What a Fun Summer!!

I always love the summer because all the kids I watched as babies come back to me!! Mikah and Andrew, who were both in pre-K, spend loads of time here this summer. I can't believe that Mikah started his first day of kindergarten on Friday!! I also got a few visits from Jaden and his little sister, Ruby. Ruby is two, so she played very nicely with the little ones. Lots of time was spent outside, and one day that Jaden was here he found a fat tomato worm out back. The boys were pretty stoked!



I also got to have my foster daughter from a few years back, Ciera, stay with us for a few months. That was SUCH a treat. I love her so much, and it was really awesome having her live here again. She was lots of help with the kids, and it gave me a bit of a break cleaning everything. Can you say Cinderella for hire?! ;D She moved to Illinois to live with her Dad and brothers, and I am going to miss her terribly.


Another great thing about summer is that Tinkertown is open! It's a bit of a drive around the mountain, but it is so worth it! If you've never been to Tinkertown, you are missing out. Years ago, the man who lived there collected stuff and made huge displays of miniature towns, the circus, and random awesome stuff. There are lots of buttons to push to get things to move and play music. The kids love it, and so do I!







Here are a few random pictures of things we did this summer. We made a paper mosaic in the front window, the boys spent lots of time being super-heroes, we made art out of pudding, made forts out back, and the mall was always the place Andrew wanted to go when I asked what we should do this week! I was informed by his Mom that they very, very rarely frequent the mall, so it is a real treat to go hit up the carousel, look at animals in the pet shop, play on the rides, and maybe get a little something from the Disney Store (yes, I spoil them!). Plus, the temperature is a whole lot cooler in the mall than the zoo! We checked out all our usual haunts as well. Explora, the zoo, the dinosaur museum, the park, the aquarium and botanical gardens, the pet store, and the library were all frequented. We generally went on a field trip two to three times per week. It gets boring, otherwise!

Ladies Day at the Zoo

Yesterday was girls-only day! Maya, Sofia, Teegan, and Brianna were here for the whole day, so I decided it would be fun to go to the zoo in the afternoon. I was right...it was fun! I let the kids decide which animals they wanted to see the most, and they chose to spend extra time on the playground in exchange for missing the cat exhibit. I let the older girls play on the play structure as long as they stuck together and stayed where I could see them, and I entertained Maya and Sofia on the lower level. Maya tootled around and liked going on the slide, but Sofia was a mad woman!! She was so excited to play and run with all the other kids who were there. I had to keep an extra eye on her, because that girl is fast!









The polar bears were really neat because they were both in the water splashing and playing with their water toys. There was also an elephant in the elephant exhibit enjoying a bath just feet away from us. While Teegan didn't especially like being in the rain forest area (and who can blame her...it smells in there) she was just tickled by the tamarins chasing each other around their enclosure. They are really cute!




We drove home and Sofia's Mom was there ready to pick her up. Speaking of picking people up, Brianna spent most of her time at the house carrying Maya around. Brianna got a princess crown in her happy meal from lunch, so she put it on Maya while lugging her around the house. Princesses don't walk. P'shaw!

Explora! with Sofia and Maya!

Today we made a trip out to the old town area for some morning fun. First, we went to the park, played on the swings, and cruised around the grass checking out sticks and stuff. Then, we headed across the street to Explora! Every time we go the girls seem to enjoy it more and more. Today it was fairly empty, so we pretty much had the run of the place! It was awesome!




Their favorite part, of course, is the toddler play area. Each time we go, they discover something new that they either didn't notice the time before, or they didn't really comprehend what they were supposed to do with it. Today, they discovered two things: The pipes on the wall for rolling the balls down, and you can stick things in the air cannon to make them go flying. They really were ready to learn this stuff. I showed them how to do it just once, and they both went to town!





I love Sofia's hands in this picture.






You know we had a good time when everyone looks like this on the way home!

This Week...

This week the weather FINALLY warmed up, so we had lots of fun playing outside! We went to the Aquarium, the Botanical Gardens, and made lots of trips to the park. Since it was spring break, we had the company of Andrew all week, and Kai came over on Thursday on a special sleepover! Happy Anniversary Tanya and Eric! Brody was also here for St Patty's Day fun. We made awesome green leprechaun hats and went jaunting around the park in them. It was pretty awesome.

Now for the fun part....pictures!
The girls' new thing is sitting around in the toy buckets. They also like sucking on the baby-doll bottle. What a couple-a goobers!






Making our gorgeous hats.....





On the way to the park!


Sofia liked running on the grass. She fell over and over again, and looked like a little drunken sailor!





The girls liked playing in the wood chips.





Do I have something in my teeth?



Guess who took this picture?


Kai and I made this neat monster doll last week. I almost forgot to post it!