Summer Box of Fun

So, my last post was about the simple pleasures of summer. We have had a great time going "back to the basics" and enjoying things that I did as a child during summer break. I failed to mention that we had a little help in the form of... Dollar Tree!! I love that store and I feel like I should give a "shout out" to it in the form of a blog entry. Who knows it may help other mommies create some wonderful memories for their kids this summer as well?!?! Feel free to comment on your own Dollar Tree finds

A few cool things we bought at Dollar Tree to kick off our "Summer Box of Fun"

1- Butterfly nets. They are essential. You cannot make one out of homemade materials and you can't beat 2 for a $1. We actually bought 4 so we can keep a set in the car on the off chance that we have a butterfly sighting while we are out and about (yeah, we're a little serious about our butterflies around here)

2- Magnifying glass. What a great invention! The kids love to look at rocks, bugs and even mulch thru the lense... Hours of endless educational fun (just don't look up your brothers nose.. GROSS!)

3- Buckets and shovels. Where do I begin? The kids dig up worms for fishing bait, they dig for "treasure" at the park, they make sand castles and sand fortresses, they keep fun little frogs in them, and they make mud soup and other gross concoctions.. the possibilities are endless.

4- Chalk. We make impromtu hopscotch boards wherever we may be at, we love a LARGE game of hangman and of course there is always the infamous tracing of bodies on cement so it looks like a crime scene. Totally cool but tastes nasty (don't ask.)

5- Personalized Water Bottles. You better believe we drink gallons of H2O (and then pee on some random tree at the park b/c the porta-pots are N-A-S-T-Y). We found some great water bottles that had little inserts so the kids could design their own. Makes a great arts and craft project when friends come over too.

6- Wood bird houses (with the paint and food). They had these fun little unfinished wood birdhouses that the kids painted and then displayed in our backyard trees. It's been a great way to get little feathery friends in our yard and discover which birds like to visit our neck of the woods.

Summer's simple pleasures

If you are a parent, you may have also noticed the long, lost art of summer recreation. Parker had a friend over this week and she refused to play in our sprinkler (despite the HOT temps). When I questioned her about it, she said,
"I never played in one before. I don't think it looks like fun." I am happy to report we proved the poor girl wrong and I had to literally drag her out (soaking wet and purple lips) after 40 minutes. What about hula hoops, hopscotch and even good ole' fashion bike riding? We were invited to the park at the end of the school year and I packed the kids bikes. Do you know we were the only ones to bring a bike as the mode of transportation? Two kids brought along their Jeep Powerwheels, 1 kid brought her little motorized scooter and the other two 5 year olds still didn't know how to pedal a bike so they just watched. All the kids were clamoring to try the bikes and we ended up having to share 2 bikes 9ways.

My intentional goal this summer has become helping Parker and Lillie enjoy the simple activities that I enjoyed as a kid. Picnics in the grass, bike excursions around the neighborhood, obstacle courses created with what we have around the house, and LOTS of sand castles! We went to the playground the other day and the kids wanted to take a nature walk along the lakes and on the trails. We ended up staying 3 hours! We caught butterflies and dragonflies and found a HUGE ant hill, a dead fish, a warty toad and bunches of wildflowers!!! Parker was in little boy heaven and well, Lillie had enough flower bouquets for a Hollywood wedding! It was such a great day and I am sooo sad I didn't have my camera to capture the moments. It started out as an innocent trip to play on the swings and turned into a very adventurous outing.

Yesterday, we had some good friends visit us. We hadn't seen Heather and her kids since September so the reunion was long overdue and very anticipated. Maddie, who is 6 years old brought my kids a gift. She gave each one a little ziploc bag full of water with some shells in it and called it "their personal aquarium". Do you know that those little ziploc bags have provided a whole day of fun around here? They added sand to the bags and little pieces of grass and then some pretend fish. They admired each others "aquariums" and gave suggestions for making them "cooler" and traded shells. Thank you Maddie (and Heather) for being so creative and enjoying the simple things in life.

I hope whether you have kids or not, that this summer you re-discover the fun of reading a book under a tree, have a watermelon seed spitting contest, pick wildflowers to your hearts content,making fresh squeezed lemonade,roll in freshly mowed grass and please please please run thru a sprinkler and make a wish!

Dad-Day 08

Happy Father's Day Trev (even though it wasn't)!!! Sorry you woke up sick and have felt terrible all day. It cannot be a fun thing to watch your wife and kids go to church and then spend the afternoon at the pool while you are trying your best to keep jello and Gatorade down on your designated Hallmark holiday!

We love you and think you are amazing.. but you know that already(Lils only lets you know you are "sooo hansom" every morning and Parker only leaves you 10 voicemails a day telling you how cool you are and how much he misses you) THANK YOU for being the VERY best Dad, husband and teammate there is! (Maybe we can celebrate with that DQ Cotton Candy blizzard next Sunday!)

Summer project # 3...or 4.. or something

Trevis is probably pretty convinced at this point that my main goal this summer is to have him do a laborious and sweaty project every weekend until Labor Day. It really isn't. (Although, I'm not opposed to the idea). Spring kicked off with him building us the ultimate sandbox. Then we landscaped the entire house (I planted the pretty flowers and shrubs and sprayed the hose ont he kids every 30 seconds. Trev scooped and scattered a dumptruck load of mulch in 95 degree heat and 100% humnidity). Then, last weekend he and Parker took on a picnic table. We looked at a lot of nice patio furniture but ultimately we decided that practical, sturdy, very very very kid-friendly and tornado proof was best for us. Which led to a good ole'fashion picnic table. It is very cool and trust me, it weighs a ton and isn't going anywhere in a bad storm. Here are some pics of the boys (and their muscles). Hmmm...I wonder what this weekend project will entail???

Assisted reading

Parker was sitting on my bed reading what I assumed was one of his summer reading books. He's a very proficient reader and so to hear him stumbling over words is pretty unusual. He calls out to me, "Mom, this is a tough one and doesn't make sense"love a circle and a paci???" I look over at him as he is squinting and reading the fineprint on the tag on my pillow which says "lave el ciclo apacible." Which means "WASH IN THE GENTLE CYCLE."

~bueno trata a mi hijo
translation: "good try my son"