mommypalooza™ ~ a daily dose of mommy mayhem.

Jeep.

After my recent cleanout of the third part of our garage, the kids begged me to dust off their old Jeep Power Wheels vehicle that my Dad so graciously resurrected from the dead several years ago. 

It's been stinkin' hot here but they've gone out for a drive for the past couple of days and I've enjoyed seeing them have so much fun!  ♥

 

Day Camper.

This morning my little first-born, who is now a big boy, set off for his first day of day camp. Yikes! I'd kind of been dreading this day for a while but he has been counting down.  This day camp is a week-long nature discovery adventure.  Nathan will be spending most of his week swimming, learning about wildlife and tye-dying.  Yes, tye-dying!  He's so thrilled about the last part!  This week they're also scheduled to learn about creek ecology, bird identification, fishing, flower identification, fossils, lizards, rockets, and more!  A 6 year-old boy's dream camp.

I signed him up way back in March or April on the advice of a good friend of mine and we haven't looked back since!  Everyone I have ever talked to has said their kid has just completely raved about this camp and has had the best time there.  So, I think we made a wise choice!

This morning I slathered him up with sunscreen, sent him off with his eco-friendly bug spray, said a prayer, and watched him go off and be the independent soul he is.  This should be a very interesting week! ♥

 
 

 
   

Summer Brain Drain

With Memorial Day behind us, summer feels like it has officially begun.  With my oldest having just finished Kindergarten this year, I find myself having to be more vigilant about planning our summer days and activities. 

One of the things I am making a conscientious effort to inject into our fun jam-packed summer is academics.  We've gotten the scoop on all of our local summer reading programs, bookmarked our favorite websites for math and reading, and have stocked up on our favorite Kumon workbooks but I am curious, what are all of YOU doing out there in mom-bloggy-land to ensure your kids don't experience summer brain drain?  Do you have any great ideas or thoughts to share?

I should also mention that a couple of weeks ago the kids and I made a fun summer collage poster of fun things we wanted to do this summer.  Well, long story short, that collage has gone caput!  Let's just say that with three boys in the house and a seemingly endless supply of foam swords, that it is hard to keep anything intact for more than just a few days!

So, I took some inspiration from a friend of mine and re-did our summer poster.  We were still able to infuse some collage-like properties, as I had the kids free draw some of the activities as I listed them.  We're keeping this poster in our entryway from the garage (where we park and enter the house through) so the kids can see it each day.  They are absolutely loving it!

♥  

  

At least someone's having a fun Texas vacay!

The kids have been gone a little more than three days thus far and I miss them terribly.  Wish I could say they felt the same about David and I .  I doubt it though.  They've had so much activity - baseball games, a trip to NASA, pancake breakfasts, and more!  And they'll be heading down to the beach this week for some sand and sun!  Lucky ducks!

I'm so happy they have such great grandparents who just want to spend time with them and treat them to a nice vacay.  ♥

 

My Right Now.

A slew of things have been keeping me busy for the past week or so.  While I've enjoyed the time away from blogging, I am starting to miss it.  I've decided to indulge myself back to mommy blogger world with a recap post, of sorts.

My boys have enjoyed being boys, brothers, and most of all, best friends.  This of course includes random tickle fests they share with each other on the couch sans shirts on a hot summer day.  I have to pinch myself each time I think about adding another boy to this brotherly dynamic.  I smile every time it crosses my mind.

 The boys' first Two Brothers Lemonade stand was a huge hit and insanely fun!  Not sure what they plan to do with the almost $15 they raked in, but I am sure the stock of some toy company will surely benefit.  They will be donating 10% to the church, but the rest is theirs to do with what they please.  Their eyes were wide when they took one look at how much cash they'd scored.  All for just standing there, being cute!  Needless to say, we'll be doing it again soon.  I love that they are learning a good work ethic and business principles, all while having fun together.  I see future entrepreneurs!

My most favorite summer food has been seen around these parts A LOT lately!  I seriously have been known to devour a complete watermelon all by myself in recent weeks!  I am sure most of that has to do with the wondrous baby #3 growing, but I've always been a watermelon girl.  Being from Texas, you pretty much have to be!

Just this past weekend I was able to score six Royals tickets (gotta love great connections!) and we all enjoyed a nice afternoon out.  Well, sort of.  Just before that pic of Will & my mom was snapped, we had all been frantically running around the stadium looking for my missing kid!  Yep, that's right.  Will somehow got lost as we were all making our way to our seats.  It all happened so fast I could hardly believe it!  One minute I was holding his hand walking, and the next I was looking over my shoulder for him and he was nowhere in sight!  My heart sank.  I seriously thought I was going to go into labor from the stress of it all and my mother was even more of a wreck than I was. 

Thankfully, the wonderful staff scooped him up and took him to the guest relations office where we were once again reunited with him!  Later he told me, "Mom, it's ok that you lost me.  It was an accident."  Needless to say, once we sat for the game, he was treated to all-you-can-eat popcorn, lemonade, and cotton candy!  But, in all seriousness, it's scary how fast something like this can actually happen!  Always hold those babies' hands!

