Summer Break--Week 3

Remember back here where I signed Bree up for ice skating lessons?  Well, this is the week that she had her first two lessons.  They only do lessons on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday and we need to do two lessons a week to get our 12 lessons in for the summer (they are closed multiple weeks throughout the summer for sports camps, etc.) so this week we had ice skating on Monday and Tuesday.  On Monday the boys talked me into paying for all of us to skate with Bree.  I have to admit, I enjoy it, too.  Kai is still very hesitant to let go of the walker so I went out there and forced him to take some time without.  He glared at me and hated it the whole time.  So, I may end up saving $5 the next time Bree has lessons!  Finn, on the other hand, is my daredevil and more than willing to skate with me if I tell him he has to let go of the bar.  Bree will let go of the bar for her lesson and then want it back right after.  I figure that's ok for now.

Her very first lesson we found one of her nursery friends was also in the class.  He is in the funny hat.  He stuck really close to Bree (or she stuck close to him) and when she would fall he would sit down on the ice next to her. It was adorable.

The teacher is working on teaching Bree how to get up after she has fallen.  (And Xander is being the supportive friend!)

Seriously, these two were cute.  Bree's strategy this first lesson was to wait where she was at and not move until the teacher came to hold her hand.  It was brilliant!  I knew she was smart!

When the teacher pulled out the bubbles, though, I realized the teacher was even smarter than Bree.  This got Bree moving on her own because she can never pass up bubbles.

At the end the kids needed to come over for stickers.  Bree was nervous so Xander came and took her by both hands and skated with her to the circle.  It was a kodak moment expect my phone wasn't cooperating and so even though they were holding hands and skating for nearly 30 seconds, I don't have a single picture!  Ahhh!

All ready for day 2 of lessons!  This was Kai's first day of day camp, so it was just me and Finn and Bree.  Finn wanted to skate but I wanted to save some money so I attempted to sit on the side and watch.  Unfortunately, the kids kept coming over to me and standing there.  So, I guess next time I will have to skate, too.  We will see what we decided.  We don't have our next lesson until the week of July 11th.

For this lesson they each got to pick an animal and then they were to throw it and skate to it and pick it up.  The girl in the snow suit in front of Bree was very nervous and kept grabbing onto Bree and pulling her down.  Bree was not a fan, and neither was I.  She didn't have a helmet on as we were struggling to get the right fit for her with the rink helmets.  These other girls brought helmets from home.  I have no idea why I didn't think of that.  We will be bringing our own helmet next time!  

She picked a giraffe to skate with.  It's her favorite animal!  I love this girl!

All of the teachers love her!  She is the youngest in her classes and is doing great!  We will see what happens when we resume with our last ten lessons at the end of the summer.

That night (Tuesday) was rough.  Here is what I posted on Instagram about this picture.  Around midnight last night Finn began screaming frantically. I rushed to his room and found he had pulled out his button. He says he stepped on his tube but he can't tell me why he was walking to begin with. He was hysterical as he was in pain and he hates button changes. He began vomiting and our bad situation turned into a nightmare. He was so upset and scared he was shaking. It took us agood 10 minutes to calm him down enough to even try to get his button back in. And, by then, it wasn't going in easily. I was determined to avoid an ER run and after a minute I finally had success. Poor kid was a trooper as we cleaned him up and put him back to bed. In 18 months, this was a first. I hope it doesn't happen again. (Yes, it came out like this. Still fully inflated. I can't imagine how painful that is!)

Our bathroom was clean so I decided to take some updated pictures for everyone.  Since this picture we have had the lighting changed, but for now that's it.  Hopefully we will get new counters, sinks, and fixtures next year.  Oh, and you can see I now have a broken cabinet.  Finn found out that the cabinet door will not hold him up!

Bree got a new Beanie Boo from grandma.  It's a giraffe named Safari and is her second favorite, with only Slowpoke out ranking her.

During piano lessons we took a walk over to the stream and horse boarding facility again.  We tried throwing rocks into the steam but Finn would up with ants crawling up his legs and Bree made me nervous she was going to fall in.

Kai working on his starfish (float on his back) at his second swim lesson. (later on Thursday)  

Finn at his 2nd lesson.  After 25 minutes of working hard the kids get 5 minutes to do what they want.  Both boys like these boats and Finn loves the slides!

On Friday we headed up to the Miller Athletic Center in Castle Rock with friends.  We love this place and our friends had never been, so we wanted to show them around.  The splash pad just opened this summer and it was a fun addition to an already really fun place!

Finn and Jude have a blast together!

I ended up getting a bit sun burnt at the end of the week, but overall it was a good week.  We did a lot of cleaning at the beginning of the week to get ready for the cousins to show up on Saturday.  And then we had a lot of play time at the end of the week.  But on Saturday the Perrins family arrived and there was a lot more play to come!

