Our Summer List

For the past couple summers, I've seen blogs that have posted their "Summer List" that they did with their families, but it's something I never really thought about implementing at our house.  (Surprising, because I am an avid list maker.  Ha!)  This summer, I've been challenged by some good friends to truly be intentional with the time we have this summer. Summer is a time that tends to be without a lot of structure or schedule, and a lot of times I find that days go by without adding in a little extra fun or special time with the kids.  It's not about doing stuff that is big or extravagant or that costs a lot of money.  It's about setting aside time to just BE with your family, break the routine a bit, and just have fun!  I want my kids to look back and have great memories of family time spent together.  Hopefully some of these things will be some great memory makers.  

Here are the things we put on our Summer List:
Zoo
Homemade Ice Cream
Astros game
Blueberry picking
Feed turtles
Fort night - build a big fort in our living room
Lowe's Build & Grow - FREE kid's building clinic at Lowe's
Old Macdonald Farm
Splash pad
Picnic at Discovery Green
Book Bonanza in Bed - read a stack of books together in Mom & Dad's bed
Snow Cones
Surprise a neighbor with treats
Campout indoors - put up the tent and sleep in it INSIDE the house...no lights (except AC)
Driving range
Tennis
Chick-Fil-A Mini Moo
Main Event - bowling & arcade
Play in sprinklers
Lunch with Daddy
Mission Project
Firecrackers
Galveston
Chuck-E-Cheese
Fishing
Drive-In movie
LEGO night
Pajama Day / Breakfast at all meals
Movie Night
Game Night
Children's Museum
S'Mores on the grill
Shaving cream fight
San Antonio
Restaurant at home - let the kid(s) help be the "waiters" at dinner
B's Special Night - our daughter is too young for this, but it will be a night where our son gets to pick what we have for dinner, what we do for the night, etc.
Four Square / Chalk / Wiffle ball - an outside game day

I can't wait for our summer, and I am excited 

to make these memories with our family!

Storytime Snacks - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is a great book for kids just learning their letters.  It goes through each letter climbing the coconut tree and in the end all falling down out of the tree.  An easy Storytime Snack to go along with this book is making your own coconut tree out of pretzel rods, apples and grapes (not pictured).  I saw this idea on a blog awhile back, and I can't remember where it's from, but it's an easy way to make a tree.  Use the pretzel rods as the trunk, and cut and fan out apple slices for the branches/leaves.  You can even use grapes as the "coconuts" and put them at the top of the tree trunk.

Since this book is all about letters, you've gotta have some for the snack.  You could even turn this into lunch - a sandwich without bread!  Take a slice of cheese and a slice of turkey (or whatever you want to use...you could even cut a letter out of a sandwich).  Cut out the letters by hand, or you can buy letter cookie cutters to use to cut out the letters.  Remember, this doesn't have to be perfect!  Just make it resemble the letters you want to cut out.  :)  I cut out an A and Z for our snack.

 Have fun, and enjoy your snack with Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM!

Storytime Snacks - Goodnight Moon

One of my son's favorite books is Goodnight Moon.  It's a great book to read at bedtime but also a fun book to be a little creative with a Storytime Snack.  In the book, it says "Goodnight" to many things around the "great green room" that can be made into a fun breakfast or snack.

Make a bowl of oatmeal as your "mush." 

Put a red grape on a skewer as your "red balloon."  

Cut out a chunk of cheese in a crescent moon shape and 

put on skewer or just lean against the bowl of oatmeal/mush. 

To add another fun element, while you read the book and eat, wear mittens and socks like the ones in the book.

Now you have a fun Goodnight Moon Storytime Snack!

Storytime Snacks - Our Ice Cream Tasting Party

Recently, a friend asked me to share at a Mom's group some fun, purposeful ideas that we could all do with our kids this summer.  As I thought through the endless Pinterest boards and ideas that I had seen, one thing stuck out.  Books.  Our kids all love reading books. Sometimes they love reading the same book over and over again. (Thank you, Chick-Fil-A cow superhero comics.  That's all my 4-year-old wants to read!)  Sometimes they just want to read the stack of 20 books all in one sitting.  But either way, it would be nice to add a little something extra to make the reading of a single book last a little longer.  

