Park fun!

We enjoyed more of the beautiful weather by spending the morning with a friend at the park and having a picnic! What a great morning all around!

A beautiful morning

We had a perfect 70-degree morning yesterday with no humidity. The kids and I enjoyed taking some of Owen's trucks and cars out to the front yard and made a sidewalk "city" for them. They also were contently digging with Owen's trucks in the mulch. It was a peaceful, argument-free 45 minutes for them (rare lately), which was a small piece of heaven for this momma (who was in my happy place drawing on the sidewalk using up the tiny pieces of chalk that never get used). 

Car wash

12 years ago when I got the 4Runner I used to wash it every Sunday (proud first time car owner!). Those days are long past and I'm lucky to even get to the drive through car wash a couple times a year, usually motivated more so by the goldfish/Cheerio/dirt/leaf mess on the floor boards that drives me nuts. Having the kids wash Owen's trucks for fun was on our summer activity list but I figured I'd see how they'd do with the cars too. Owen lasted about as long as it took me to get them started then go for the camera to take the picture, sprayed his trucks, then played with his trucks. Willow was a rockstar and helped wash both cars!! 

Alli watched so we didn't miss any spots.

Touch-a-Truck

I'm not sure what more a 2-yr old boy could ask for, but a field full of trucks that you're allowed to climb into. It was a pretty hot day but Owen climbed into his fair share of trucks, cars, buses, tractors, etc. Willow climbed into some too. Both kiddos had a hard time with how loud the horns and sirens were and, unfortunately, they were always when you least expected them which sent both children clinging to/climbing up our legs. Owen got a bad case of 2-yr old tunnel vision and wasn't the greatest at understanding that there were other kids waiting in line in front of him to get on the trucks, which led to a few meltdowns and missed opportunities. 

The fire department had an awesome foam/bubble area for the kids to play in. We couldn't convince either child to try it out (???????) and they wouldn't even go into the fire department's water sprinkler area. It was definitely an "off" day for them...

Blueberry picking

Willow and Owen made it out to the blueberry fields for picking for the first time this year. We've enjoyed taking Willow for the past 3 years. In the car we had the conversation about PICKING the blueberries in the field so we could EAT them at home (hoping to not leave with a huge sense of guilt for how many blueberries were consumed in the field!!) as well as discussion how we were looking to pick BLUE blueberries, not green or purple. Owen added in "No crying." Maybe I've said that too many times in relation to swimming lessons but, yes Owen, we'll take that as a general rule for all outings!! The kids lasted about 15 minutes before Owen said, "Blueberry picking all done please." He was happy in the sandbox playing with trucks while I tried to hurry to fill the rest of our bucket. 

Zoo

We enjoyed a "cooler" morning this week at the zoo. We tried out the train this time and enjoyed the ride around as well as some time playing at the playground. 

Great view from up at the zoo!

Swimming Lessons - Day 3 and 4

Willow and Owen have been champs with swimming lessons this week. Owen's been tear-free and choke-free. Willow's laughing and smiling (before and after her turn of course). 

Both kiddos did great on their backs on Day 3. Check them out here: 

Owen Day 3 (back)

Owen Day 3 (jump)

Willow Day 3 (bubbles - this was my goal for the entire week!!)

Willow Day 3 (back)

Willow Day 3 (jump - into a 6' pool with no one catching her!!!)

There was a thunderstorm on Thursday so lessons were cancelled. Willow was super disappointed and I think Owen was relieved. I felt like Willow had lost a little confidence watching her in her lesson on Friday (the cancelled day will be made up in August sometime) so we'll have to try and get to a pool to keep her going. We have to figure out by Monday whether she'll continue lessons once a week during the school year or not...  Check them out in action:

Owen Day 4 (belly)

Owen Day 4 (both)

Willow Day 4 (bubbles)

Willow Day 4 (both)

Willow Day 4 (jump)

Exploring New Places

Rain ruined our plans of going to the zoo Monday morning, so we went to check out the Science Museum. The kids did alright but we're definitely a few years from really being able to enjoy it. No luck in my hoping this would be a good place to have a family membership to. We're really missing our Children's Museum!! 

Willow does the local weather!

These Kapla blocks were really cool. I definitely could've played MUCH longer than the kids wanted to. They had 6-8 books with design ideas and instructions. 

Check out the ideas...

Don't you wanna try it too???

We met a couple friend at a park today that we hadn't been to before. It was lots of fun! It was recently built on land that used to be a golf course, so there definitely wasn't any shade. The morning started off overcast so we lasted about 1 1/2 hrs but then the sun broke through and we were TOAST! We'll definitely be back though!