Summer, Take 2

Here we sit at week 2 of summer, and we have been running around having a blast!  For our activities, here is what we planned.

Monday, we dashed over to the new SOKC library for story time.  The girls sang and danced and listened to the stories and rhymes.  Once nap time arrived, Logann and I mixed up our bathtub paint.  We found the recipe here (from Pinterest, of course!). She added and mixed the ingredients.  Then, she meticulously selected a color or a mix of colors for each individual slot.  Logann had tons of fun painting, but once we added Merritt to the party, the paints got dumped over in just a few short seconds.  It was fun while it lasted!

Stirring

Selecting her colors

The finished product

Trying it out

Tuesday, we joined our Junior High youth girls to go visit some residents at Legends Memory Care Center.  We chatted with the ladies in their rooms at the care facility and gave them each a poster created by the girls.  They were so excited to have visitors, even though it was for just a few minutes.  After our visit, we headed to the house of a Sunday School teacher's brother for a swim party.  We chowed down on sandwiches and spent lots of time in the water.  Both of my girls were like fish...splashing and playing until I had to pull them out of the water.

That same evening, we went with the whole youth group to Bricktown to watch an Oklahoma City Redhawks baseball game.  Merritt's favorite part was riding on the bus to the ballpark.  She also loved the fountain across the street from the ballpark and seeing "Ruby", one of the mascots for the team.  Logann chowed on some ice cream, and she couldn't get enough of the Center Field playground's tire swing.

Admiring the water

Ruby!!



Cheering at the game

It's baseball, Dada!

Swinging

Center Field Fun!

Taking in the scene

This week, I tried to add in the activities from the local library.  Since our house sits between two libraries, we get double the fun and the choices.  This causes complete chaos in my brain and on our calendar, but the girls LOVE, LOVE going to the library!  Wednesday was a movie day at the SOKC library, so Logann watched Toy Story 3 while Merritt ran around the computers and the puzzles.  She did stop a few seconds here and there to pound the "hammer" puzzle piece on the table.  It even found its way into to proper slot on the puzzle a few times.  Here's to hoping that all the running around the library will produce a love for reading someday when she figures out that the library is for books and not just for races.  Again, once nap time arrived, Logann and I concocted our snow cone syrup. (The recipe can be found here.) 

First, we dissolved the sugar into the water and let it boil for one minute.  Then, we added in the Kool-aid and let it cool.  Once we were ready to eat, we crushed up some ice in the blender and drenched it with our syrup. 

It was really good!  Logann thought it was a bit too sweet, but Merritt and I devoured all of our bright red snow cone!

The finished product

Yumm!

"It's coldy, Momma!"

For "Thoughtful Thursday", Logann drew pictures and mailed them to a few friends in Texas.  She decided that she wanted to write to her friends Andrew, in Ft. Worth; Faith, in Terrell; and Maw-Maw, in Terrell.  By this time in the week, I'm pretty much done entertaining, so sadly we weren't very thoughtful this day.

Friday was more of a hum-drum day because our activity didn't happen until the evening.  Logann's friend Ashton is playing Cinderella at a nearby children's theater, so we went out to dinner and went to watch Ashton's play.  She absolutely adores Ashton, and she LOVED, LOVED the play!

Cinderella in her wedding gown!

And to conclude this crazy symphony of a week, here is Logann doing what I feel like doing!!

Summer, Take 1

Logann officially finished Kindergarten on May 23, and we officially entered Summer on May 24!  Woo! Hoo!  Now...what to do?

Last day of school

Walking to her last day of Kindergarten

In order to keep some order around here, Logann and I sat down and planned a list of activities to do each week.  Shot jotted down the activities, and I plotted them on our calendar.  Here was our plan for Week 1. (Calendar found here http://www.somewhatsimple.com/summer-schedule-for-kids/ )

 Before our week began, we took a trip to see Nana & Poppa to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.  While we were there, the kids swam with Pop (at the neighbor's house since Pop's pool wasn't ready yet) and had a great time hanging out with the fam.

Ready to swim

Since Monday was Memorial day, we went swimming with friends and just spent the day playing.

