Summer activities and stuff

I am still going strong doing a photo every day this year so far.  I think I'll actually accomplish it now, since it's mid-July and it has become a habit.  

Here is a picture of the boys filling a balloon with beads.  We filled balloons with different things and noticed how each one felt different based on what we filled it with.

 I took the boys outside and let them throw sponge balls at each other.  They had a good time.  It was sure hot though.  Porter just enjoyed playing with the sponges not throwing or getting them thrown at him.

 Apparently I don't have enough pictures of my kids playing video games so here is another one...

 You can't tell, but the boys were looking out the window watching a little rain storm on Saturday.

 Vance tripped over a stool in my room yesterday morning and hit the side of his head on my cedar chest.  I don't think you can even tell in the picture, but he had a big goose egg on the right side of his head a little above his glasses.  Poor kid.

 I got a collage print done of each of the boys from the pictures Rose took for us last June.  I haven't gotten them actually put up on the wall yet though, Porter was admiring himself earlier today.

4th of July and More

 We had a good 4th of July.  We took the boys to the local city parade which was within walking distance to our house.  Then we had lunch with Stephen's family, minus his sister who lives in another state.  I enjoyed the fireworks from my backyard, but I let the kids sleep through them.

 Muddy Buddies.  One of my favorite goodies.  My kids enjoy them too!

 The boys and I had fun playing Trouble on Friday.  

 Saturday we had an eventful morning.  We have been walking to the library every Saturday as I have mentioned before.  I realized when we got up in the morning that I had left the stroller in the van that Stephen had driven to work.  Instead of breaking the kid's hearts I decided to pull out our double stroller even though it's huge.  We were walking along about a quarter of the way to the library when one of the front wheels on the stroller broke.  I managed to get to where I could slowly and carefully walk back home.  Of course, the boys still wanted to go to the park so we braved it with Porter walking/being carried by me.  We got about to the same spot the wheel broke and Tanner fell and skinned his knees.  We were able to make it to the park and library eventually, but it was sure an eventful morning.  Tanner shows off his knees in the picture below.

 Don't you love it when your shoe comes apart in the middle of church?  I know I do, but I have had these shoes and worn them pretty faithfully since Vance was a baby so I have no room to complain.

 Yesterday we enjoyed a free day at the Natural History Museum of Utah.  It was packed, but we had a good time.  Here's a picture of the boys outside of the museum.

Porter was having a cute little conversation with Stephen this morning so I snapped a picture of them. 

Summer Activities

Most of my photos of the day come from the Summer activities I have been doing with the boys.  I have also been blogging about them on my other blog.

 We did a water and sponge activity.  Porter even got in on the action.

 Vance and Tanner wrote their own versions to "Don't Let the Pigeon"  books.  Vance did his entirely by himself.  It was called, "Don't Let the Pigeon Eat a Spider"  Tanner's was called, "Don't Let the Pigeon Play Skylanders"

 The boys had fun playing under this tree at the park on Saturday.

 This is a real cool tessellation that Stephen made recently.

 Porter enjoying a Chocolate-dipped Banana.  We found the recipe out of the Friend Magazine and the boys begged me to help them make it so of course, I did.

We tried to do a wind mill activity today.  Mostly, it was a fail.  We could get them to actually work.  We did make some big ones though that I hung on the wall since they looked festive for the 4th of July.

Dino Park and Summer Fun

I am trying to do weekly posts, but I think I got a little behind this week.  I am still trying to take and post a picture for every day of the year.  I haven't missed one yet.

 Porter playing Angry Birds on his Dad's phone.

 Fun with cousins

 We played with Vance's parachute one day this week.  If you follow my other blog you may have noticed I am trying to do a fun little (sometimes big) activity each day to add some fun and variety to our Summer.

 Porter was working on putting cereal on this yarn for a cereal necklace.

 Tanner being silly at the park on Saturday.  We still have been doing our weekly walk to the Library and the park, although this past Saturday was really hot. Not sure if we'll keep that up all summer.

 Stephen has passed on his love for Legos to our boys.