Summer Break--Week 2

I still feel like I haven't been able to really get a grasp on this summer.  It is busy and going way too fast!  Here's our week 2.

We started the week with the end of our weekend of watching Ruby.  This dog knew who was in charge, and that means that she followed me everywhere.  If I sat down she was on my lap ready for attention.  This dog was clearly very puppy and so full of energy.  As much as I enjoyed seeing her with the kids and as cute as she is, I was happy to send her home.  I realized that I have three kids and one husband who require a lot.  I don't need anything/anybody else to be responsible for at this point in my life.  But that doesn't keep me from looking at the cute puppies and wondering when we will be ready for one.

Getting in their last rubs the day Ruby left.

Over the weekend Bree had asked me to show her to write her name.  She LOVES drawing, coloring, and "writing" and now she can write her name.  That being said, she actually doesn't know what letters she is writing.  If you ask her how to spell her name she says, "F-B-E".

We spend our Memorial Day around the house.  Later in the afternoon we went to Home Depot and got the kids their own planters and flowers so they could have their own gardens.  While they have had moments, I have to say that so far we still have flowers outside and that's a bit of a minor miracle.

LIke I said, Bree likes to draw, especially on the white board.  She's actually pretty good!

This week was Kai's last week of the baseball season.  During the season they had 12 games scheduled but due to weather, many of them had to be rescheduled.  We started out the week with 5 games scheduled--in other words we were playing nearly half of the season in one week.  Tuesday they were scheduled for a double-header, but once again the weather through a wrench in those plans.  The first game had to be canceled due to lightning, but we were hoping the storm would pass.  Our family chose to go the library and then McDonald's for dinner before heading back to the field for the second game.  And....that was canceled due to rain before we even got there.  At least I didn't have to cook dinner!

For Laurel--I told myself that I would never pay for Donna's Dolphins.  Well, at 9 Kai is still terrified of water that goes above his waist.  After multiple recommendations, I swallowed my pride (and my wallet) and took both boys for swim lessons at Donna's.  I have to admit, they have been good.  For everyone else, Donna's Dolphins is a large swim school here in the Springs that teaches only private lessons and pretty much requires a second mortgage to pay for!  (Well, not quite, but it's the most expensive place in town.)  This picture is from Kai's first lesson.  I've been trying for one lesson a week with both boys but gosh it hurts the budget.  In the last month, they have each had 3 lessons (the 4th one is today) but thankfully they are making visible progress.  I don't know how long we will keep going but I do know that I want to see them safe and independent in the water.

We also spent time during the week to get ready for our upcoming trip to Estes Park.  We stopped at Bass Pro Shop and found these perfect hydration packs for the kids.  I wasn't planning on getting hydration packs (I was looking for something small to carry water bottles and snacks) but these were a great deal and I figured they would be able to use them for years to come.

Kai has piano lessons on Thursday mornings and his teacher lives next to this horse boarding facility.  We've been taking the time to visit the horses while we wait for Kai's lesson to finish.

Later on Thursday was the graduation ceremony for the Air Force Academy.  We love this event and the chance to watch the Thunderbirds.  This year we grabbed lunch at Costa Vida and then took it with us down to Reid's office where we picked him up and went to find ourselves a lookout point.  The kids loved seeing their daddy in the middle of the day and it was fun to eat lunch and watch the ceremony conclude.  It always makes me proud to be an American when I watch the Thunderbird show.  It's one of the reasons I love Colorado! 

At the end of the week we set up Finn's new loft bed in the computer room in the basement to see if it would help us get more sleeping space for when the cousins came.  It ended up working wonderfully as we were able to make it work like a bunkbed.  Just a week later the cousins showed up and were able to get 4 kids to sleep in here!  (one on the top, one underneath and two on the floor)

One of Kai's Tuesday games was rescheduled for Friday that week and then we had a games on Thursday and Saturday.  Three games in three days.  Kai's team had a great dynamic.  There were kids who made huge improvements, those who already were talented to begin with, and those we did their best to keep up.  The team ended up undefeated and with a reputation for running up the score.  Our coach had some heated conversations with some of the other coaches as they disagreed with our players continuing to run the bases when their players were making errors, but there was no league rule against it.  Overall it was a great season of baseball for Kai, and probably his last.  He has been with Coach B (also a member of our Stake High Council and a CES employee) for three seasons and Coach B is so patient with him.  He is not naturally a gifted athlete and so he struggles.  He is also a perfectionist and gets really hard on himself when things don't go the way he thinks they should.  And unfortunately, he has always been just a "titch" too old for the league he is playing in.  But with his height, no one ever knew.  But I'm guessing that next summer Coach B will stay in the same league and Kai will be over a year too old for it, and I just don't feel right about playing him down that much.  So, he had a great last season of baseball.  You never know what the future will bring but I'm glad that he got out there and tried something that wasn't easy for him. 

