Summer Library Time

We've been going to the library kid's programs near our house for the past three years since we moved here. Kari, the lady that does the program, was just telling me today that it's been fun for her to watch Boston grow up because he has a similar personality to her daughter. He learns best when he is active! She told me she had to teach her daughter to read upside down! Ha ha. I don't think I'll have to do that with Boston. He's actually getting really good at sitting, and his attention span has grown a lot! 

I really appreciate their effort in doing such a good job with their kid's programs, and it's free too!  

Kari plans so many fun active things every week, and she told me once that when she was planning her Summer program, she planned a lot of activities with Boston in mind. I think that's so awesome, and nice of her! I'm going to get her a thank-you gift!

Every week they have a different theme, and this week the theme was Western. This is Boston riding his "horse" rounding up his "sheep." 

They always have one big room decorated with the theme where they can do all sorts of different active and imaginative things. They are so creative! For the Western theme they had the lights out with stars hanging up and sleeping bags on the floor so they could sleep under the stars. They also had cowboy dress-up clothes that Boston had fun with. 

There's always a craft too, so for the Western theme they glued a horse and cow to a paper and painted with mud. 

These next pictures are from the beach theme week, so that's why Boston's wearing his swim suit. 

They always start library time on the floor for stories, songs, and a puppet show. 

Then they visit all the different stations around the library for the activities. 

Here's the big decorated room with a river for boating and fishing. There were fish in the river with velcro on them that you could pick up with a roller.  

Making a jellyfish. 

 Here's the finished jellyfish. 

One week they had Spikey Mikey, the magician come. 

It was crowded! I didn't get to see the show because there was no room, but I think Boston enjoyed it. 

Pick me, pick me! 

The library also had a reading program where the kids could earn a free book if they read (or listened to) 15 books. Boston was so excited to pick out his book to keep.

Look which book he picked. I promise he picked it, not me. He's his momma's boy. The next morning he requested to wear his tennis shoes instead of his flip flops that he normally wears because he wanted to run fast. It was so cute.

Father's Day and Summer Fun

We had a great Father's Day this year. We got to sleep in a little because we had Stake Conference at 10:00 instead of our regular church meeting at 9:00. Scott enjoyed breakfast in bed with Boston, and his Father's Day cards and treats. He also got a ceiling fan to put above his bed. 

Here's the annual Father's Day questionnaire by Boston. He answered all the questions by himself with no promptings from me.  

After church we watched a movie about the bible story of Joseph called Joseph the King of Dreams. It was a good movie! Then we had a nice nap. 

After nap time we got to skype with family. That's always fun. While we were skyping, my parents brought to my attention that I hadn't blogged in a month. I've been slacking on my blog lately, so here's a little update of some of the things we've done lately. 

One of our favorite Summer activities are the free kid movies at the theater near our house. 

Today we saw Rise of the Guardians and we met up with his friend Kailie. 

Everyone that knows Boston knows he's been obsessed with sticks and rocks since he was one. He's still obsessed with those, but he has a new obsession now too. Paper airplanes, or really anything made out of paper. His dad is pretty talented, or at least really good at following youtube instructions, and has made all sorts of dinosaurs, sharks, planes, etc. out of paper. This airplane he's holding was from the gym. There are a couple of older boys in the gym kids club that are always making cool things out of paper for Boston. That's where his paper construction obsession started. One day he came home from the gym with paper wolverine claws, and that started his love for things made out of paper. 

We've been going to these free Summer movies since he was two, but his attention span for the movie has gotten much. much better each year. I love my little movie date each week with this cute kid. 

Here's Boston at this mini table we found on craigslist. He loves it. We wanted to be able to seat more kids when we have people over for dinner, so I'd been looking for a little table like this for awhile. We actually found one we liked better right after we bought this one, so now we have two kid tables. One of them is in the playroom for now to do puzzles and play games. After we re-stain it, we'll probably move it to the kitchen and make this one the playroom table. 