Tuesday let us sleep late, so after breakfast, we made our magical playdough and spent time playing with it.  The magic appears when you mix it up.  You don't know what color it will be until you stir in the water.  Then, the color and smell just magically appear.  (We <3 Pinterest, and this was one of the activites we pinned there.http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011/10/magical-playdoh-mix.html)


Eager to start making their dough

It smells so good

Wednesday was "cook day", so Logann requested snickerdoodles.  She had seen them on an episode of "Good Luck Charlie" when the neighbor, Debbie Doolie, made them for a baby shower.  Debbie Doolie would say, "Here's a snickerdoodle just for YOUdle!"  So, while we baked we kept saying over and over, "Snickerdoodle just for YOUdle!"

Rolling out the dough

Thursday is "Thoughtful Thursday", so for this week we wrote cards and letters to all the Granny's in our family.  Logann drew pictures and wrote notes to Granny Choat (Nana's mom), Granny & Papa Gerber (Poppa's mom & dad), and Granny Grace (Grammy's mom).  She also packaged some cookies to take to our neighbors.  She picked the neighbors across the street because she thinks their yard looks so nice.  She also picked the neighbors next door so that we could get to know them better.  The only stipulation she gave me was that when we took the cookies to their doors I could NOT say, "Snickdoodle just for YOUdle!"

Friday was "Somewhere Fun day", so we planned to play at the local Splash Pad.  Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold on Friday, so the Splash Pad will have to wait.  Instead, we rented the movie "We Bought a Zoo," and Logann got to watch it on the wall of the living room!

Come on week 2! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us!

Keeping it interesting around here!

While Jeremy is out out of town, I always try to think of fun things to do so that we can get out of the house.  I have to really give it to single parents.  It is a hard, hard job!  Even when I have to do it for a day, I feel totally closed up inside a little box.  This is where our adventures come in.  They help get me out of the little box and out into the fun world of kids activities!  Yay for me!

This week, Jeremy went on a baseball trip to watch the Red Sox play in Kansas City, and Logann was out of school on Monday.  So, my planning went into overdrive and we did lots of fun things all crammed into two days!

On Monday, we raced over to the library for story time.  They do a great job of reading, singing, and playing games for 30 minutes.  If I were a kid, I would totally dig story time!  As the parent, I totally dig putting on my running shoes and to getting out of the house with the kids.  (The running shoes come in handy when Merritt decides to ram herself into the cardboard props used for the final story or for when she decides it's computer time but changes her mind and decides it's puzzle time but then rethinks it and heads over to rearrange the furniture.)

As soon as story time ended, we threw on our socks and headed over to JumpZone to jump ourselves silly.  Logann mastered the flip inside the bouncy houses and Merritt managed to climb in and out of every toy One Million times!  They laughed and played for a couple of hours before our tummies got hungry and we just needed a McDonald's burger!


Climbing the ladder (but not to the top)

Giving a ride "to the library"

Learning to do the tire swing

 Since Logann was out of school, we took the time during Merritt's nap to create a yummy, "healthy" snack.

We sliced 2 bananas

topped them off with peanut butter

dipped them in chocolate

and froze them to make a popable treat!

On Tuesday, I took Merritt out to run errands while Logann got to enjoy a WHOLE day of kindergarten.  Apparently Merritt had enjoyed so much juice that we had to check on out at Hobby Lobby and change her clothes in the car.  We had to make one more stop, so she paraded into Kohl's wearing clothes that didn't fit over her little belly, but she wore them proudly!

That evening, we cleaned up after dinner and headed to the park to fly a kite.  This was our first attempt, there wasn't much wind, and our kite was from the "Dollar Spot" at Target, but it turned out pretty successful.  We were able to launch it several times, and Logann giggled as she ran around the park with her pretty kite soaring over her head.

so much fun

happiness



trying to push sissy on the swing

giggling girl

 We enjoy our fun times together, but we are sure glad when our Daddy gets home!

Unexpected adventure

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not a big fan of adventure, much less unexpected adventure. As a mom, I try to plan adventures every now and again so that the girls can see more than the inside of our house. Now, by adventure I'm not talking about water skiing (long story on why I won't do that again) or hunting squatches in a wooded area. Our type of adventures include Story Time at the Library or riding in the Jeep with the top down on an adventure to Sonic! That is real fun! This morning we had nothing on our agenda, so I decided that we would go out and take a walk. We got around, finished an episode of Elmo's World, and set out on our walk. Spur of the moment, we decided to walk towards the west side of our neighborhood so that we could take in some new scenery. As we walked along the winding sidewalk, I asked the girls if they wanted to head over to the playground across the street from our neighborhood. Of course they did!

