Fireworks!!

Last night we took the kids to see fireworks at Red, White, and Boom, our cities annual Independence Day Celebration. This is the first fireworks display that we've seen this year! We will shoot our own, and we will more than likely go to one other display. The kids always have so much fun watching them, and the hardest part of course is patiently waiting for them to begin!

I can assure you they weren't this calm the whole time we waited!

They decided at one point that they would lay in the back of daddy's truck to watch the show.

This is how Mikayla looked from start to finish! She loves the fireworks, but hates the noise.

Fun at the Park and Pool

Wednesday we met Jadyn, Trevor, and Miss Amy at the park again to play. We stopped and got food from MacDonald's first to picnic again. The kids love this. The only problem was that it was so hot, they got tired really quickly (notice in the picture above Drew is taking a break to get something to drink). When Drew kept saying he wanted to go swimming, I thought it would be great to invite Jadyn and Trevor. So, on Thursday Drew, Mikayla, and I went and got pizza and headed over to Mimi and Poppi's house to wait for them and Miss Amy. We spent the day swimming and picnicking by the pool! We all had so much fun, and the kids of course weren't ready to leave. So, they are coming over again Monday - I hope to get pictures then!

Birds

Mikayla's bird (Cole) is getting to be pretty tame. He will climb right on your finger, sit on your shoulder, and eat out of your hand. He will also fly from your hand/shoulder to the cage. Drew is loving every minute of this and wants to get him out all the time!
Mikayla is a little more cautious (notice gloves are no longer needed with Cole). She wants to hold him so bad, but she's still a little scared. Drew's bird, Caroline, is still a little wild. Gloves are still needed to handle her, and usually Craig is the only one who will because she bites. Craig said it feels just like a little pinch, but Drew won't let the bird get anywhere near his skin. I can't blame him!

Kids Say the Funniest Things

I've always said I could write a book full of the funny things I hear kids say! Drew and Mikayla keep us laughing and the children in my class say funny things too! I'm always sure I'll remember what they say when they say it, but I find it hard to recall some of the cute things they've said. So, to help me remember and to bring this humor to you, I will post some of the funny things Drew and Mikayla say on here. I've added a new label for these post - Kid Talk.

An example of this: Last night we took the kids to see the fireworks at Red, White, and Boom. When we arrive Mikayla was having a hard time unbuckling her seat belt so she asked Drew for help. He answers "that's not my responsibility". I'm thinking we will be spending a lot more time teaching this virtue.

Mikayla's country accent accounts for a lot of the funny things she says, for example, when we are in the pool she might say "take me to the letter (ladder)". Another word that she says quite frequently that tickles us is "yesherday", as in "I saw that yesherday (yesterday)".

These are the things I'll be able to remind Drew and Mikayla of when they are older. My family kids my sister (who is seven years younger than me) all the time because when she was very young (1 or 2) she would roll/flutter her eyes every time someone said "keep digging Marvin". We aren't real sure where the saying came from because we don't know anyone named Marvin, but it was still funny to see her do that nonetheless!
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Happy Birthday Tyler!!

Saturday, we went to Tyler's birthday party at the skating rink. We have known Tyler since he was an infant. He and Drew are only 2 weeks apart and they have grown up together at daycare! Tyler was also in my class this past year. Drew and Mikayla have been so excited since finding out about the party and couldn't wait for Saturday to get here!"I really want to go out there." When Mikayla first got her skates on she was a little weary about going out on the floor.Drew can skate pretty well now. The only time we go skating is for birthday parties, but he's been a few times with Extra Edition.Tyler, the birthday boy, and Allie - it was Allie's first time ever skating, but you wouldn't have been able to tell! Doin' the Hokey Pokey - once Mikayla got out on the floor we had a hard time getting her to come off!!Tyler blows out his candles as Bryson, Drew, Mikayla, and Maddi look on.
Mikayla is all smiles after her cake!
Bryson, Drew, and Mikayla - look at that little girl go!!
Mikayla spent a lot of time skating with Maddi - they became fast friends! You can't tell by looking but Maddi is actually a year older than Mikayla.

Drew and Mikayla had so much fun at Tyler's party. Drew is sooooo looking forward to his in 2 weeks!

