Adding to the Summer Bucket List

We went to the Science Center a few weeks ago and had a blast!!  I'll let the pictures tell most of the story.  We'll be going back soon :-)

In one of the rooms they had tape and cardboard scraps for the kids to make sailboats and then see if they would float in the water table.  They all did for at least a little bit!

Elsie fell in love with the turtles.  Big, small.  It didn't matter.  When we found a turtle we were stuck there for quite a while!

The butterflies, of course, were a big hit.  They sprayed some sugar water on a couple of our fingers to attract the butterflies.  One landed on Ava pretty much right away.  It took some patience to get one for Elsie but we did get one!  (Jon was able to come join us for a bit.)

The exhibit room was a lot of fun!  Ava could have spent HOURS in there.  She was especially fascinated by the tangled rope course.  You put a rope around your waste and then hooked it to the corresponding color in the course.  You then had to crawl/climb up and over and through so you didn't get tangled with the other colors.  She LOVED it and was surprisingly good at it.

More fun exploring.

My favorite caterpillar and butterfly!

June 2013...Nana Style

 Nana came for a visit in June.  As usual we were all excited for her to be visiting and as usual we stayed busy :-)

We took a trip to Blowing Rock for a little play time at the park (Nana has those pictures) and some shopping at The Last Straw.

Then we drove in to Boone for some "Chicken Playground" aka Chik-fil-A.  The play area was crazy and there were several little boys climbing all over everything that wasn't supposed to be climbed on.  But we still had fun!

Then we spent an afternoon at the pool where Ava and I got a nice little sunburn.  But we were so proud of Ava for swimming like a fish even in the deep end and coming out of the slide.

 Saturday was a nice trip to the library where Nana and I enjoyed watching Ava enjoy storytime and Jonathan played with Elsie at the puzzles.  Ava was excited to find a book that had Elsie's name in the title.

When we got back from the library it was time for Nana to head back home to Papa.  "Bye, Nana!  We'll miss you!!"

Elsie snuck back inside before the rest of us and pulled down the donuts that her, Nana, and Ava had gone to get that morning.  The little stinker was trying to sneak some "nonuts"!

We can't wait until we get to hang out with Nana again.  Looking forward to what else we might get into this summer!

The Zoo and Good Friends

Gotta throw this blog post together before June is over!!  The second weekend in June we headed to Greensboro to spend a few days with some great friends and go to the zoo.  We arrived Sunday and just hung out.  Then on Monday we planned to go to a local splash pad but it rained all day so we went swimming at the aquatic center instead.  The kids had a blast and so did the parents :-)  Tuesday was ZOO day.  Ava had been waiting for this day for quite a while!!  Here are some pictures.

They were so excited!!

Yep...Wild!

All the kids loved the dinosaur exhibit.

Tired kiddos hitching a ride.

Elephant rides :-)

                                                    

My Favorite To-Do List

Every year I always have a mental note of all the fun and memorable things I want to do over the summer.  Usually not much of the list gets done because it gets lost in my head with all of my other lists :-P  This year, however, I have an actual list that I've shared with the girls and a few others so hopefully we'll do a better job of completely all those fun things this year.  I still plan to make a fun poster to hang up but we haven't done that yet.  We did buy the supplies, though.  Ava helped me pick them out.
So here's my favorite to-do list to date!  The highlighted are things we've done but will be doing again :-)

Summer 2013 To Do List:

Camping

Gem Mining

Beach

Nana and Papa’s House

Granddaddy’s Cabin

Martha’s Park

Go to a Movie  (June 16)

Grandma’s Pool

Zoo  (June 11)

Reading Program at Library

Catch Fireflies

Make Ice Cream

Play Date with Friends

Slip n Slide

Water Balloons

Fishing

Fireworks

Flashlight Tag

Dance in the Rain

Hickory Dickory Dock

Buy a Fish

Waterfalls

Here we go...

Summer time has started!!  We're so excited.  We have lots of fun stuff planned for the summer.  We're finishing up our bucket list and can't wait to check things off and make some memories. 

Ava graduated from preschool and will be off to Kindergarten in the fall.  She had such a great year!  We loved her teachers and she made some great friends and learned so much.  The day after graduation we had her end of year field trip.  I got a babysitter for Elsie so I was able to enjoy some time with just Ava.

   

  

     

Ava got her library card and started swimming like a fish this past weekend at Nana and Papa's house so we are ready to let the summer activities begin!!

   

We'll share our Summer 2013 Bucket List when we finish it up this week and put it on display :-)

Watch It Grow

We wanted a small garden this year.  We've tried in the past but nothing ever really worked.  Sometimes it was because we forgot about the plants and sometimes the timing was just off.  We got off to a late start this year but so far things are looking pretty good.  We're enjoying checking on our garden every day to look for changes.  It's currently growing in our sunroom/playroom but we will probably be making the move outside this weekend.

Sunflower

 

 Left to Right:  Batchelor Buttons, Brussels Sprouts, Cucumbers, Tomatoes

 

MMMmmmmmmmm!!!  Can't wait for the fresh veggies :-)

SUMMERTIME!!!!!!!

I CANNOT begin to express just how excited I am that summer is finally here!!! Ok, so not technically but the weather has been perfect for getting outside and doing all those fun summer things I remember from when I was a kid. The day just seems to go by so much faster when we are able to spend a significant amount of time outside. I now declare Vitamin D my favorite vitamin :-)

Here are a few pictures from one of our outdoor activities...

Ice Cold Juice.

Blowing dandelions.

Cantaloupe = Summer Food!!