We arrived at the playground and played around for a bit, all the while admiring the little pond and its ducks that sat behind our area. Logann decided that she wanted to check out the ducks, so she made her way towards the water to observe the animals. (I'll squash the anticipation now about what happened to her at the water. She did not fall in--she has made great strides since this little blog began.) She heard my many warnings to stay back from the water or to leave the ducks alone. As she made her way around the water's edge, she yelled, "MOM! You've got to come see this!" Merritt and I made our way down to the bank and saw tons of turtles poking their little heads out of the water to observe us. None would actually find the courage to step up on the land, but the girls loved seeing and counting the little turtle heads bobbing in the water. Logann wandered around the pond a bit and again shouted for us to come and see. We stood back to admire a nest full of eggs. She was amazed!

In order to keep the animals from little kid danger, I took Merritt back up to slide and to play. Logann just stood at the bank of the pond and took in the scenery.

She was so cute as she admired the animals. We have already decided that we must go back with some bread crumbs so that we can entice the turtles to come closer. For a spur-of-the-moment adventure, we had a blast finding unexpected treasures. Our only set back was trying to get Merritt home.

You make me proud

The saying rings true that all parents find that their kids win the contest when looking for the cutest kid in the picture or the best athlete on the team or the sweetest kid in the class or the smartest kid in the school. Honestly, this is the truth at our house. I'm sorry to break the news to the rest of the world. I have the cutest, smartest, nicest, most athletic children in the world, and that's no secret. I am a PROUD mommy!

As a parent, and frankly as a person, I struggle with being proud of myself. I often compare myself to those around me. I've done this as a kid, and I continue to do it as an adult. This comparison causes unnecessary struggles and an unhappy attitude that I constantly strive to undo. I don't want these struggles to cast a shadow on my children's perception of themselves or of their mommy. Daily, I pray that God will give me positive words and affection (another area in which I struggle-that's another story) to lavish on them so that they know they are loved and cherished and adored and admired and sought after! So, even if I struggle every day, here is a list in which they can always refer to know that their mommy thinks beautiful thoughts about them every day!

Logann-I was so proud of you when worried about where the contestants on "Biggest Looser" were able to go to church. You have a heart for God, and I pray that you serve Him with it everyday of your life!

Merritt-You made me smile with delight when you were the only kid in the nursery who was able to keep your cup of Cheerios in the upright position. I cheered quietly when you were appalled that the other children would eat Cheerios off of the carpet. You left the herd and sat alone to enjoy your clean cup, and that made me proud.

Logann-You make me so proud when you talk and answer Merritt's constant questions. You don't mind couting school buses in your best Sesame Street "Count" voice. You are the best big sister. I have always wanted a sister, and I really miss the sister I don't have when I see how good you are to your sister. If I could pick a sister, I would pick you becuase you are the best!

Logann-I celebrate your sweet spirit when you came home from church telling me about how you helped a boy in a wheel chair. You didn't mind missing out on your activity because you wanted to wheel him inside and play with him so that he wouldn't be alone. I couldn't have been more proud of your sweetness!

Merritt-I am proud to take you everywhere because people always comment on how well you talk and how cute you are. Even when you sport a mullet hairdo, your blue eyes are stunning! As a baby of 20 months, you can tell me what you need or want. You are a beautiful genius!

Merritt-Your manners make me so proud! I've never harped on you to say "please" and "thank you". But anytime Dad or I tell you that you look pretty, you respond immediately with, "Thaaank Yooouuu!" I can ask you a question and without delay you say, "Yes ma'am!" I think you were just born sweet!

Logann-I am proud of your reading in kindergarten. Ever since you were 3, you would tell me that you could read, then you would proceed to make up the words on every page (if I could get you to sit down long enough to look at a book). Now, you read to me, and you listen to chapter books. You are a good reader, and I hope you learn to LOVE reading!

Merritt-I am proud to pick you up from the nursery every time we attend church. The teachers always tell me how sweet you are and how smart you are. They love that you work every puzzle on the shelf and you sit and read all the books. I am proud to drop you off at your class because I know you will entertain your teachers every time!

Logann-I'm proud of your independence when it comes to fashion. You are confident in your choices of outfits, even when you look ridiculous! You know what you want, and you are not afraid to pull it off. You are a fashionista, and I love you for it!

Logann-I love the way you clap along with every song. Even when you are off beat, you keep clapping until the music catches up to you.

