Summertime reading

Somebody in our household is a reader.  Back in April, Brody read his first book all by himself - 

He was so proud and yes so was his mom.  We have always encouraged reading in our house.  Jason isn't much of a reader but I was when I was younger.  I still enjoy reading but I don't get a lot of time to do it.

This summer we tried to get to the library once a week to check out books which he loved to do.  Both Brody and Trevor checked out their books.  While Trevor took his afternoon nap, Brody had rest time. This meant that he had to be very quiet and start off the time by reading books and then he could move into watching tv or a movie or playing Wii.  He would like to say that he didn't have to take naps anymore but he couldn't really make it all week without taking a nap so some days I made him get in the bed to sleep.

Anyway, during the summer he has read about 35 books.  It has become so easy for him to read and he enjoys it.  When he reached 25 books, I had a surprise for him.  Of course he couldn't wait to see it.

He thinks he is pretty cool with his snorkel.  He can swim all over the pool checking out everything below.

I hope he continues to enjoy reading through school.

My little swimmer

With having a pool right next door, I feel it is crucial that my boys learn to swim at a young age.  Brody  is a FISH in the water this summer.  He is everywhere in the pool, diving, doing cannon balls, diving to the bottom of the deep end to get toys, and doing flips in the water.  He loves the water - is an understatement.

Trevor is doing great as well.  He knows he has to wear his vest anytime he gets in the water.  The past few weeks I have been wanting him to take the vest off to practice without it.  He tried it once with me and did ok, but then never wanted to take the vest off again.

Finally Jason was able to get in the pool with us and Trevor tried it again and was actually swimming pretty good.  The first time he did it he was putting his face in the water all the time and we couldn't stop him from swimming from one end to the other.  However, I think his eyes started hurting him since he opens his eyes under water and he doesn't like to wear goggles.  So, he doesn't like to put his head under anymore.

We were able to capture him on video when he jumped in

He stills wear his vest most of the time because it is just a safety net for both he and I.  However, I'm sure it won't be long.

Bowling Fun

Later that afternoon when we got home from Monkey Jungle, Randy and Julie (who we coteach with in our Bible Fellowship Group at church) asked us if we want to go bowling.  At first I thought, well I don't have anyone to keep the kids but the wonderful thing about Randy and Julie is that they don't mind our kids at all and they said for them to come along as well.

This time I made sure the kids had something to eat before we arrived to the alley (the last time we went bowling as a family all the kids wanted to do was eat).  We had 7 adults and our 2 boys.

The kids and the ladies were on one lane with the 4 guys having some serious competition on the other lane.

"Uncle" Randy showing Brody the right way to set it up.

See, doesn't this look some competition going on?

We bowled 2 games and B and T did great through most of them.  They took their breaks a couple of times which worked out fine.

Kathy trying to help Trevor out with the phone (or it may have been the other way around) - yes the phone came out because sometimes it is a necessity and an answer to prayer.

 As we finished up our 2 games, Trevor goes up to Kathy and says "you're a woser".  We may need to work on the competition in our house :)

Big Air turns to Monkey Jungle

One Friday Tracy and I decided to take the kids to Big Air for a little jumping fun.  They were so excited because of course this is one of my boys' favorite places to go.  However, when we arrived the lady told us that there was a huge group of middle schoolers already jumping and that we could take a look inside to see if we wanted to stay.  Tracy took one look inside and turned to me and said no way.

Back to the car to try and find something else to do with 3 kids who were pretty disappointed.  Thankfully, Monkey Jungle was right down the street and I found a coupon in the Entertainment book so we were off.  Brody and Trevor had never been but we had been to Ollie Koalas's before so it was very similar.

There first thing they wanted to do was bowl - which is mini style for kids - very cute.  Brody and Trevor played on the same game because of course Trevor didn't last long and was off to see what else he could get into.

With their little prizes from their tickets.

We stayed for almost 2 hours and the kids seemed to have a great time.

After lunch at Arby's, we all stopped by Target for Tracy to pick up a few things.  While she went off to find her things, here's how the kids spent their time.

What a fun time these kids had playing with each other.

