Ice Cream Social

We spent our entire weekend eating ice cream!  Okay not really, but we did have ice cream three days in a row...yes!!  

Friday after work (which was really not so much work as we spent the day at Cantigny Park), Chris wanted to go out for dinner so, we all headed up to a little pizza place in town and enjoyed some pizza and a salad.  

Then we walked to the ice cream shop and the boys gobbled up a yummy cone!

This is sooo much better than the ice cream in our freezer Mom!  After ice cream we sat outside in the back of the shop until 9:30pm chit-chatting and watching the fireflies.  The boys played with Kenny and Kayla while Chris and I chilled with Nicole.  It was just like old times when they lived next door...we miss having them as neighbors!

The next day I worked out with my trainer friend, Lindsey.  It was an outdoor group training and she kicked my booty!  I was so sore for like three days...love when that happens!  Then the boys and I headed back up to the ice cream shop for another yummy cone.  Hey it was toasty out and I was avoiding my chores lol.  A few blocks away there was an Arts in the Park event so we decided to check that out a bit.  Lots of local artists...we saw some cool stuff!

 

In the gazebo (where Chris and I got married!), the art studio had a bunch of tables set up for the kids.  The boys picked the drawing table and got right to work. 

Vann drew a robot.  

I like him!

And Chaycers drew a horse...turned out great!  Little Ash was being shy so he just watched. 

On Sunday I went to yoga at Bloom and then we hit the ice cream shop again!  Three days in a row...I think that's a record for us!  They were having an Ice Cream Social with lots of fun games and things set up.  The kids had fun hanging with Kenny and eating root beer floats...yum!  They were on special so we had to have one.  It's been a few years and they're still as yummy as I remember :)

The boys :)  

Super sized bowling!

Tackling them works too lol.

Pokemon is serious business.

Two of my loves :)

Jets & jelly fish

We skipped our letter fun on Monday and jumped back in to letter J fun on Tuesday!  We made blow jets.  Practiced our jumping.  Played slap jack...which turned into go fish as they like that game better.  We learned about jelly fish.  They are crazy cool.  I got stung one time when I was younger...not sure how old, under 14 though.  My mom, dad, sister and I were in Galveston at the beach and all I remember was walking out to get a better look at that pretty thing in the ocean.  Bad move Jen, bad move.  I walked right into the jelly fish!  My dad was right there and scooped me up...getting stung in the process.  Even still, I think they are pretty and amazing.  Although I think that about almost every living creature...even spiders which I uber dislike.  Speaking of spiders, we learned about jumping spiders.  The boys love spiders...eew!  Later that night as we were snuggling before bed, we were watching an animal show on tv and wouldn't ya know a blurp about jumping spiders came on!  I love when stuff like that happens.  

Vann used the stencil to make his jet.

The rest of the kids used a pre-made one.  I helped Ash cut and fold his, but boy did he enjoy blowing it!  

Over and over and over again!

Squeals and yays every time he launched his jet!

Chaycers following the instructions on where to fold it.

Then you tape it to a large straw, insert a smaller straw and blow to make your jet fly.

Vann's turn.

We spent a lot of time outside as well.  Watched our baby birds.  Rode bikes.  Rollerbladed.  Ate popsicles.  I read some of my book.  It was a lovely afternoon!

He's gotta protect at all times!  A little dangerous I know.  But he's a boy and I've gotten used to them living on the edge just a bit.  

They made a mini roller rink out of the driveway.  

And then this happened lol.  Which turned into Chayce riding his bike while he pulled Vann on blades down the sidewalk.  And you guessed it...a big bump on the 'road' and boom...two scraped knees.  He got 'em pretty good.  But I doctored him up and he's all good now.  I hate when they hurt themselves.  

Finishing a book is bittersweet sometimes.  I was happy to be at the end, but sad it was over.  Such a great read this one.  I've discovered I'm so drawn to historical books, both fiction and non.  Also books about other countries and war.  It still surprises me when I get engulfed in these such books as I disliked history the most in school.  Probably because text books are boring.  But now I can't get enough!  If you haven't read this book you totally should.  It's fantastic.  

Illusions and interlocking puzzle pieces

When chatting with the boys about what to do on I day we came up a little empty handed at first.  And then the ideas started rolling in!  We talked about invertebrates...this was a lengthy discussion and even I learned a few new things.  Vann identified lines and shapes on Khan.  Chaycers didn't have any I tasks in his 3rd grade math on Khan so he chose to work on rounding numbers.  And little Ash identified letters with flash cards.  They've been asking me to make our cookies-in-a-jar we've had since Christmas so I thought sure...let's ingest cookies!  Lots of illusions...I Spy stuff, find the difference, etc.  They love things like this.  Then we illuminated glow sticks and interlocked puzzle pieces.  What's great about these I activities is that many were new words so we had some vocab going on too...yes!  

Working together on their illusion book. 

Harley loves this spot the difference book.

Interlocking puzzle pieces

Cutie!

Back to the book.

My littles :)

The big kids worked on interlocking these world puzzle pieces.

It was a team effort.  I love puzzles so I helped a little too!  Mostly separating pieces and laying them out so they could focus on putting it together. 

By the end of the day they had it almost all together...more so than in this picture here.  

And they're finishing it up as I type this right now!

He's been looking forward to his piano lesson all week.  His teacher said he killed it!  He reminds me so much of myself when he plays.  He wants it to be perfect right now  So he plays for an hour till he gets it.  And he had a first while practicing...after a few times of not getting it he did a quick lil full hand smash on the keys.  I laughed.  Because I used to do the exact same thing!  It's like it erases your mess ups.  Listening to him is my fav :)  

We ended our night with a few errands and a pedicure for me!  It's been at least 2 years, maybe even longer since I've had one.  My feet loved it!  And the boys did amazing...Ash snuggled on my lap the entire time and just watched.  He was perfect!  The older two played a game on their tablets and didn't make a peep the whole time.  I'm blessed to have such great kiddos.  They understand that sometimes even Mom needs a lil time for herself too :)

Hangman & Hearts

Letter H is in the books!  We played Hangman, an oldie but goodie that the boys love.  Practiced our handwriting.  Chaycers is printing, Vann is working on his cursive and little Ash is doing mostly capital letters.  We learned about horses.  Did you know that a female foal is called a filly?  I'm not sure how, but I didn't know that!  We made homemade salsa.  Ash helped me cut some cilantro from our garden.  Fresh herbs are my fav.  We chatted about our hearts in our bodies.  We felt them beating and talked a little about how they work.  Then I showed them the easy way to cut a heart out of paper.  Ash was amazed!

Chaycers and I playing
Hangman

We have this cool
Hangman game

It's great for car rides too.

He was so cute cutting out his hearts.

He folded the paper in half.

I drew the line for him and
then he cut it out.

Chaycers got in on the action too.

I love when he concentrates.

They wanted to glue them
on another piece of paper.

He loved his hearts!

Peek-a-boo!

Look Mom!

Right here is perfect.

We hit the pool after work again.  I packed up a quick dinner (ham and cheese tortilla roll ups, blueberries, peaches and baby tomatoes...easy peasy) and off we went!  I'm in love with our pool pass.  It will get a ton of use this summer for sure!  

The boys playing catch.

Ash would throw the ball...

And the older two would try to get it first.

These two also rode on all the slides, went around the lazy river, played with a few friends they knew.  Lots of fun!

My Sweets and I...I heart that cute face :)
He was all about me throwing the diving sticks and him retrieving them.  We did this over and over again!