even twisted her ankle 2 weeks ago and still came and ran it and did amazing. I was super happy with my time, even though it was pretty hot out there that day. The 1/2 was a great distance. My body can't do any more full marathons and it's too time consuming. I didn't do much training for this and felt good, so I think I'll stick with this for the future :-) Thanks Mom and Dad! and Thanks to Nita for letting us crash at her place so we only had to get up 4:30 to get there instead of even worse early hours to get there!

I finished in 1 hr 45 min. It's an 8:05 mile avg so I was super happy with that.

Yes, my mom looks like my twin. We almost had the same outfit on and didn't even plan it.

All done. Ready to get home.

Tools, Trains, and Baseball

That's what Ryan's into these days.

He decided immediately after eating breakfast while I'm still cleaning up, he goes up to his room, gets his tools and hard hat and his shoes, put them on by himself and runs out the door to play. I made him come back for a picture.

Ryan loves all sports, but he's especially captivated when he gets to watch his dad play softball. He held onto the ball all game and couldn't wait to play catch with his Dad after. So dang cute.

Rocks and a Bucket

We have a ton of toys. All over. Outside in the yard. Inside. Everywhere.

Yesterday I hear this clinking sound on the front door. Usually the kids come around and knock on it when they are playing in the yard and trying to be funny and have me answer it. But this was a different sound. I go to investigate and find this...

Ryan had devised a new game. He's taking my decorative rocks from the yard and throwing them into an old paint bucket Jason had left out to dry. He'd stand pretty far back and aim, usually banking it off the front door. All I could do is laugh. Who needs toys when you have a bucket and rocks.

Fashionista

Jayne got a gift card to Target for her bday (Thanks Jenni!). She was so excited to go spend it. She brought a purse and put the gift card in her the entire time. She also got to pay the cashier. She decided she wanted clothes. We picked out lots of things and then I gave her options of things that were in her budget (ie. just this, or these two shirts, or this skirt and this top, etc.). She knew exactly what she wanted and picked everything herself. She ended up with this adorable black dress and an adorable hot pink and black shirt with rhinestones on it. She got both off the clearance rack so she got to get both things. She was so excited. She put this outfit together to wear to school the next day. We had so much fun and she loves it. I think I've got a fashionista on my hands :-)