Jack received some water balloons for his birthday (such a great idea for kids with late Spring/Summer birthdays!) and we have had a lot of water balloon fights. The kids are able to fill the balloons themselves -- especially the ones that automatically tie -- and are such good sports about playing together.
Jimmy usually pics just a couple that he really likes (probably based on color) and then prefers to keep them away from the others so that they don't pop.
Summertime fun at it's best.
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More summertime fun = playing in the sprinkler. Some days, due to time, I am not as apt to suggest going down to the beach. Those days are better spent with the sprinkler hooked up in the front yard, doing double-duty watering the lawn at the same time.
Two peas in a pod.
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Packing for our first camping trip of the season.
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Samantha did Dance Camp again this summer and had a blast. It is a full week (9 am to 3 pm, Monday through Friday) and concludes with a performance for family on the last day. We were able to see all of the routines that they learned -- and there were
so many of them -- and then snap a group picture at the end.
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We celebrated my dad's 71st birthday at my house with a big lunch, swimming/boating at the lake and then dessert afterwards. He always requests my raspberry cheesecake, but I also made a strawberry poke cake to go with it for the kids that have not yet (sadly) acquired a taste for cheesecake. It was definitely a fun day!
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This boy discovered that the battery-operated four-wheeler that used to be his big brother's is now passed on to him. Not a single day goes by that he doesn't back it out of the garage and ride it all over the yard.
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One of my friends (who used to be a neighbor and moved away last year) invited us to her little one's first birthday. It was a watermelon theme -- I love a good theme! -- and asked me a long time ago if I would be willing to make the cake. Of course! I think that it turned out pretty cute ...
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We have been waiting so long for some good Michigan sweet corn because the very rainy Spring made planting quite difficult here. I broke down and bought some earlier in the summer and I had three anxious kids who were more than willing to help shuck it for me on the back patio.
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This just made Jimmy's day ... I let each of the kids pick out one item from the clearance section at Walmart and this is what he chose; a bubble cycle.
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Jack has really started to enjoy the hobby of fishing this summer. Steve bought him his own fishing pole and Jack will often go across to one of the docks on the lake and fish either with Steve or even by himself.
He had been asking for a tackle box of his own and Steve surprised him one day after work by bringing one home. And even better -- he has lots of special lures and worms for Jack to add to it. Jack loves a nice organizational task and he set right to work putting everything in its rightful spot.
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Jimmy turned 3 1/2 on August 4th. This was a day that he has been waiting for ... forever. This meant that he would be old enough to go to preschool in the Fall.
I didn't want the day to just pass by with little acknowledgement, so I made him a firetruck cake and he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw it.
And we let his big brother, with close supervision, light the candles for him. All 3.5 of them.
(And then he woke up immediately after his nap and put his bookbag on to head to school. I should have predicted this, especially since we said that he would be able to go to school after he turned 3.5. Instead, he actually doesn't start school until after Labor Day ... a long time from now! Ugh!).
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