So, although it feels like summer's nearly over, I'm pretending that it's just begun.  What's YOUR 'Right Now' look like?  ♥

Our NEW toy!

WOW!! Our backyard now has a LIFE!  Thank you so much to Grammy & Popo for your investment in Nathan & Will's playtime (and our backyard!).  I fell in love with this outdoor playscape the moment I walked into Costco and saw it back in early Spring.  Mom (a.k.a., Grammy) vowed to help make it happen!  And today was the day.

The installers were supposed to come first thing this morning to get started but ended up running a bit late and got here a little after 1 p.m.  We left for Nathan's last soccer game of the season at about 2:45 and the workes were still not done.  So we headed off for the soccer fields.  The team had a great game and despite the heat, had a lot of fun.  Afterwards, the kids had treats and recognition before heading home.

I got a call on my phone just as the soccer game was over, that the workers were almost done with the assembly.  So we headed home asap to do our inspection and walk-thru (and pay them their money!) of the playset.  Nathan also invited his friend, Brennan, to come help break it in!  I was floored when we went into our backyard and saw this:

THE KIDS ARE IN HEAVEN!!!! (or, so they think!)

 

The kids are having SO much fun with it!  It was nice to go out after dinner and play a bit too!  Plus, I love the fact that we have full use of like more than half of the rest of our yard so we can still play soccer, have the slip-n-slide out, etc.  We'll be planning a summertime party soon!

So, thank you, again to Grammy & Popo for making this possible for the kids!  Even the install guy said (after we told him it was a gift from Grandma), "Oh, wow, that's one cool grandma!"  DUH!  Everyone knows that!  I know the playset will be used A LOT this summer!  ♥

Summer reading off to a great start!

We've made two trips to the library just this week and have filled our library book baskets in our family room with lots o' great reads.  Both Nathan and Will are in the summer reading program and loving to jot down each day the books they've read onto their summer reading log.

In addition to just mosey-ing around looking at different books and picking a few out, I've picked up our local library's summer reading lists for my kids' specific age groups.

Some of my favorites in the Preschool age range are:

• Manuelo the Playing Mantis by Don Freeman
• A Good Day by Kevin Henkes
• In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky
• They Aunt and the Grasshopper by Amy Poole
• Dot and Jabber and the Big Bug Mystery by Ellen Walsh

We've picked out a few books for my soon-to-be Kindergartener on both the Kindergarten and 1st Grade suggested reading lists.  Of those, here are some of our faves:

• Hi, Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold
• If Not for the Cat by Jack Pelutsky
• Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Deedy
• The Best Place to Read by Debbie Bertram

There's also a great website that I've used for book ideas that you may find useful as well.  It's got suggested reading lists for kids of all grade levels.  Here's wishing you happy reading this summer!  ♥

Summer bowling is back!

Last Friday I took the kids bowling for the first time this summer.  I am certain it won't be our last!  We've already lined up to meet my dear pal, Krista, and her two boys for bowling one day over the next week or so, and plus, it is SO dirt cheap since I signed the kids up for very cool bowling coupons all summer long!

Will, my youngest, of course LOVES bowling more than life itself and was beyond ecstatic when I announced that we were going to a real, LIVE bowling alley!  All in all, a very good use of six bucks for a fun-filled activity.  I'm sharing a couple of my favorite pics from our outing, but feel free to check out the other photos.  ♥

Nathan with pretty good form! 

 
About to get down to SERIOUS bidness!

 
Ooooh, yeah! Picked up the spare!

 

Memorial Day Weekend recap.

This past weekend was SO AWESOME!  My mom, stepdad, and brother came into town to be on official "Nathan & Will duty" while I was working the weekend at Jiggle Jam.  It was another fantastic festival and a good time was certainly had by all.  It has quickly become the hottest family festival in the country, with many other cities looking to do the same thing in their towns.  It's truly an honor and blessing to serve on the board of the festival and I am already eager to help plan the next one!

Of course the weekend was full of rockin' out music for kids and adults, face painting, funnel cakes, my favorite festival food, and wonderfully fun activities for the kids.  It was so cool to see some of my (and the kids) favorite national acts in 'da house, like these guys, them, and of course him! 

David and my brother were troopers and helped us as volunteers at the festival, where it was steamy and in the 80s pretty much all weekend!  I totally enjoyed the outdoors and have a fab sunglasses tan on my face to prove it!  Here are some of the weekend's highlights: ♥

 

 

Sights of Summer: Picnics + Farm Fun.

The kids and I officially kicked off our summer break today by heading to the Farmstead for a picnic, outdoor play, and a hayride.  The weather was perfect in my book!  Just beautiful!  The kids were SO well-behaved during the entire outing and even came straight home and took two hour naps - willingly!

Tonight David grilled hot dogs and some marinated chicken breasts on the grill for dinner and it was DELISH! I love summer!  ♥