 On Monday we took the boys to a Dinosaur Park near our house.  It was a huge hit for everyone and I am really glad we did it.  We may have to go back again someday.  Maybe Vance will get more free passes from school.  :)

 Here the boys are playing with sponges.  I cut a bunch up so they could build towers.

Today we put some Ivory soap in the microwave and watched it expand.  It was pretty cool to watch.

Here are some other pictures from the dinosaur park.

Vacation

We are home from our trip to Washington.  We spent time in good company, ate good food, and took lots of pictures.  It is kind of sad to be home, but nice to get back into our normal routines.

Porter is ready for a long ride in the car.

My little hometown has this Teapot Dome which is a National Historical Site.  It used to be out of town, but they moved it into town and fixed it up.  We took some family pictures by it.

Glen talked at church on Sunday which is why my entire family was gathered at my parents house.  Glen made friends with Porter by playing Angry Birds on his phone.

 On Monday our family went to Kennewick to visit the places we enjoyed while we lived there.  It was bittersweet. 

 Since Stephen's birthday was during the week we were up in Washington we bought a cake earlier in the week to eat and share with everyone there.  He loves big frosted sheet cakes so that's what he got.

 We played in a fun park in Yakima one day.  Tanner loved this tire swing.

 Tanner helping Grandma "feed" her flowers.

 Here is my birthday  boy.  Stephen turned 31 on Friday.  We celebrated by going miniature golfing.

 Vance insisted on going to the canal by my parent's house to throw rocks.  All the boys loved it.  Porter couldn't quite get his rocks in the water though which disappointed him every time.

 Happy Father's Day!  Stephen with his sons.  We left yesterday, but went to Sacrament Meeting before heading out of town with my parents.  

 Vance "gets" to wear an eye patch for a while to strengthen up one of his eyes.  We found some fun colored ones that you can put stickers on and what not.

 We took pictures of my family and then Eric took a picture of our immediate family.  Rose took pictures of the boys and some outdoor pictures of my family too so there are lots of pictures to be had.  I am hoping to make some larger prints to hang on my walls.

Glasses

Vance had an appointment with the eye doctor on Monday.  They dilated his eyes of course, and he got to wear the funky "sunglasses".  He thought they were pretty funny.  He did good with the doctor too.

 Porter started to draw on the wall with a pencil so I made him clean up after himself.  This was his "Ta-da!" When he was finished.

 The boys playing with Mr. Potato Heads.   Did you noticed Vance's eye patch.  One of the lovely features he gets to deal with for a while.  One of his eyes is lazy and so to strengthen it he has to patch the other one. Not all the time, but when he is at home.

 Vance's glasses came today.  Yay!  He was excited to wear them, although I think by the end of the day he was tired of them.  I hope we can train him to take good care of them.  Anyway, it should be a temporary thing as his eye gets strengthened.  He does look studious.

School's Out

I imagine most that read my blog are facebook friends with me.  Tanner came up with some fun voices for the characters in a book we checked out from the library and it was quite a hoot.  He is becoming quite the little reader and the voices spice it up a bit for me since I make him and Vance read to me for 15 minutes a piece each day.

 Vance's last day of school was on Friday.  Wow.  I took a picture of him holding a picture I took of him his first day of school.  That was fun.  I guess next time I should get a bigger print than a 4x6 since you can't really see him in the picture he is holding, but it was a fun idea I saw floating around Pinterest.  Vance has learned a lot this year and we really enjoyed his the teacher he had.

 Saturday was a normal walk to the library and park day.  We decided to do it in the morning before it got too hot and I am glad it did since he was in the upper 80's in the afternoon.  Porter had fun at the park playing with leaves.

 Stephen and I have been married for nearly nine years and I thought since I weigh what I did when we got married I would try on my wedding dress before slipping on my dress for church this morning.  Vance and Tanner wanted to know why I was wearing that kind of dress to church and I had to point out that it was my wedding dress.  I can't say it "still" fits because after having 3 kids I have no doubt there have been plenty of times when I couldn't fit into it, but it does fit again.  Yay!