Our New Chick-fil-a

We have a Chick-fil-a now!! It opened a week ago and we had gone through the drive thru, but had never gone inside until Thursday. Nanda, Carley, and I decided at golf camp Thursday that we would take all the kids there for lunch after we left the library.The kids (minus Hunter) sat at one table while we sat at the one next to them. We were very proud of Drew, Blake, Bryson, Breanna, and Mikayla as they did very well and they all remembered their manners!
The kids (again, minus Hunter though he didn't seem to mind) enjoyed playing on the indoor playground.

We all had such a fun time - the kids playing and the mommies talking! Hopefully we will get to do this again before we all go back to school in August (Nanda teaches 1st grade and Carley teaches 5th).

Fun at the Library

Drew and Mikayla read books to mommy while they wait for a "reading coach" to conference with them.

Our school, like our public library, offers a summer reading program. Drew and Mikayla are signed up for both (blame the teacher in me). The great thing about our school's program is that it is based on the 100 Book Challenge Program which our district uses as part of our Language Arts curriculum. It is a program that rewards children for the amount of time they spend reading, but there is also a conferencing component of this program that guides instruction. At the summer program, the kids read and they conference with one of the "reading coaches" there. They are awarded Bulldog Bucks for the amount of time they spend reading and they can spend the bucks at the Bulldog Store. The children also "check-out" two new books each day when they return the books from the previous day. One of the computer labs is also opened on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the children to use. It is not required that you use this program every day (or even at all), but Drew and Mikayla LOVE this and we have spent more time at our school this summer than at our public library!

On this particular day, Drew reads with Mrs. Menzer (our Principal's wife who also teaches at the Junior High school), and Mikayla reads with Mrs. Vaughn (a teacher at our school).

I love these three pictures because they show how much fun Drew and Mikayla have during the conferences. In the top picture, Drew is reading while in the above picture he is answering questions. In the middle picture Mikayla is answering questions, while in the above picture she is "reading". These are the same things we do at home when we read, but it is different with others! The laid back atmosphere really helps the children feel comfortable - especially Drew (who told Poppi earlier this month "it's summer, I don't have to read"). I'm not sure what ever gave him that idea, but as you can see he was wrong!

They both love computers, and they play on Starfall at home all the time. They both enjoy getting on the computers at school just as much, especially Mikayla - I think it makes her feel like a big girl!

Final Pictures from Golf Camp

Thursday I wanted to get some final pictures of Drew at camp. I knew that Friday they would be playing the par 3 and I wouldn't be able to get any close-ups. Drew practices on the chipping green and gets instruction from his coach.

Drew watches the ball he just hit on the driving range. I'm glad I don't have to pick up all those balls!Drew and his group on the putting green practice their putting. Drew had so much fun this week - Garrett, Bryson, Blake, and Drew were all out there. He also met some other great friends these last two weeks. He was sad Friday morning when he realized that would be his last day of camp! He has learned so much - who knows we might just have a PGA champion on our hands!

These two pictures were taken on Friday - you can tell how Mikayla and Breanna spent this last week!I love this picture of Mikayla with her red mustache from her Hawaiian Punch. Breanna and Mikayla LOVE Blake's little brother Hunter. They spent this week pushing him in his stroller, feeding him, making him laugh, etc. They were quite the little "mommies"!

Hair Cuts

Drew and Mikayla decided to cut their own hair today - ahhhhhhhh! While we were waiting on daddy to come home from work they were playing in our bedroom and I folded laundry. I had just finished folding one load and was waiting on another load to finish drying when Craig came home. Mikayla runs past me on her way outside to greet daddy and Drew comes in the living room and says "me and Mikayla cut our hair". I really couldn't tell a difference in Drew's hair (he cut his at the crown, and it helped that his was already so short to begin with) so my attention quickly changed to Mikayla. I could see her ponytail still in tact out the window so all I could think was "her bangs!". Sure enough she had cut her bangs - these are the same bangs that we had been letting grow out for so long (she wouldn't keep a hair bow in and letting her bangs grow was the way I found to keep it in - she knew if she took the bow out her bangs would be in her eyes). After another lecture that "we only use scissors to cut paper" (I was sure my kids got this!), and "Mimi is the only one who cuts your hair" I called my mom to see if she would help straighten their hair out. I was SO thankful that Mikayla did not cut her long curls!! So, here is a before picture of Mikayla - from earlier today at the park. Her bangs are in her eyes here because she had pulled them out of her ponytail to play with while sucking her thumb. Those of you who know Mikayla knows she does this when she is tired. Earlier this week at the pool before we became hair stylists...
... and after Mimi cut our hair today. It is easy to see from these pictures that we are so fortunate - it could have been a lot worse. By the time Mimi gave Drew a haircut that was much needed anyway you couldn't even tell that he had cut his own - the only way you could tell before Mimi cut it was by looking at his profile. It was my intention to get a picture before we went to Mimi, but I forgot until after she had cut their hair - imagine that! I will still be able to pull Mikayla's hair back - I tried as soon as we got home. She is still pretty as a princess to us, and in Mikayla's words "they will grow back". We did, however, make it very clear to Drew and Mikayla that they are NEVER to do this again!

