Summer is Here

Summer is here!!!  Okay, so technically it's not summer yet, but I always consider summer to start on Memorial Day weekend.  So, here's how we have started out the first few days of a great summer.

 

Lily and Liz made this "ocean box" after school on Friday.  Lily had seen some of the older kids make something similar, so she wanted to give it a try.  She put two boxes together.  In the top box, there is a dove flying as our family is at the beach.  It's a little difficult to see in the picture, but we're all drawn under the sun against the back wall; on the bottom she colored sand and taped down cut out seashells.  The ocean is in the bottom box.  There are sharks, fish, seaweed, octopus, shells, anemone and a jellyfish drifting along in the tide.  Love this girl's creativity!

 On Saturday morning, we dropped Ryan off at the airport as he headed to Alaska for a conference.  From there, the girls and I grabbed some lunch and then headed to Ulta to find some new nail polish.  The girls have loved me painting their toes recently.  The first time we did it a few weeks ago, Mia looked up, smiled and said "this is kinda fun Mommy."  I let them each pick two new colors (bright purple and dark blue for Lily, sparkly pink and sparkly orange for Mia, and a bright blue for me).  They couldn't wait to get home and try out their new polish!

 I surprised them Saturday night by throwing a beach party at our home.  They loved their grass skirts and leis.  We turned on some reggae and danced all around just having fun.

 I used these fun plates at dinner.  We enjoyed some balsamic salmon, sunshine corn, fruit palm tree, sea creature jello (dolphin, shark, seal and seahorse were the selected creatures) and goldfish.  The girls were excited to have "blue lagoon juice" (aka, blue gatorade) to drink.  What else could we have for dessert but ice cream.  Actually, we're all totally in love with the different flavors of Whole Fruit Sorbets, so we had that but the girls think it's ice cream.

 After church and napping on Sunday, I surprised the girls with a "summer fun box" full of goodies...reading books, coloring books, sketch pads, construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, tape, puzzle, Old Maid cards, 3D sidewalk chalk, popsicle tools, flower lollipops, pink lemonade mix, tub tints, color changing loofah and a toy lantern.

Also included in that box were four small sets of Lego Friends.  While Mia immediately went for the lantern, Lily dove into the legos.  She had such a great time putting together all the little sets.  Once that was done, she said "You know what Mommy?  I can create my own ideas with these too," and she set about coming up with her own sets and designs.  I guess this is just a totally new skill set for her; we have never had legos before.

 On Monday, Lily asked if we could please go and let her use her saved up money to buy another lego set.  We counted up what she had.  Random side story: she had $10.94.  I told her I would give her 6 cents "for an even $11."  Lily immediately said "Eleven is an odd number."  I had to laugh in agreement and then explain I meant that as a flat amount.  Anyway, we checked the pricing online at Walmart, and she had enough to get a new set, so we headed out.  She looked at a couple of options before settling on "Mia's bedroom" set.  Here she is bringing out her own money to pay at the register.  I was so proud (and thrilled to not spend my money)!

 Showing off the new purchase.  Mia also wanted to buy something with her money (a whopping $1.47); luckily, she was quite happy with the 98 cent Elmo tub tints.  They were both so proud!  We have already had lots of fun with both purchases.

  After lunch, I tried my hand at making fresh popsicles with pureed strawberries, a little oj and sugar.  They were yummy tasting, but they fell apart pretty easily.  I'm thinking we didn't let them freeze enough; there were two little girls and one adult who were excited to try them.

 The weather has been perfect all weekend, so we spent a lot of time outdoors.  Lily picked some flowers for me, and Mia had fun pretending to be a monkey named Monk while she played in the tree.

  After resting on Monday afternoon, we headed over to Mom and Dad's for awhile.  We had a lot of fun swimming in their neighborhood pool.  Our friends Cameron and Melanie Ford joined us with their kids Rhyan (who will be 4 on Friday) and Mollianne (who is 6 months).  Lily used a kick board at first, but quickly remembered her swimming skills from last summer.  She was doing a great job swimming all around and jumping in from the side and swimming over.  Obviously, we can't leave her in the pool without supervision, but I don't have to be right next to her anymore which is nice.  Mia thinks she can swim, but doesn't quite have it down yet; that doesn't stop our little daredevil from jumping right in though.  We have to be extra careful with this one and continue to practice with her.

 Mia had fun jumping in to Papa!

 On Tuesday, Liz inflated this pool for the girls.  They had an absolute blast!  The girls really didn't want to get out!  I have a feeling this will be used quite a bit this summer.

 To continue enjoying this beautiful weather, we headed out to the food trucks tonight which is always a nice time.

 Welcome summer; we're glad you're here!