Beach day fun

The day after the 4th, a few of us girls decided to take our kids to the beach.  I don't know what I was thinking going the day after the 4th because the beach was pretty crowded.  There were 5 moms and 11 kids.  Needless to say we took up a lot of room and ended up running a few people off.

Brody was having a blast because his buddies Jude and Walker were there.  When we arrived it was high tide and I don't like the boys going in the water when it's high tide due to the currents much stronger.  Of course this made me not the popular mom with Brody, but oh well.

Thankfully the tide went out quickly and the tide pools appeared and the boys had a blast!!

After a few hours and lots of snacks and talking between us girls, we packed up and headed home.  This is always the not so fun part with trying to get as much sand off as possible.  The boys were out pretty quickly and had a decent nap for the afternoon for our ride home.  We had a blast hanging out at the beach with a bunch of friends - it should be done more often.

Craft time

During the summer Michael's Craft store was offering kids the opportunity to come in twice a week to make crafts for free.  The crafts were all around the different countries of the world.  We are always looking for something different to do and free is even better.  Brody's buddy loves to make some crafts so Tara was all on board.

We decided to head to none other than Chick Fil La first so the kids could eat and even play a little before craft time.

Off to Michaels.  The craft of the day was an owl door hanger and a USA pin.

The boys even Trevor did pretty good with the crafts except they got a little bored waiting on the paint to dry.  We eventually called it a day and stopped while we were ahead because it was nap time for the little ones.

Happy 4th

As our annual tradition goes for the 4th of July we headed out to Jason's mom to celebrate our country's freedom with a day in the sun.

Of course there was lots of food.  There were so many things I wanted to make, but I had to limit it and tried to make things I had in the house.

Oreo Pops - these were my kids favorite.

I've got to come up with a better way to display these next time, but it was literally at the last minute.

Fruit Pizza.  This was so easy to make.  Sugar cookie crust, cream cheese icing with strawberries and blueberries.  Oh so yummy.

I think the kids stayed in the pool all day from about 11:30 - 5:00.  They were so exhausted by the end of the day because of course no naps.

Tara showing off Cale's frog goggles. :)

Cute little Maddie enjoying the sun.

Each year we head to Aunt Chris's to watch the fireworks at Jax beach, however this year the city wasn't going to shoot fireworks.  We still thought Jason's cousins who usually buy a ton of fireworks would still shoot theirs off.  We were all dressed and ready to head over there and found out that no fireworks were going off, so we stayed around Rhonda's for a little while to see what all her neighborhood had for fireworks.

All of the kiddos minus Caleb

As you can tell Trevor isn't a big fan of the fireworks.

Sitting out by the pool to try and see any fireworks.

The mosquitos were so BIG because of the recent rain we have had, that we decided to pack up and try to catch the fireworks in Downtown Jax.  Well the kids were worn out and they were asleep within 5 minutes of riding so we called it a night and went on home.

Celebrating the 4th - Water park style

For several years now, our church has rented out a local water park for us on a Sunday night.  It is free for us to come and enjoy.  The kids have so much fun and it gives us adults time to chat and possibly get to know someone new.

The boys had a blast running (wait they aren't supposed to run) between the pool, lazy river, and big splash area.  Thank goodness I had Trevor's vest because then I didn't have to worry so much about him.

Enjoying the lazy river

John took all 4 kids to the lazy river as soon as we arrived.  He's such a kid!!

The splash area.  Trevor was very intimidated by this last year and Brody wasn't a huge fan of the falling bucket of water.  This year was a different story - Brody loved it all.

So my cute little Trevor was the talk of the area towards the end of the night.   I'm standing off to the side talking with Janan and all of a sudden I hear several people hollering to me and pointing.  I look over and see Trevor out of the water with his pants almost down and getting ready to pee.  I toss my camera to Janan and rush over to him and sweep him up to the bathroom.  There must have been about 10 people who saw it.  Oh my, what in the world is in store for me in the future.

I didn't have a lot of pictures of Brody because I could never find him amongst all of the chaos.  He was all over the place and having a blast.

Even little Tate got in on the fun.

Lots of talk was going on between the dad's

This picture cracks me up.  3 dad's solving the world's problems on top of the splash area.

Our annual stop after the water park - Sonic.  What a fun night