I have seen lots of ideas online of how to incorporate snacks or lunches into some of the classic kid books.  There are also so many children's books that you can make an easy snack to go along with the story.  Be creative and join your kids to play with your food!  

Over the summer, I plan to share each Monday one or more books and how to creatively incorporate a fun snack, meal or dessert into that book.  The first book we checked out at the library was "The Ice Cream King" by Steve Metzger.

You can pick up these mini 3-5oz. ice cream cups at the grocery store.  They are usually around $1 each.  Have fun with it.  Let each family member pick out one or more to try. (I may have gotten a little carried away with all of these!  There was a lot!)

Go home and have an ice cream tasting party.  We lined ours up on the kitchen table and as we read the book, everyone tried one of the flavors together.  Each new page, we tried a different flavor.  It was fun to see how each person responded to the different flavors.  

The favorite BY FAR by all of us was Haagen-Dazs' Sea Salt Caramel Gelato.  YUM!

It was a great start to our Storytime Snacks!

Mother's Day 2013

 

We had a great Mother's Day this year.  I woke up to breakfast in bed - pancakes made by Brayden and Jonathan.  The night before, he told me, "Guess what, Mommy?  I am going to make you pancakes tomorrow morning!"  I asked him if it was supposed to be a surprise.  He covered his mouth and with a shocked look said, "Oh no!  I wasn't supposed to tell you that!" It was a great "surprise" the next morning. ;)

After church, we headed home.  Karis was so exhausted, because she never seems to be able to nap while at church.  I put her down in her Bumbo while we ate lunch.  Just a couple minutes after putting her down, I looked over and she is SOUND ASLEEP in her Bumbo seat.  Poor baby!  

I am so thankful and blessed for my family!

Easter 2013

"HE IS RISEN!" is something that I have grown up hearing from the moment I wake up on Easter morning.  To this day, I still get a text on Easter morning from my mom with this phrase.  Responding back, we say, "He is risen INDEED!"  It is such a great time for us to celebrate Jesus Christ's victory over death and that we can now have a personal relationship with God because of this.  It's a fun time to hunt eggs with treats inside, but it is even better that we celebrate JESUS!  He is what it is all about!

This year, Brayden's preschool had an Easter egg hunt.  The kids had to find only the eggs that had their name on it.  With 14 kids in his class, it was the longest egg hunt I have ever seen!  It was pretty hilarious...and genius!  After a good 20 minutes, all the 4-year-olds had found all 14 eggs with their names on them.  

Saturday morning, we headed out to the high school for the Easter Egg Scramble.  It is appropriately not called a "hunt."  It's more like "scoop up all the eggs you can."  The eggs were empty and there were certain eggs that were marked as prize eggs.  I was cracking up when they started, because Brayden was walking amidst piles and piles of eggs, but he was meticulously walking through them to only pick up the prize eggs.

 

Easter morning...

Brayden - 4 1/2 and Karis - 5 1/2 months old

We were so thankful to have some good friends join us for Easter lunch.  Since we aren't able to be with family on Easter, it was so nice to have people join us to celebrate!

Happy Easter!

Valentines 2013

Happy Valentines!  This year, Brayden had to bring a box to Preschool for Valentines.  We could decorate it however he wanted to.  He is obsessed with Legos now, so it was perfect to put together a Lego-man box for his friends to put Valentines cards into.  I found several ideas on Pinterest and from his Lego men...this is what we came up with!  He picked making a Lego policeman.

I wrapped a shoebox in blue and black paper for the body.  The arms and hands are toilet paper rolls cut and wrapped in colored paper.  The head is a small can of fruit that 

I wrapped in yellow paper and drew the face on.  The tie is cutout 

as the hole for Valentines cards to be put into the box.

 Brayden's Valentines party at Preschool...

Me and my boy...

 Brayden and his teacher, Mrs. Jennifer

He made a craft where I put my handprint first, then he put his on top.

I CANNOT believe that his hand is almost as big as mine!  Crazy!

For the last couple years, I've put out these mailboxes (from the dollar section at Target) at our house a week before Valentines Day.  We each have our own mailbox, and throughout the week, we each put notes or small treats inside for each other.

 This year, I had to add a "K" box for Karis!

My amazing Valentine!  I have such an amazing hubby!  

It's hard to believe we've been married for almost 10 years!

 Happy Valentines!