Logann and Merritt-I love watching you dance. My favorite activity is to turn on the music in the living room and watch you, Logann, choreograph a song and you, Merritt, spin in circles. This makes me happy!

Logann and Merritt-I am proud of you for stating your opinions. Even when you disagree with me and I have to make you mind ME, I am proud that you are not afraid to speak your mind. I hope that never changes.

The list to be continued...

I heard a song on "American Idol" tonight that made me think of you both. It said, "Pretty, pretty please don't you ever ever feel like you're less than perfect, less than perfect. Pretty, pretty please if you ever feel like you're nothing, you are perfect to me." You both make me proud every day to be YOUR mommy. I am proud to call you MY daughters, and I am so amazed that you call me MOMMY! You make me proud!

Library Day

Since Logann attends afternoon kindergarten now that we live in Oklahoma City, I am striving to set a schedule of playtime, activities, learning, and free time to help regulate our days. Our local library has a story time every Tuesday and a craft day every other Thursday. So, once I heard about these, I quickly added them to our routine!! This past Thursday, we attended craft day, and the girls really loved it. We weren't sure if it was going to be big kids making elaborate paper mache' or painting masterpieces, and since we all know Merritt would delightfully assist in someone else's projects, we hesitantly drove to the library to attempt to get our craft on!

Once we arrived we saw there were stations set up and activities for all ages. The girls went to each station at their own choosing and spent as much time there as they thought necessary. Both girls created a bean shaker that they decorated with stickers.

Merritt enjoyed the color station where she got to place objects into the correctly colored crayon container. She actually followed the rules and matched up her colors.

Both girls enjoyed the rice buckets. Logann dug for treasures and was thrilled when she found a flower and a sea shell. Merritt played there for the longest time just pouring the rice into another cup and all over her legs.

By the end of the morning, they had done macaroni art, yarn art, played with rice, matched colored objects, and made a bean shaker. Whew! But, we weren't finished yet! When we completed all of the centers, Logann registered for a library card and checked out her first 2 books. She got "Julius, Baby of the World" on CD so she could listen to it in her room and some other weird book about an old hag. The librarians created her library card and made her a certificate to commemorate her first official check out!!

Now if we can just remember to return our books on time! I must build that into the routine!

Logie Turns 6

Where did the past 6 years go? People always say that kids grow up so quickly. I always nod along as I just try to make it through a day with my crazy 2 girls. But as we celebrated Logann's 6th birthday this past weekend, I constantly found myself wondering how my tiny baby turned into a big teenager wanna-be!

Luckily, school was out on Logann's actual birthday, so she took treats on Thursday to share and celebrate with her class.

We were able to spend Friday trying to do all of Logann's favorite things as a family. She decided that she wanted her ears pierced, so she picked out her favorite outfit, and we started the day at the mall in Norman by going to Claire's to pierce those tiny, 6 year old ears. She took it like a champ and just smiled through the whole process. I, on the other hand, couldn't look because I didn't want to see her jump or cringe in pain.

After the piercings, we headed to lunch at Bison Wiches to grab her favorite food...a sandwich. Jeremy tried to talk her into pizza or something fancy, but she just wanted to have a sandwich. Yumm!

Once lunch was complete, we ventured over to Ulta where Jeremy waxed his eyebrows (if that doesn't say, "Happy Birthday, Logann!" I don't know what does!), and Logann got a makeover! That evening she chose McDonald's for dinner and we topped off the night with the movie "Radio Rebel" on Disney Channel.

Logann's official birthday party was on Saturday, and she had a cheerleader party at our church. Her little friends and cousins cheered with some older, "real" cheeleaders.

She opened presents, which included a jewelry box, earrings, a shirt, toy cash register, LaLa Loopsy doll, Lemonade Mouth cd, stilts, and a plasma car. After presents, we enjoyed chocolate cupcakes, vanilla ice cream, and punch! It was a great time to see friends, play with family, and hang out together! The cupcakes were pretty delicious, I might add!

What a great weekend! What a sweet girl! What a crazy 6 years we have had! It hit me that as parents, we have completed 1/3 of our time raising our girl! As a glass half empty girl, this made me sad that that much time is already gone. But, as the a glass half full girl, we still have 2/3 of our time left to teach, influence, direct, guide, discipline, hang out, laugh, and love! I love you Logie Bear! I can't believe you are already 6 years old, but I look forward to watching you grow every day! I can't wait to see the funny, smart, crazy, sweet woman you become!!