This was the most amazing summer!
The summer I have dreamed of my kids having! It wasn't filled with any incredibly outrageous destinations...but it was the first summer in a long time (since the kids were 3 and 5) that I wasn't working. I was able to everyday with La and Hud and we played and played and played! We made the most of every day and we slept good every night...no doubt!
A local bowling ally offered 2 free games of bowling everyday all summer long...and we took them up on it! We went bowling probably close to 15 times. The loved it!
We went to 2 Traverlers baseball games. At one game, the first baseman threw Hudson a ball as he was coming in off the field. Hudson wrote about it in his journal. Really cute!
This summer wasn't too incredibly hot ...for the most part...and we enjoyed playing in our new backyard. We see bats, lightening bugs and bunny rabbits on a regular basis.
We had a lot of fun cooking hot dogs and smores in the fireplace on the back porch one night. Definitely will be doing this more in the fall! The hot dogs were fabulous...and I'm not a hot dog person!
We had season passes to Wild River Country and sent several times each week! The kids LOVED this pool obstacle course and spent many hours crossing it....which was nice for me...laying poolside and watching!
Lawson and I shared a funnel cake every time we went!
Lawson and Hudson attended 2 VBSs this summer. One at our church and one at our neighbors church. Both church's used the same theme...so they were well versed!
They also got to attend Kamp Kanakuk Camp held at Rock Creek. The staff from Kamp Kanakuk out of Branson came in and brought their staff and extreme toys (bounce houses, rock climbing wall, bungee trampoline etc.) and ran a day camp. This was definitely one of the highlights of their summer...so much fun! They came home like little zombies!
Loved that I didn't have to wake them up early in the morning. They slept til about 8:30 and we would have some breakfast and a friendly round of skipbo or watch the Brady Bunch in our PJs.
Now....don't think that we just played. We did some educational things too. La and Hud signed up for the Bryant Library summer reading program. They had lots of fun...read lots of books...and won some fun prizes! Lawson also worked on memorizing all her multiplication and division facts up to 12. And Hudson spent some time working in a math and reading workbook most days.
Nonie treated one day to the Rock Climbing Center! This place is always a hit!
There was also plenty of time to hang out at the house wearing your highest heels and singing...
or dressing up in Dad's old cowboy costume!
I started a new job with the Bryant School District and started back to work 2 weeks before school started for the kids. So, Nonie, whose retirement went into effect Aug 1 (yea for her!) took over being the kids personal summer entertainer. She knocked herself out the two weeks she had them! She took them to see EVERY kids movie that was out this summer!
She took them to Mid-America museum in Hot Springs. They had a blast there! They were excited to be going on a road trip without mom and dad!
Nonie bought them Rainbow looms...and they spent one rainy day making rubber band bracelets. They turned out really cool!
Want to take a guess at what is going on in this pic?! SO funny! This little arcade is at the bowling alley we frequented. They always begged for tokens to play games. We quickly discovered that most of the games were super run down and really good at eating token. Then we were sad and had to go to the front desk and ask for more tokens...just turned in to a big hassle. I quickly made a rule that we weren't playing games at the bowling alley. The kids would ask to just walk through the arcade and look for tokens. Unfortunately, they found one the first time they did this which fueled their fire! They look so pathetic!
This day was spent playing outside! They started with digging...which led to building a farm...which led to building a barn!
Who needs Wild River County?!?
Child labor! Ha! He loved it! He asked to mop!?!
Helping Papa put out the birdseed.
Nonie and Poppa treated them to dinner at All Aboard Restaurant where your meal is delivered to by a train! You can see the track all around the ceiling!
The kids went to the mall to run an errand with Nonie one day and spotted Build-A-Bear! Uh-oh! Hudson had never been and has been asking to go several times lately. Lawson had been once....and was dying to go again.
They had SO much fun building bears! Lawson came out with a rainbow bear wearing silky PJs and Hudson came out with a karate bear! So indicative of what they are both in to these days!
The last weekend of the summer before school started we took on the project of assembling a storage shed in our back yard. The kids had fun helping.
Everything in this post was in addition to SO many other trips and things we did this summer....which are in other posts! So blessed! Really!
Good bye summer!
1st and 4th grades here we come!
Here are pics from the kids first day of 1st and 4th!
This was the first morning that all 3 of us had to be up and ready with breakfast and bible story time by 7:15! We did it! My office is right around the corner from the kids school so I drop them off on my way to work.
We walked the kids into the gym and watched their little beginning of day routine...the pledge, announcements, etc. They seemed to fit right in!
Here are some little back to school collages! Oh...the cuteness!
Chick-Fil-A threw a little back to school party! So, we went there for dinner! They had face painting and of course, the cow! She came and sat down with us and pretended to drink Lawson' coke. They couldn't get over it! Loved the cow!
