Summer Fun ~ Small Town Parade

One of our kiddos’ favorite parts of summer is watching our town’s annual parade.

There’s fire trucks,

marching bands,

and little horses in costume…

And most every one of them throws candy to the parade watchers

Ds4 loved waving at everyone as they marched, rode or drove past…

Dd7 enjoyed waving her flag as the parade went by…

And ds9 enjoyed sharing his loot with the adults sitting behind us who weren’t diving for the candy as it was thrown out {he’s a sweet kid}.

Yep, a good time was had by all .

Swimming Lessons 2011

Today was the final day of swim lessons for ds9 and dd7. 

For the past two weeks we have headed up to a nearby university pool every morning for one-half hour of swim lessons. 

Dd7 loves being in the water, but she does not like the jumping in part.

Ds9 claims to really, really dislike taking swimming lessons…I think he’s changed his mind this year and he may in fact actually rather enjoy them, but he hasn’t admitted it yet :)

I told him that it doesn’t matter whether he likes lessons or not, he must take lessons until he learns to swim, for safety reasons that’s just a rule in our home :). 

He’s done an awesome job this year, and he can now swim on his own across a portion of the pool.  Today was safety day, so he was practicing swimming with a life jacket {they love wearing the life jackets:)}, but he can swim sans life jacket too.

Summertime swim lessons are also a super-easy way to fulfill PE requirements for our homeschool :)

Summer Fun ~ A Night at the Carnival

What’s summertime without a night at the carnival?  My in-laws blessed our three kiddos with ride-all-night bracelets so they got to go on every ride they wanted, as many times as they wanted ‘til we called it a night :).

 

 

Oh, to be a kid again.  I used to love the Scrambler and the swings, but I am pretty sure I could not handle them anymore…too much spinning makes my head hurt :)

But I did ride the ferris wheel with them {I’m in the other corner of the car}.  And for the record…I did not like it when our car stopped so others could get on, especially when we were at the tip top of the wheel :O!

No More Training Wheels

It looks like he’s not a little guy anymore :(

Nope, he’s definitely a big guy now…he can ride his bike without training wheels!

And he is so proud of himself too :)

June 2011 in Pictures

June was packed with lots of family fun…

We picked a whole bunch of strawberries,

took in a minor league baseball game,

had a blast at VBS {Gold Rush style},

had lunch at the library {three times},

watched our flower garden grow,

and finished up little league season with a trip to the All Star game :)!

Summer Fun ~ At the Ballpark

  We are blessed to live near the home of a minor league baseball team…and last weekend we finally took the whole crew to one of the games.

On Sunday evening home games, the team signs autographs on the field before the game and kids can play catch in the outfield.

  

The game had some great plays and our team won!

After the game was over, dh took all three kiddos down to run the bases…

And then it was time for the fireworks!

Ds4 loved the light show in the sky…I think it’s the first time he’s been able to watch them and not be bothered by the noise :)

Summer Fun ~ Lunch at the Library

We are blessed with a wonderful library…it has a huge children’s area filled with books, games, puppets and more, a drive-thru pick up window {for books that are put on hold}, and a fabulous deck where you can relax, read, and even eat.

The kiddos have asked me every summer if we can take lunch to the library and eat on the deck.  And even though I really, really wanted to make that happen, we never did it…until this summer. Actually, this is the 3rd time that we’ve eaten on the deck this summer :)  This time we brought along my mom and my niece…and Emily {dd8’s American Girl doll}.