We finally sealed our shutters to help keep them from fading in the hot Texas sun. Another house project we've been working on is Boston's room. I'll post pictures when it's all done. We'll finally have one room in the house that's completely decorated. Yay! We are taking our sweet time getting our house decorated. Still have lots of empty walls and pictures that I have no idea where to hang. 

Boston loves to help. He's a sweetheart. I love my little helper. 

Boston started his first day of swimming lessons at Sea World last Friday. When we were walking to the pool I told him to make sure to listen to the teacher and do what he told him to do. Surprised, he responded, "You're not my teacher!?" Ha ha. I guess since I'm his Sunbeam teacher and preschool teacher, he thought I'd be his swimming teacher too.

Lucky him, he got someone a lot more qualified and fun than me to teach him swimming lessons. 

He did great, but the preschool level was too easy for him, so his teacher recommended he move up to the next level. I could tell he was a little bored in class, so we moved him up. We liked his teacher, so we were sad to leave, but hopefully his new teacher will be just as fun. 

After his swimming lesson, we stayed and played at Aquatica for a couple hours. There were no lines for the slides, so we did the slides a few times.

 It's been a fun Summer so far! I love my little buddy. 

Camping, Running, and the Beach, Part II

Here's the second half of our trip last weekend to Corpus Christi for the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon.

After dinner on Friday everyone on our team met in our room to go over the details of who was running what leg and how we would get there. There were six people on each team, and our team was made up of 3 couples. Our team name was "My Wife Made Me Do It." Yes, it was the girl's idea to run this relay, but the husbands all had a lot of fun! The Theler's (middle), and the Reeve's (right) are our good friends. We decided to bring a babysitter with us to watch the kids while we ran, so the Reeve's brought their sister-in-law's 17 year old sister, Ashley, who lives in Texas to help watch the kids while we were running. Ashley also brought her friend with her. They did a great job watching 5 kids four and under for about 4 hours in a little hotel room! 

 (This is just a random picture Scott took on his phone while he was waiting to run.)

I ran leg two, so I rode the shuttle bus with Gina who was running leg one. We had to get up bright and early to make sure we were on the bus by 5:15AM. Once we got to leg one, I ran about 2 miles down the beach to my starting position at leg two. I've always wanted to run on the beach and I finally got to! It was so gorgeous running right by the water at 6:00 in the morning. Once I got to my spot I got to run a couple more miles on the beach while I waited for the race to start and Gina to get to me. My leg was a little over 4 miles and it was very humid! I was grateful that I was leg two before it got too hot. 

Scott ran leg five which was also a little over four miles. He said he enjoyed it, and had a nice tail wind which helped. This was mine and Scott's sixth race together. Pretty good for someone who says they don't like running. What a good, supportive husband I have. 

After the race we cleaned up and checked out of our hotel. Our friends went to the beach, but we were a little beached out from the day before, especially since I was fried to a crisp on my shoulders and back, so we decided to see what else there was to do in Corpus Christi. We ate at this amazing and delicious restaurant called Hester's Cafe that was in the art museum overlooking the beach. They had really yummy soup, salad, and panini sandwiches. 

 When we were done eating we went out on the deck and saw a bunch of dolphins jumping. It was pretty cool! This picture makes me laugh. Boston is a character. We told him to go stand in front of the USS Lexington to get a picture, so he strikes this pose. His little pot belly is so cute. 

 We love hanging out with Boston. He keeps us entertained.

Here's proof that we finished the race! Marathons are much more fun when you divide it between six people! 

After lunch, we walked along the beach for awhile and decided to tour the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier in WWII. 

It was awesome. We all loved it. 

Part of the tour included a 3D movie about air racing. 

After the USS Lexington, we had to get Boston his promised picture inside the shark's mouth. Then we made the 2.5 hour drive home! 

It was a great weekend, and a fun family vacation!