Outdoor Fun

This morning Drew, Mikayla, and I headed to The Creek for another day of golf camp. I was able to get better pictures today as Drew's group was on the chipping green. My intentions were to get some of him on the driving range as well, but I missed those today (mommy was talking) - hopeful tomorrow!Drew and some others in his group practice chipping with the help of their coach. More children have attended golf camp this week - even a few girls!After we left golf camp we headed to the park where we were meeting Jadyn, Trevor, and Ms. Amy. Amy and I had decided to do picnic lunches from MacDonald's and let the kids play for awhile. Mikayla had not seen Jadyn since dance camp and couldn't wait for today to get here!
I just realized they are from oldest to youngest in this picture (leave it to a kindergarten teacher to notice that)! Drew - 5, Jadyn - 4, Mikayla - 3, and Trevor - 2Mikayla walks across the suspension bridge. When they first started playing Mikayla would not cross it without mommy right beside it. By the time we left, she was moving across on her own! She's definitely our slow to warm up child.
I really wish this picture had turned out better - I love Drew's smile here!
As Mikayla warms up to the suspension bridge she gets a little help from Jadyn.
The serious side to Drew - we don't see this too often!

Sweet picture of sister and brother.

Mikayla and Trevor try their hand at tic-tac-toe.

We had such a fun time playing with Jadyn and Trevor at the park today! The kids were all super excited to know that Amy and I plan to bring them back again next week.

More Golf Camp

This morning we were back to golf camp! Drew has one more week, and he is not looking forward to it coming to an end! Bre Bre and Mik Mik are super excited to have another week to play together every day!
Drew's group stayed on one of the holes that's part of the Par 3 course at The Creek today. I know it's hard to see because they were so far away, but Drew is in the orange! One of these days I'm going to get some closer pictures of his golf game!

After golf every day we've been off to the library at my school for the summer reading program. In fact, we are headed that way in just a few minutes - hopefully I'll get some pictures today! We hope you all are enjoying your summer as much as we are!

Happy Father's Day

Drew and Mikayla couldn't wait for Sunday to give Craig his Father's Day gift, so instead they gave it to him Saturday night! This year's gift wasn't nearly as extravagant as the new grill he received last year, but we hope it was just as meaningful! Besides, with the recent purchase of a new truck, I couldn't think of anything else he needed/wanted! I didn't get pictures of Craig opening his cards (I should have), but included in his cards was a gift certificate for golf (hopefully I'll get some pictures of him using it)! We got my dad the same thing. Drew was so excited about these - he told both Daddy and Poppi that now they could take him to play golf! After last week's golf camp, he can't seem to get enough! Happy Father's Day to the two best father's in the world!

Swimming with Daddy

Because we got showers almost every day last week, we didn't get in the pool as much as we would have liked. However, we did go swimming a couple of times and even managed to get daddy to go with us one day! Daddy isn't as fond of swimming as we are especially if the water is cold!

Craig looks as if he is thinking "I can't believe you got me out here". Mikayla is super excited to have daddy swimming with her!

We went swimming in the afternoon after a few morning showers - the rain cooled the water as you can tell from Craig's shivers. It didn't faze Drew or Mikayla!

Drew shows us how he flips in the water - he can now to front flips and back flips.

Mikayla shows us how she jumps by herself - such a big girl!

Another day at the pool with Jennie - they are having a blast!