Summer Fun

This summer has been a great mix of visiting family, fun days at home, and a few activities. 

 

I set up a schedule for our summer days because I was afraid to lose the structure kindergarten had brought.  Every morning, we go walking with our friends the Jeffs at 8:30.  When we get home, the girls watch a show while I get Aaron down for his morning nap and get ready for the day.  Then we do our daily chore and/or roll the chore cube (we do the chore it lands on for 5 minutes and then stop) and/or deep clean a room (we've done three and a half rooms so far, and it's awesome!).  At 12 we eat lunch and then Abby goes down for her nap at 1.  Emmy and I practice piano and read, and Aaron goes down for his afternoon nap.  I try to squeeze in a fun activity either in the morning or the afternoon, but it doesn't always happen.  The structure has been nice for all of us and kept us busy doing good things. 

 

But we certainly haven't spent everyday at home cleaning! 

 

The girls are both doing 6 weeks of gymnastics at the rec center.  Abby was very excited but also very hesitant to leave my side and go with her class.  She kept running over to me at the side so I finally left the gym and watched from the track above.  She did much better when she couldn't see me, and each class has gone progressively better.  She stays with her class, pays attention to her teachers, and enjoys tumbling, the bar, and the balance beam.  I think the balance beam is her favorite; or she may talk about it most because it's what they do last. :)

 

Emmy is learning more advanced moves this year.  She is doing handstands and cartwheels as well as standing on the bottom uneven bar and jumping to the top uneven bar.  You'd better believe I was nervous about that one!

 

After their first gymnastics lesson, we drove straight up to Julie and Matt's house in Logan so we could visit with them while Brett was on (another) business trip.  As always, we had a blast running around with cousins.  The Sanders are such great hosts, and we always love visiting with them!

This is what happens when your 6 year old sister helps you get into the baby swing. :)

We left after only one night in Logan so we could be back to go to the carnival for Strawberry Days.  All the rides cost only one ticket on opening night, so we didn't want to miss it! 

Aaron was allowed on most of the kid rides and he really enjoyed it.  Emmy was a great big sister and kept him close.

Poor Abby was coming down with a cold and felt pretty miserable.  I didn't realize just how miserable until I came down with the cold the next day!  She was a good sport and rode a couple of rides but then just sat in the stroller. 

Everyone enjoyed the carousel even though Emmy wouldn't stay turned around long enough for a picture.  (But the helicopter hair looks cool, too!)

 Emmy was a little bored with the kid rides so we checked out the adult rides.  There was one that she was tall enough for.  It was like teacups on steroids.  She said she'd go on it if I went with her.  I found a sweet girl in my ward to watch Abby and Aaron, and we had an adventure.  Emmy giggled as it began to spin us around and around.  When it got up to full speed, she told me, "I think I'm going to be sick."  I told her to just close her eyes and think happy thoughts.  She cuddled in close.  We spun and spun.  Then it started to make a weird noise and slowed down.  "Oh, good.  It's done," I thought.  Nope.  It was just stopping so it could spin us the other way!  I thought it was fun, but I was too nervous about Emmy throwing up on me and how Abby and Aaron were doing with someone they hardly knew to really enjoy it.  We were all glad when it was over.

A week later, the girls and I threw a Friendship Party.  Emmy wanted to have a friend birthday party this year and I told her it would be fun to have a party but I didn't want to make people bring presents.  And thus the Friendship Party was born.  It took a few weeks into the summer for us to actually make it happen, but I'm really glad it did.

Each of the girls chose a few friends and we delivered invitations.  Emmy and I discussed themes and finally settled on a "baking" party.  We'd seen aprons at the dollar store, so we bought them and wrapped one for each friend.  We decided to make cookies and let each friend add an ingredient to the chocolate chip cookie dough and then add the chocolate chips to their own pieces of dough.  While the cookies baked, we needed a game.  Emmy came up with Pin the Chocolate Chip on the Cookie, and she set to work coloring a huge "cookie" on poster board and cutting chocolate chips out of brown paper. 

It turned out really cute!  We also bought beads so they could make friendship bracelets.  The girls all had a fun time, and we are excited to have another Friendship Party next summer!

The most exciting part of June was the arrival of a new cousin, Jason!  Both girls LOVED holding him. 

 

It's hard to believe just how tiny babies start out, especially when we had our gigantic Aaron sitting nearby!  Jason is such a sweet baby, and we are so excited for Laura and Spencer!