More Summer Highlights

Alright, I guess I'd better be wrapping up our summer posts since we are in October now...

Aside from play dates, gardening, and spending time at NaNa's, we got in quite a few other things here and there too.

One those was enjoying our new "baby" pool. Though we didn't make it to "real" pools very often this summer, the kids didn't seem to care as long as they got some opportunities to play in the water at home. It worked out great for all of us; Mommy got to soak up the sun a bit while the kids got their share of splashing. 

They were especially excited to get out this inflatable whale pool that shoots water. Grandma Nora Ann gave it to Caleb a year or two ago for his birthday and it had been sitting in the garage in its original box ever since. He remembered it and persistently reminded me to get it out until we finally did it.

Aside from water fun, summer provided lots of opportunities to get outdoors. Dave took Caleb and Hadley hiking one day in June.

We spent a lot of time at local playgrounds too.

In August, we even visited the drive-in. Though this is a favorite summer time activity for me, we never get to do it often. Reid was much too small to sit through it last year, but after practicing with a few movie nights at home over the past several months, we thought he could handle it. The kids love the Despicable Me movies, so when the spin-off Minions movie came out and was playing, it was a great time to load everyone into the Pilot for a special evening on a warm summer night.

Sometimes it's nice to stay in and beat the heat though, and there were a lot of days when we did just that. Whether at home...

Caleb loves playing with my hairties. One day he made this creation out of a barrel of monkeys game and my elastics.

He also kept wanting to make transformer costumes out of things around the house.

Hadley and Reid are a little hazardous to his creations, so when he was in the mood to build poor Caleb often had to find a baby free zone.

...or at Granny's, their little hands stayed busy.

Occasionally, we did a little art work...though not as much as we probably should have. Thankfully, there's lots of time for that in the upcoming colder fall and winter months. 

Reid wanted to try the safety scissors too!

Feather pen!

I'm not sure what this particular creation is, but he's plenty proud of it.

One fun project was the surveys the kids made in June for their grandpas for Father's Day. They came up with some cute responses. For Reid's, I wrote down all the gibberish he said, and Caleb made Dave read it over and over as he laughed hysterically.

Grandpa McKinstry

Grandpa Eddie

It wasn't all fun and games though...oh wait maybe it was! Even when we were "learning" this summer it was in fun, unstructured ways. 

This wipe off notebook from NaNa was entertaining for a while.

One day at Granny's Caleb wanted to do a little word building.

Duck!

We spent some time at the library, participating in story time, making crafts, selecting books, and playing in the kids's area. Their audio books really helped with summer travels this year to keep the kids entertained.

We joined the summer reading club (like we usually do) as well. They have two groups you can participate in - one for non-readers who get prizes for being read to (5 books weekly) and one for readers who have to read one book each week. This was the first year that our family had a reader! Caleb logged 24 reads (though some of those were books he read multiple times). It was a good way to motivate him since I wanted to keep him reading throughout the summer, but to be honest, he wasn't all that excited about the prizes which were mostly books. We picked them up anyway and I told him he could just give them to his siblings (free books are free books, right?!?!)...BUT guess who was pretty excited down the line after we brought them home and Mommy started reading them. They are all book lovers at heart even though cheap plastic toys are more exciting as prizes initially (though they are later discarded). 

Aside from reading, one of Caleb's interest this summer was bugs. My friend Natalia bought him a bug catcher with a magnifying glass a few years ago for Christmas or his birthday or something, and he decided to put it to use examining dead bugs he found in our basement. Lots of millipedes, spiders, etc. down there to check out! Since he wasn't taking naps every day like he used to, it was a good way to keep him quiet while the others slept.

He also had a "Build Your Own" bug catcher set that Granny gave him for his birthday this year. Since sometimes it is best to wait to do messy or involved activities when the younger ones are sleeping, Caleb assembled his project during rest time. Again it kept him quiet and entertained, plus it gave us a little quality time together.

Once it dried, the bug hunt was on!

We weren't sure what this thing was, but it was pretty scary looking. Mommy just scooted him in. 

Insects weren't the only animals we observed. The birds love the ferns on our front porch so we got to watch for eggs and baby birds in their nests. The kids loved going out to check, anticipating what we might find. Reid especially jabbered and pointed excitedly at each basket, encouraging us to take it down and peek inside the plant. Here is what we found!

Fern #1 had three babies and an unhatched egg.

Feed us!

It wasn't long until they had feathers!

Fern number #2 had five eggs. A cat must have gotten the mama bird or something though because they never hatched.

Fern #3: We found these eggs late in the summer after watching a bird fly in and out of this plant.

Something else neat happened this summer that we got to observe. One weekend an old steam train was running on the tracks right by our house instead of the normal diesel engines. On occasion, there is a man who stops by and parks on our road to watch different trains go by as a hobby. This time though, we had several cars parked in front of our house waiting for the train and alerting us that something special must be about to happen. It didn't take us long to get outside to see what was coming. People all over town were excited about it, and here we had a front row seat! 

We caught it coming...

...going...

...and coming again.

The learning didn't stop there. They even learned how to do a few chores. Hadley and Caleb can now fold washcloths and dishcloths as well as put the silverware away out of the dishwasher basket. Reid tries to be a helper, like putting the dishwasher detergent in like he saw Mommy do when I'm not looking!

Caleb also really enjoyed learning about Dave's tools. A couple times he just wanted to sit with his daddy and listen as he told him all about the different types of drill bits he had in his case. Hadley even wondered over to check it all out at one point.

Well that's our summer. We played a lot, learned some, and made memories a long the way. :)