Summer Do

It took a few weeks, but around the middle of June I talked the boys into getting a summer haircut. We had fun with Max and gave him a mohawk before we cut it all off completely.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Our Little Engineer

Like many of you out there, a few years ago I was touched when I read The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. There is one part of the book where he talks about how his parents let him do things like draw a rocket ship on his bedroom wall, and often when my children request a messy/time consuming/inconvenient project I think of this book and want to be a better mom.

So this summer our washer died. I wasn't too sad about this because I'd been hoping for a new one for some time, but I was surprised when as we were sitting outside enjoying the summer weather, and talking about the broken washer, Mason got a twinkle in his eye and said, "Can I take it apart?"

Of course my the initial response that almost made it out of my lips was an incredulous, No you can't take my washer apart, but then I thought of Mr. Pausch and his mother and said, "Ok."

Shane and I waited patiently outside to see what would happen. A few minutes later an excited Mason came out.

"I'm gonna need some tools," he informed us.

And then it was Shane's turn to be the cool parent. I bin of screwdrivers, wrenches, and wire cutter was produced and then Mason was off to work.

He ended up spending about two days in my laundry room steadily working on deconstructing my washer AND dryer (it was on its way out too). He had such a good time, it was really worth a little extra mess, and the perfect end to our a decade old washer and dryer.


 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Swimming Lessons

Another fun thing we did this summer was swimming lessons. I have this terrible fear of water when it comes to my children, so I decided that the best way to combat that was to teach my kids to swim. Mason really was starting to look a little too old to be still wearing his puddle jumper every time we went near water. So the first thing I did this summer was sign the kids up for back to back sessions of swimming lessons. It turned out to be a pretty big commitment as it was everyday for four weeks, but the kids had a great time. They didn't even complain the mornings we woke up to 50 degree weather (it may have been June, but this is Idaho remember?)

 

One of the sessions Ethan and Michelle joined us and did a mommy and me class at the same time. After lessons we would hang out in the park and have lunch I was glad Michelle was there to visit with while the kids played. She and Ethan were really good sports as some of those days were still pretty cold for swimming.

Of course the highlight of swimming lessons is always diving board day... Mason dove right off without a second thought.

 

Max cracked me up, because he was so excited to jump off the diving board. He was excited waiting in line, all the way up the steps, and about half way across the board... then he started to have second thoughts.



So they sent an instructor out to give him a nudge

He finally jumped off the board and was so proud of himself, he wanted to do it again. This time about the time he got to the end of the railing he got a little stage fright again, and the instructor was sent up again, but he really wanted to do it himself so before she could help him he mustered up his courage and jumped all by himself.

I was really proud of both of the boys. I was impressed when the next time we went swimming Mason wanted to jump off the diving board all by himself. It was pretty intimidating for me to watch him swim in the deep end all by himself, but he did it. We still really need to work on our form, but we definitely made progress in the aquatics department this summer. 

Posted with Blogsy

Island Park Reunion

Early in the summer we also had he opportunity to participate in Shane's family reunion. We all had a great time.

For some reason Mason and Max loved these spiral stairs and spent much time camped out on them.

The kids had a great time playing with the squirt guns Marie brought them all.

I think everyone had a great time and the weekend was a wonderful sucess

Posted with Blogsy

Summer

We had such a great summer this year, and I've wanted so much to take the time to write about it before I forget some of the finer details (although there is a good chance that's already happened, at least to a degree.)

Mason was lucky to get out of school a week earlier than most of the kids in the neighborhood. So we decided to take advantage of our extra time and get in a visit to Grammy and Papa Jim in Utah.

We had a great time. We visited with family,

Rode the horse,

Went to the park,

Went to the zoo,

played battleship,

and in general had a really lovely time. I'm so lucky to have parents that are always so willing to welcome my crazy family and I to visit whenever the mood strikes us.

Posted with Blogsy