Summer Days

Continuing with the trend of starting our mornings early...  But, you do get to watch the Garbage Men...

Graham's face of pure excitement over this is pretty cute...

#daddywearsallofthesunglasses

#jacksonwearsallofthesunglasses

These friends have been so hospitable and taken us with them to the pool loads!  These treats may or may not have been earned by some swift toy-cleaning-up-moments-before-we-left-for-the-pool... ;)

Of course the summer camps I had my eye on for the boys and swim lesson levels, locations and times did not all line up so perfectly...  That's ok, I just did a little more driving back and forth.  Graham had a week of camp first at a great park near us called Locust Shade.  His camp was Little Naturalist and he even got to do it with some buddies who will be in his preschool class this coming year!  Jackson started swim lessons at the same time, so after dropping Graham at camp, we drove to the rec center (on the other side of town) for swim lessons.  Then the whole process switched after that as Jackson did Naturalist camp at the same great park and Graham took swim lessons.  It was a bit of a flurry of activity!

Graham's level of swim lessons happens in the kiddie pool, so they get to have a few minutes of play time at the end with the mushroom turned on and toys out to play with.

One of the mornings Jackson was at camp, Graham and I spent a little time at the mall play area full of fruit!

Our Special Harbor Sprayground

Well, our get-away vacation might be over, but there are still a couple of weeks of summer left, and I still had some things on my Bucket List!  One big one was Our Special Harbor Sprayground!  I've heard such great things about this FREE sprayground with awesome playground next door.  I also overheard several area moms talk about taking picnic dinners there when the crowds weren't so heavy.  LOVED that idea!  So, we picked up Josh as a nearby Metro stop after work and went to check it out!

Making himself at home

The whole area was just so cool!  One fun thing to discover after the next!

Experimenting with the shooting fountains

Water guns!

And, of course, bucket dumping!

We had such a great time watching the boys play together and explore!

Of course, Josh got in on the water gun action!  This really was a great time of day to go--I can't imagine trying to keep an eye on the boys when it's busier with camp groups, etc.

After a picnic dinner we explored the equally awesome playground!  The whole thing was tree-house themed.

Spiderweb climbing area

Lighthouse slide

The boys were so sad to leave, but we will definitely be back!

Kicking Off Summer!

Don't we all have those lists of all of the things we want to get done/go do during the summer?  I decided to not wait for any specific time, and to just dive into my list this summer!

 We started by hitting WaterWorks for their awesome little kid playtime Thursday morning!  This is one of my favorite activities to go to with the boys during the summer--only the little kid play area is open, admission is discounted, and the hours are earlier than the rest of the water park--perfect!

 Jackson and I still remember when it took both of us to help Graham go down this slide!  Perfect fit now!

 LOVE these smiles!

 Going down the big slide together!

Friday morning we went to Burke Lake Park, where I've been wanting to take the boys FOREVER!  It's a great park, complete with a carousel, a train ride, a cool playground, mini-golf, an ice cream shop, and a lake!

 We rode the carousel first, and Jackson chose this cool horse!

 Graham rode on this little guy!

 They had such a fun time riding around!

 Then we took the train ride, which was super exciting for everyone!

 Two little passengers

 Posing with the engine

 They had an awesome time!  We can't wait to go back--hopefully it won't take as long to plan a visit!

 I had bought a set of 100 plastic, colorful bears for Graham's Teddy Bear Racecar party, and I got them out for him to play with.  The boys had a great time sending them down the ramps!

 We had such a fun week to summer, but we are all getting excited for our big family vacation to the Northeast later in the summer, so we made a paper chain!  We'll cut a link off each day to help us count down!

Daddy took us on a fun geocaching adventure, and then we picked up pizza and had a picnic at a playground nearby!  It was a super fun end to a great weekend :)

We Can Smell Summer...

School might not be out yet, but we are spending our afternoons with the Slip-n-Slide, pool and popsicles!!!

 First run of the year on the Slip-n-Slide!

 Lemonade popsicles!  This guy doesn't realize that if the popsicle is "too cold," he can't put it down and save it to each much later...

 Everyone else had goggles, so of course, Graham needed his own goggles!

Popsicles with friends are always better :)

Where to Wednesday Fun!

