SUMMER TIME...

SUMMERTIME FUN & LEARNING...

A week a granpa & grandmas...(June 27 - July 5)
*enchanted forest
*spray park & beach
*wiener roast
*picking wild strawberries
*playdough
*learning to play chinese checkers

weekend at home -
I was blown away by how well the girls have been getting along - we have been trying a new routine and its really working quite well. play time morning while mommy is productive and then fun afternoon / evening. no whining, no tantrums, no fights - love it - wondering how long this will continue...we have a week of inturrupted schedule with VBS - but then we can do this schedule again - will be interesting to see what happens...

A week at VBS (July 8 - 12)

Daddys shift is changing again - so we will only have the car in the late afternoon / evening...not sure what kind of adventures will occur

(July 12, 13, 14)
We took a family mini vacation to Portland Oregon. None of us had ever been there before, and we are trying to teach the girls to use birthday money and other monye on experiences instead of stuff (especially because we dont have room for stuff). So Big A used her birthday money to get us into the Oregon Zoo, and the Oregon & Childrens Museum. Big A's favorite part of the childrens Museum was the animal hospital - where she could dress up like a vet and use real vet equipment on stuffed animals. She also really liked the childsize grocery store, and the theater where they could dress up - sing and dance on stage and create whatever they wanted to. Such a fun place!!
The zoo was beautiful too - one of the best I have been in. So natural. Some of the amazing animals we saw at the zoo were: Elephants, Giraffe, Hippo,  Rhino, Penguins, Polar Bears...to name a few. Spent a beautiful day in the sun admiring all the animals. What a fantastic trip!

(July 15 -20)
15th - lots of dramatic play
16th - about 1 hour on Dreambox math computer game &  spray park & slurpees
17th - Spray Park
18th - Today we went to Minter Gardens and an unplanned trip to Harrison Lake

20th - *Signed papers for moving into new apartment - has a little more space for doing art , and cheaper :)
          *mommy organized the art supplies, hours and hours of art was done today.

(July 21-27)
21st - Sunday school Picnic in the park
22nd - Meeting friends for picnic supper & spray park play
23rd -
Big A is always begging me for a bath - I dont have time for this always when she asks...so this mommy got creative... pink duct tape to show where to turn the water dial as to not be too hot / too cold, and pink duct tape to show water level - when it hits the tape - turn water off...she LOVED having the independence - and I loved her being to happy about it hooray for the small things!

26th - Playdate - Trampoline fun, swinging, swimming all in a friend backyard - great times had by all!
27th - Family shopping trip and out for lunch. Today we did a massive purge on toys - anything not played with left - we then went shopping and bought wooden food, play toaster, cash register and canadian play money, ABC popsicles for Little A to start doing her homeschooling too :) So much fun. Then mommy went out later after girls were in bed and made a homemade doctor kit / vet kit.


(July 28 - August 3)
Big A has a week of Art camp this week
We also get the keys to the new apartment this week - so hopefully a week of lots of cleaning and moving some light stuff into the new place :)

28 -
* The girls LOVED their new doctor kit and played an hour and a half with it in the morning and let mommy and daddy sleep till 830 :) way to go girls!!

Today we had a great day exploring Fish Trap Creek. We were playing with our shadows, and collecting leaves, rocks, sticks, feathers... the girls found a chalk hopscotch on the trail and played that for a while too. What a beautiful place - we will have to go there again!!

29 - Today is the first day of Big A's Art Camp
Art camp today - Big A LOVED it!!
She painted on large canvas, sculpted a cat out of clay, and did some charcoal drawings.
She was excited to tell me about some friends that she made and told me about the kids that were not so nice to her. She had an incredible day and is very much looking forward to tomorrow :)

We also got the keys to our new apartment today!

30 -
Big A had Art camp again today - She is enjoying it so much!
Today they painted their clay cat creations today.
They also painted another conponent to their large canvas painting and prepared a canvas for tomorrows work, and more charcoal drawings.

31 *Behavioural Therapist comes for her last meeting today (unless we hire her for more later)
     
*Big A had her 3rd day of Art Camp - today they put the glaze on the clay cat pencil holders, and formed a clay creation of themselves, and painted the tree onto their large canvas, and drew a selfie portrait with charcoal .
This afternoon her assignment was a writing project - she wrote me the Artists name that they are studying, about the artist, and what she is enjoying about art class.

Today was our 14th Wedding Anniversary - We took the girls out to the Chilliwack Airport for supper and to watch the airplanes, and then we all went to see Smurfs 2 at the theater - what a sweet movie about family & adoption.

1 - Last day of Art Canp was today - Mommy LOVES the large canvas painting - we are getting it stretched and framed will be ready next week to hang on our new dining room wall.
Mommy also loves this little piece of art work.
It is a 3D clay piece of Big A & Gustov Klimt - so fun!!

I hope that Big A gets to experience a few more of these art classes and learn about other artists - she loved it and I love how much she learned and the pieces she brought home are hangable / forever keepable :)
2 - Today we had a productive day of moving some items into our new place, and wrapped up the day with a trip to Play Abby.
3 - This morning Big A asked if she could do some math - so she did 6 pages in a math book...
She worked on place value, Measuring & Length, Counting, 2D shapes.

(August 4-10)
4 Today our family went to Vancouver to take in a baseball game. Vancouver Canadians vs Hillsboro Hops. Vancouver won 4-0. This was the girls first time ever to a baseball stadium. So much fun!! Daddy tried to explain the ins and outs of baseball :)

5 Big A is off to Grandma & Grandpas for the week again  - this time by herself - no little sister tagging along. Hoping we all have a very productive & fun week.