His last at bat in the Rookie Division (7-8 age group)

Summer Break--Week 1

Our first week of summer break was pretty busy.  Actually, our first three weeks have been busy.  It's been hard to get into a routine like we had last year.  I'm hoping in a couple of weeks that will change and we will be able to get settled into a schedule a routine.  But anyway, that first week was a lot about baseball, being with friends, and trying to figure out why we were on summer break when the weather was still very much not summery.

Saturday May 21st we went to House of Bounce to celebrate our friend Jude's birthday.  He was turning 5.  His mom, Shannon, has become a good friend.  We are both from the northern Virginia area and have a lot in common.  Jude and her older son, Sawyer, were both born at the same hospital as Kai (Prince William Hospital).  Sawyer has been on Kai's baseball team for the last 3 seasons and that's how we met.  Sawyer and Kai love to play and Finn and Jude enjoy each other a lot.  Anyway, Bree discovered she could climb the big bouncers and slide down all by herself.  She had a blast!

Shannon and Jude came to the walk/Kai's birthday but were still looking for a present for Kai.  Shannon wanted to get him a book as she also loves reading.  Kai dove right into it!

While out playing on Tuesday we saw something dart across our driveway.  At first I thought it was a chipmunk or squirrel, even though we don't see those often out here.  But it was too low to the ground and too long.  I was on the phone with Kristi and she suggested ferret, but that didn't seem right either.  Kai chased it with my phone to try to get a picture but was unsuccessful.  We later google searched and discovered it had been a weasel.  Yes, we are 100% sure we saw a weasel in our yard.  There is a bunny family living nearby and I'm sure that's why the weasel was around.  We haven't seen it since.

Also on Tuesday Kai had a baseball game.  Little League this year was rained out, snowed out, or frozen out several times but that day we had a game.

On Wednesday it was Jude's actual birthday so we went to the zoo to celebrate.  Shannon invited a lot of people and we had a large group.  I started by trying to keep track of everyone and make sure no one was left out, but my kids really just wanted to be with Sawyer and Jude and by trying to make sure everyone was included we were losing them.  So, I gave up and let the other moms worry about themselves.  Ultimately, it ended up just us and Shannon, Sawyer, and Jude for most of the day, with occasional spottings of the other families.  I felt bad, but also felt that if they wanted to hang with us we weren't excluding them, they just weren't keeping up or wanting to do the same things.  Also, all of the other moms had kids that needed naps.  Shannon and I were the only ones nap free.  For my first time in 9 summers, we are NAP-FREE.  It is amazing to have an entire day to play!

Kai and Sawyer

Momma lion

Finn and Jude went into the tornado simulator.  They LOVED it!

Finn BEGGED to feed the elephant.  It's quite expensive and so I said no for the first 30 minutes.  I got out my wallet to show him I didn't have the money and wouldn't you know there was money in there?  I had no idea there was money in there.  So, off to feed the elephant we went.  He got to be the last person of the day.

The kids goofing around at the grizzly exhibit.  One little guy, Linden, had kept up with our group of crazies.  Linden (far right) and Jude (far left) were in Pre-K together this year.

This little girl BEGGED to ride the carousel.  She refused to eat or do anything once the carousel was in site.  This one is determined and very strong willed.  She was happy when it was finally carousel time.

This gorilla was just plain gross.  You will have to ask Kai as I can't even type what he did it was so gross!

Wednesday we came home and spent a couple of hours dog-sitting Ruby.  Her family was going out of town that weekend for Memorial Day and we agreed to keep her for the weekend, so this was a test of sorts to see how it would go.  My kids adored having her around.  

And on Friday when she came to stay for a full 4 days she was greeted with open arms.  Even Finn was a fan and would rub and play with her.

Friday afternoon we went ice skating with friends.  Finn invited Keene from his Pre-K and Kindergarten class and Kai invited his friend Nathan.  Bree got to the rink and the week had gotten to her.  She was so tired that she cried and didn't want to skate.  Thankfully, Keene's little sister Evie showed up and as soon as she saw Evie skating she stopped crying and was ready to go.

Finn and Keene

Ms. Donna came over to work with Bree for a couple of minutes and told us about their skating lessons.  It was so cute to see Bree skate that I was suckered in.  We signed up for 12 classes for $60.  Not bad at all for a summer of lessons.

On Saturday we took a walk to Monument Rock.  We took Ruby with us.  It was 2.5 miles round trip and we wore her out.  Yay!  I couldn't believe I had lived her 8 years and had no idea there was a Monument Rock or that that was the source of  the name of our little town.  

On the road to the rock

Monument rock off in the distance

We made it!

Behind the rock was this pool of water.  The kids wanted to play in it.  We (the parents) said "Yuck!  No way!"