We had our first visit of the season to Waterworks Waterpark!  We discovered this park last summer during their special 5 and under morning playtime.  For a series of Wednesday mornings, the kid area of the waterpark is open from 9-10:30 just for children 5 and under and their parents.  The rate is discounted, and parents are admitted free.  SCORE!  It is always a bit of a bummer when kid-oriented places charge full admission for parents too--that makes some outings SO expensive!  Sadly, last year, we were only able to make it to one of these special playtimes.  This year, we are hoping to make it to a few!  

We had some friends meet us, and all of the kids had such a good time playing together!  Jackson was AMAZING!  He took Graham everywhere with him and was so helpful--I was so proud of him!  His good behavior was reinforced with a milkshake later :)

I actually got to stand and talk to my mom friends since this area really is perfectly designed.  Graham can do just about everything on his own (he was wearing a Puddle Jumper the entire time), but the "big" kids are super entertained too!  We were all impressed with the number or lifeguards on duty.

This tongue slide is a huge hit! 

After we finished at the waterpark, we hit the library for our weekly summer reading program check-in and to grab some new books.

A new helper at the book return :)

And, in the afternoon, it was time for out last afternoon playdate with the Wolfe girls.  Sniff, sniff!  I will always remember the day I really met Hallie.  She was walking Izzy and Mary in the double stroller, and I stopped her to chat.  Mostly I was intrigued that there was someone who just liked to walk around the neighborhood like I did!  I'm pretty sure it was shortly after that meeting that I blurted out I was pregnant with Graham (it was right after Halloween, and I was confessing how I was mooching Jackson's candy--it was too bad he had a preggo mama at Halloween time!).  She just has that kind of personality where you feel comfortable talking.  We became fast friends, and we were outside playing in one of our yards almost every afternoon after naptime.  During our friendship we both got pregnant and added one more kiddo to our houses, and Graham and Violet have been adorable and hilarious friends ever since!  I will miss having Hallie to catch up with on a daily basis and to do Girls' Nights with.  The next adventure for the Wolfe Family begins in August in GERMANY!  Thank goodness for Facebook, Skype and e-mail--I can't wait to follow along with their adventures and hear all about life abroad!  Jackson will be stoked to get international mail--we are hoping for a little pen pal action :)

So sad to say our third goodbye to a wonderful friend, but I am so excited for this next step for them!

On a lighter note, we noticed the butterflies had realized our butterfly bush was in full bloom!  Jackson loves checking out the butterflies!  The one in the picture below was drinking nectar, and we could actually see that when we got up close!  Ah, nature at it's finest!

Fourth of July with a Little Taste of "Home!"

When the Kennedys asked us if we were interested in going to the Cubs game when they were in town to play the Nats, we said, "Sure!!!"  This was months ago, so who knew we would get such a gorgeous day???  It barely broke 80, and there was a pretty nice breeze all day!  

Situated in our seats!

Even better, Mrs. MacHenry was at the game!!!  We knew she is an avid Nats fan, and that she likes to go to lots of games, so we were hoping she'd be at this one!  We took a little field trip over to her section to meet her, and Jackson was SO excited!  I hadn't told him where we were going when we left our seats  :)  Here they are in their opposing t-shirts ;)

We all made it through the 7th inning, but then we decided to move the fun to the Kennedy house!  Josh has Graham on his shoulders, and Craig has Donovan on his shoulders.

Resting up before more playtime!

Cute lil' Cubs fan!

Future swimsuit model?

Craig and Bianca had the pool set up, corn hole to play, tons of food to eat, and a wonderful yard to enjoy the day and good company :)

Pool-break selfie!

Muah!

The Original Snuggle Buggle :)

Almost sitting in order--Graham (2) and Hunter (1 1/2) should be switched.  Donovan will be 4 soon and then Jackson is 5 1/2.  

Popsicles to end the fun day (so far)!  

My original plan was to be home around 6:30 so we could lay Graham down for bed at his usual time, and let him nap for a couple of hours before getting him up and taking him to fireworks.  But, as I suspected, we were having such a good time with the Kennedys that we didn't want to leave :(  We finally tore ourselves away, and we pretty much just swung by the house to grab a blanket and went right to the fireworks.  Graham did snooze a bit on the way home, so he was hanging in there, but we could tell he was a little befuddled as to why he was still awake and not in bed.  LOL  We scored an invite with the Walburgers to go see some great fireworks super close!  They had invited us two years ago (when Graham was just a month old--those are some sweet memories), and it was a wonderful display with no traffic to fight :)  

We had a truly lovely 4th!  Josh and I are SO proud of both boys!  We can't remember the last time we were gone from the house all day.  They both hung in there and did awesome!  Hooray!