THIS is Summer.

The kids and I had such a wonderfully "Summery" day!

We started our morning off with two of our sweet neighbor girls. They came over to play while their brother went to the dentist, and the kids all had a big ole time. The played house, did some yoga (to one of Dyl's DVDs), and we even managed a little arts and crafts!

After nap, I need to run to Gymboree because they are having a sale on the their backpacks. The store I planned to go to is in an outdoors mall where there is a seasonal splash pad. For whatever reason, I've never let my kids play in it. Mainly because I never think "I need to go to the mall real fast, let me grab the kids bathing suits and towels!". Every single time that we pass by it Dylan pleads with me to remember a towel the next time so he can play. Well, I decided that today was a good day to try it out. I brought an extra pair of shorts that Dylan could just slip on under a towel and for London, I just slipped her dress off and let her go in the diaper. I stopped at Sonic (love me some Happy Hour) before hand, so all of us were as happy as a clam to soak up some sun outdoors!

When we pulled up to the mall area, Dylan asked if we could go to the bookstore. I told him sure and that we would go in the back entrance, this is where the splash pad is. When he saw the splash pad he said "Man, Mom!! We forgot AGAIN!". I said, "No I didn't!", and showed him the towel in my bag. I wish I had a video of his face. He was beyond excited. I told him to just take his shirt off and go, and he did that in no time flat! London was a little taken aback when she saw Dylan running into the water. She looked at me like, REALLY!? I asked if she wanted to go and she nodded with a shy smile, so I took her dress of and told her to take off. She was a little hessitant at first, but she warmed up to it pretty quickly. Dylan jumped right in to it with NO problem. He was swinging at the water squirting up like he was fighting a monster. It was too cute.

We stayed out there for a good hour, maybe hour and half before my Sonic drink was just not keeping me as cool as I needed it to. Ben and Jerry's is litterally right beside the splash pad, so it was so easy to get the kids to quit playing. I mean, hello!... "Kids, do ya'll want to go get some ice cream!?"... duh! They were more than happy to dry off and get their ice cream on.

Dylan got a lemonade sorbet that was SO sour. His face was priceless when he tried it.

And Miss Priss decided the spoon was taking much too long, and went to digging it out with her fingers. Usually I wouldn't be to excited, but it was such a wonderfully "summery" day... I didn't even care!

I stayed true to my word and still took them to the book store. We didn't stay too too long, but it was enough to let the kids have a little fun.

We'll for sure do this whole routine again, and again, and again! I told Daniel we'll have to do it over a weekend so he can enjoy it with us. Days like today are what Summer is all about.

Ft Worth Stockyards

Warning Folks! This post has tons of pictures!

So, my plan for this summer was to do little "camps" at home each week, with each week having a new theme. I'm going to be honest and tell y'all I've not done so well at it. Summer has been even bussier than I planned for it to be. I'm not giving up though, and I'm starting back tomorrow!

The first week of Summer, I did do well with my plans and we had "Wild West Camp". Everyday I taught Dylan something about the Wild West and did a craft with he and London. We also checked books out from the Library on the WW. I thought Dylan might like this theme, but he LOVED it!

After learning lots during the week, we went on a family trip to the Stock Yards in Ft Worth. We had a blast!! In case you have never heard of it, it is about seven blocks of Ft Worth that is set up to look like an Old Western town. They have all kinds of activities for the kids to do, lots of cool shops, and lots of yummy things to eat. There is a big cattle drive and a Kiddi Cowboy Camp you can enjoy for free too. They also put on a show, "Western Shoot Off".

This is where they kept some of the Long Horn Cattle that were in the Cattle Drive. Dylan, London, and I made their hats and sheriff as one of our crafts for the week.

All along the road there were "real" cowboys just trotting along.

London did well most of the day, but she was not happy about having to stop to take pictures!

My sweet cowboy. Dylan LOVES to dress up and pretend, so dressing up as a cowboy was right up his ally!

We were able to get great spots (not seats, because everyone was actually standing) for the show. It was really cute and pretty funny. Dylan loved it and so did London until they shot their guns (blanks) and then she was not happy. The loud noise scared the daylights out of her!

So after the show, we took the kids and had some good 'ole Texas BBQ! Daniel and I both ordered a briquette sandwich that was off the charts yummy! The break from the heat and food in our tummies is exactly what we needed to be able to really enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

I was so tickled, because we kept telling them they were going to ride a real horse, but they both just wanted to hang out on these things!

Dylan saw the mechanical bull and immediately wanted to ride. I was just a bit nervous about it. Not that he would get hurt so much as that he would be scared. I really try not to push my fears off on my kids though, so I didn't say anything about it and I just let him go. And oh my!, he had the best time! His smile was from ear to ear the whole. entire. time. It was magic watching him. Pure magic.

After the bull riding, Dylan and Daniel tried their luck at a huge maze. It was neat the way they had it set up. When you start, you punch your little card that they give you in a time stamp thing. Then you go around the maze trying to find different letters. When you find each letter, there is a stamp that you punch into your card, and you can't finish the maze without all the letters. The boys had a blast! London and I enjoyed watching them from the sitting area and cooling down a bit. She and I sang lots of "Twinkle Twinkle", which is her favorite song.

What is an Old Western Town without the Old Time jail?!?

We took the kids to ride "REAL LIFE HORSIES!", as Dylan saying. Dylan and London both really, really loved the Pony Ride. I think it was London's very most favorite thing of the day. I would say the bull was Dylan's favorite.

I was thinking all day about waning a family photo of the day. I'm so glad so friendly strangers took on for us!

We had such a great time. We love day trips like this! We will for sure go back, but maybe earlier in the Spring next time, so we can beat the heat!

Rewind and Done with PreK!

Sheesh! Its been a while! Summer has been great so far and very busy! Even more so than I thought it would be. I'm going to do my best to recap and get back up to date over the next week. I really do try to keep up with my little blog so that I can use it as a journal/scrapbook of this time in our lives, I'm just not always great about it!

Over the next week I hope to recap:

Our Summer Days

The Stockyards

San Antonio

Mother and Father's Day

VBS

Whew! Well see, but I think I can do it! haha!

For now, lets rewind all the way back to Mid May!

Dylan had his Preschool graduation and is officially no longer in preschool! Its unreal how quickly he is growing up. He's such a sweet and happy little boy, I am blessed to be his Mommy!

The morning of "graduation" we took him for a special breakfast at one of our favorite donut places.

I fully expected to be a big cry baby, but surprisingly, I held it together for the most part. Dylan must have expect the same from me, because right after the group said the Pledge of Allegiance, he told his teacher (in a voice loud enough for our whole section to hear) "My Mommy will probably cry!" haha! My little guy knows me well!

The program was so sweet and well put together. They sang a couple of songs, and did their animal alphabet that they had been working on all year. So sweet!

At the end, they had all the kids walk across the stage to receive their "diplomas" and a metal to wear around their necks. The teacher asked each kid what they wanted to be when they grew up. Dylan said "A Super Hero... Spider Man!". I knew he would say some sort of super hero, my cute little man!

After the program, their was refreshments in the classroom and the teacher gave the parrents an "All About Me" book that they worked on all year. I love, love, love things like this. I will treasure that little book forever and ever. I can't wait to look back at it with Dylan when he is a Senior in High School one day.

And of corse, Grammy came to see our big man's big day! She's always the Guest of Honor in Dylan's book... he loves her bunches!

And because I never did come back to post them... these are the photos from the end of the year concert. I have a cute video too, that I need to upload....