This And That ......Summer Edition

I cannot believe that the kids will go back to school in less than two weeks.  What happened to summer break?  I was a little nervous about our first long summer break (since we switched from a non traditional calendar to a traditional calendar this year), but it has just flown by.  I am not ready for school to start again.  I love summer!

I still have a lot to catch up on, so this will be a random assortment of things we have done this summer.

We went to a glow in the dark juggling show at the library.  It was pretty entertaining and the kids had fun.

They got to participate and try to spin a plate on a stick

Evan is always up for building something.  We saw a picture of a marble run that was built out of paper towel rolls on Pinterest and we tried to copy it.

We also built a parking garage for some Hot Wheels cars

We went to Chihuly Saturday Nights at Crystal Bridges and had a fun family evening.

This was the only picture I got of the art at night.

I did get some pictures of the aftermath of Nora eating her popsicle.

We have made some slime......Evan was really into it.  The girls didn't care as much about it.

All three kids completed their swim lessons.  

Evan practiced with the swim buoy for a while, but is now Floatie free!

On the first day we got to the lessons (I did all three kids together) Nora just said to the coach "watch this" and just jumped in (where she couldn't touch).  The coach just said she is a dream come true for a swim coach.  A few minutes later she coach asked me to get in as well, so that I can keep an eye on Nora, because she will just go for it......she thinks she knows how to swim.

Since then Nora has practiced a lot and has gotten pretty good.  She does not want to wear floaties and has no fear of the water.  She is a handful in the water, but I am so glad that she is learning to swim so early.

Hannah was able to really work on her technique during lessons.  I tried to talk her into doing swim team this summer, but she didn't want to. Maybe next year????

We also met up with Hannah's second grade teacher for some ice cream.  We will miss her this year!

We made some red, white and blue or should I say pink and turquoise ice cream sandwiches for 4th of July.  These did not turn out as good, but still tasted fine.

The kids have had to run a lot of errands with me to get ready for the Color of Hope Gala silent auction (which is this Friday).  Nora said "I'm ready to go"

We went on a hike and had a picnic lunch at Blowing Springs park.  It is so beautiful back there and always 10 degrees cooler.  The kids played in the freezing cold creek for a while.  Fun spot for the hot summer days.

We checked out the climbing wall at Lewis and Clark.  Hannah loved it.  Evan was super excited to try it, but didn't make it up very far.  He got a little scared.

Of course Scott and I had to try it too

Hannah had a BIG adventure this summer and went to Girls Scout camp for 5 nights.  She was so excited and I was a little nervous.  I also wasn't prepared for how "rustic" it is.  I was surprised that Hannah didn't care, because if you know her you know she is "all girl" and screams at the sight of a spider.

This was her cabin and set up for the week.  As soon as we walked in Nora picked out one of the beds.  She thought she was staying too.

The bathroom

Her campsite

She was ready for us to leave

I am so glad she had a fantastic experience.  She talked non stop about all of the things they did.

Meanwhile the two little ones enjoyed a some mommy and daddy time.

We did some more building.

I also want to write down a few Nora quotes.  She has us laughing all of the time.

She has been saying "oh my cow" instead of "oh my gosh" or "holy cow"

Scott helped her with something and she said "thank you cutie pie".....no idea where she got that from, because we don't call her a cutie pie

We were playing outside and Nora went inside and said she had to get something.  After she didn't come right back I went in to check on her and she was sitting at the kitchen table eating candy.  She just looked at me and said "give me some privacy please"

Speaking of privacy........she was following Morgan into the bathroom the other day and Morgan said "Nora where is my privacy?" and Nora pointed to a corner and said "over there"

Nora is excited for preschool to start up again.  I told her that she will have a different teacher this year.  Now she tells everybody "I will get a different Judy".  Her teachers name last year was Judy.....