Our Summer of Love (I just have fun playing with my last name!)

This was our first official "Summer Vacation". It was really only 6 weeks but it has been nice and now school is starting again on Monday, Aug. 8th. I have loved having my two kiddos together all summer. Both Ben and I will be sad to see Lizzy leave us on Monday morning for a whole day. Somehow we'll survive.

We packed our 6 weeks full of fun stuff. It is kind of my blistering-summer-heat -survival-technique - be way too busy to notice how hot it is. 

Here are a few pics from our adventures... 

Swimming lessons with Mary. Ben (who swims every day!) was reluctant to get in the pool and do what Mary asked. By the end, though, he was having fun. Lizzy learned some strokes and Mary worked on diving with her. Lizzy is a great swimmer and she picked up on the strokes very quickly. Thanks Mary!!

Lizzy had a couple of summer goals. One goal was to stay up all night long one night. Here she is at 7:30 pm in her jammies and ready to watch a movie. She was determined that she would not fall asleep.

Here she is about an hour and a half later...asleep. She never attempted to accomplish this goal again.

I am a schedule girl - kinda. I like to know what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. I like to prioritize my day. I like to make sure we get where we need to go when we need to go with time to spare. But sometimes I just go a little crazy. Like this day...

We were driving past one of the water parks on a very hot afternoon on our way home from something, I forget. I suddenly turned into the parking lot and told the kids to jump out. They didn't know what was going on but they obeyed without complaining. The next thing they knew, we were all (me included) running through the sprinkling animals, laughing and having a great time - not to mention cooling off. Lizzy LOVES when I do crazy spontaneous things. She wants them all the time - but then they wouldn't be crazy and spontaneous would they? :)

Ben, Lizzy and I joined some of Lizzy's school friends to see "Winnie the Pooh". It is such a delightful movie! we loved it and the kids had fun catching up and having fun together. Lucky for them, there was a firetruck parked outside of the movie theater when the movie was over. That just made their time more fun.

I called Sears one day to see if I could have a refrigerator box. The kids had fun with it for a few days. Ben slept in it one night. Cardboard boxes are great (and they are free!)

 I signed Lizzy up for some fun classes through the Yuma Parks and Recreation. Each class was just two days a week for two weeks and lasted only an hour and a half but it was a great diversion for her each day. I look forward to Ben being old enough to take these fun classes.

She and her two cousins, Jacob and Porter, took an art class, a kitchen science class and a rocket building class. The above picture is of Lizzy and Porter just after they launched their little baking soda, alka-seltzer, lemon juice rockets.

Here are Porter and Lizzy in class working on a project and below they are gathered by their fun teachers. The cute college kid in the middle - his name is Josh and Lizzy couldn't see straight when he was around. She thought he was fun and smart and soooo cute. (I think I'm getting used to Lizzy liking boys - what's a mom to do?)

Ben assisted Troy as he fixed the air conditioner. I am so glad to have a handy guy in the house and I hope Ben learns the same handymanness from his dad. I was super happy Troy knew how to fix the air conditioner. We may be able to endure 115* during the summer but it is because we have air conditioners!

We played with lots of friends

And our SUMMER SURPRISE...Lizzy loves basketball!! At the last minute I signed Lizzy up for a two week basketball camp with her cousins. She had such a great time. In the beginning she was just shooting granny shots but the amazing thing is that she would make almost every single shot that way. Her coaches were impressed but they weren't teaching her the right way to shoot. On the third day I actually asked if they would stop encouraging her to keep up the granny shots. They just kept saying, "but she makes them!" I know, I know but she needs to learn the proper way to shoot a ball. It was hard for her to make the switch but by the end she was doing well. They kept joking that she will be in the WNBA someday with her signature granny shots! :)

 They did about 10 minutes of good stretching exercises and 10 minutes of dribbling and running relay drills across the court. That was actually Lizzy's favorite part. Maybe she'll like track when she gets older.

By the end they were playing games and having lots of fun. Way to go Lizzy!

We were pretty packed this summer. I think we'll keep it a bit more calm next summer. I didn't get to do any of the projects I had planned because our days were full of so much fun stuff. Next summer I want to leave more time for doing NOTHING!!