Boy turns 3!!

For the past 5 years we've held big parties to celebrate the kids' birthdays.  With Bean's 6th birthday approaching, we decided she was old enough to have a friend party--which was a good enough excuse for me to stop the big birthday bashes.  Plus Boy is still young enough to not realize he's been shorted a few big birthday parties...!

Boy turned three on a Monday early in July.  The weather had been blistering hot right up until his birthday.  Things literally cooled down 20 degrees which made it the perfect evening.  We invited the grandmas and grandpas over for dinner and presents.  It was easily my favorite birthday gathering to date.

Boy is starting to figure out this birthday thing and he was so excited to open presents!

His biggest present was one that we couldn't wrap so we asked him to close his eyes...

...can you tell what it is?

His own balance bike!  Now he can go on bike rides with big sister!  (If she ever figures out the bike-riding thing herself.)

We got him an awesome Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday cake.  Adorable cake for an adorable kid.  (The bike helmet stayed on the rest of the evening, incidentally.)

Summer Equals the 4th of July

I told several people this year that I think that Independence Day is my favorite holiday.  As an adult I've come to appreciate this holiday, not only for what it means for our country to have freedoms, but that it is such a relaxed, zero preparation day.  It's possible the only holiday I can think of that I simply sit back and enjoy it.

This year wasn't much different from years past: we woke up super early (super early for a bunch of people who are used to sleeping in) and went to watch the Murray Parade.

The difference between this year and last time we brought Boy was huge!  We just kind of sat back and watched the kids do their thing.  And when the parade was over we retaught Boy that you don't run out into the middle of the road or accept candy from strangers.  I'm sure he was thoroughly confused...

We were pretty hot and sticky at that point so we decided to go back and jump in G/G H's pool.  It was the very best part of my day.  It felt So. Good.

After a barbecue lunch I had to come to work...which wasn't half bad.  I think I've made mention that I don't mind working holiday afternoons after everything has died down.  A few hours into my shift, a huge rainstorm hit the center of the valley.  I went outside and just...smelled the air.  We are coming into my very favorite time of year--hot, sunny mornings and cloudy, rainy afternoons!

I'm not sure I can entirely define why, but I have felt incredibly patriotic these past few weeks--almost to the point of being emotional.  You always hear people say how grateful they are for our founding fathers and those that have died to protect our freedoms...but do we ever stop and think about those words as we say them?  Even today the fact that I have my own corner of the internet to freely speak my thoughts is a luxury that others don't have.  I am very, very grateful for my citizenship in this country and the freedom and blessings that my family and I have been given.

Bean Graduates Kindergarten

If Bean's first year of school is any indication how quickly the next 12 will go, she will be a high school graduate before I know it!

Even though Bean had to stay in school a month longer than most kids, it really wasn't too bad.  Her last big project was a Great Brain Report--written about anything of her choosing.  She chose to write hers on Unicorns.  Yes.  It was awesome.

One of Bean's greatest strengths is that she loves doing her work independently.  I hope this continues throughout her school years.  For this report, the only thing I did was type up the little 'star' bullet points.  She did everything else herself.  I was able to go watch her give her report.  It was so sweet--she did a great job!

The Kindergarten program was a week before school got out.  Bean worked so hard to memorize her lines--and she delivered them clearly with no mistakes.  It was a lot of fun to watch all of these little kids (many whom I've gotten to know through the year) show off all of their new knowledge.

School got out for Kindergartner's on July 2nd.  It was so unbearably hot--I'm grateful that they chose to have field day inside this year.

Bean and Boy on Bean's last day of school:

I snuck into her class to grab a few pictures of these cute kids.  I sincerely love every single one of them!

And of course, Mrs. Titus.  We love Mrs. Titus!  I've had a great year working with her as the parent representative.  She has been such a good teacher for Bean and we are really going to miss her.

Since we are switching to a traditional school year in the fall, there is a chance that Bean won't be able to take the bus anymore (we are technically within walking distance, but the low enrollment this year means that we caught a break.)  This breaks my heart for her--she loves the bus and her bus driver is one of the nicest people I've ever met.  I made sure I got outside in time to catch Bean running home on her last day of school.  Having her bound through the door every afternoon has been one of my favorite things this past year.

She earned her 'Brilliant Bobcat' award and received a pin for Academics and Citizenship.  I am so proud of her!  She is a smart little cookie, but more than that, she really worked hard to earn this award.  She was excited to show it off!

Parenthood

Having S work as a firefighter (and having me work so many nights while our kids were little) has definitely given me (and I imagine S, too) a great respect for single parenting.  While I realize that most stay at home moms are left at home all day with their children, in most cases dad comes home at some point to give a mom (or dad) a break.  When your husband is a firefighter (or your wife works a swing shift) you don't have that luxury.

S and I have made it work well.  S has been working a lot these past few months and, before that, I was picking up several extra shifts as well.  It has become a huge deal for Bean and Boy when they get both parents home at the same time!

The other night Bean asked if we could see daddy in the phone (ie Facetime.)  She then proceeded to make funny faces at him the whole time.  (S is going to love that I'm posting this picture on here...)

I love the relationship that Bean has with her daddy.  Later in the week S took Bean on a date to see Inside Out.  It was a little thing, but it meant the world to her.  It's been 25 years, but I still remember the morning my dad came in to tell me that he was going to take me to see The Little Mermaid after he got home from work.  It's the little things we do in our kids' lives that make the biggest impressions.

Boy graduates speech therapy!

Just as Bean has wrapped up a school year, Boy kind of has too!  I mentioned in this previous post how Boy had been doing speech therapy since last fall.  The accomplishments he's made this past year have been astounding!  And I credit this awesome teacher of his:

Boy started off saying not even 10 words and now he speaks in almost complete sentences.  He still struggles with his sounds (so much so that he qualifies for an articulation class at the child development center) but I can understand him 95% of the time, and when I can't understand him, Bean interprets for me.

As Boy is turning 3 this upcoming week, he has aged out of having J, our speech therapist, come to our house.  Her last several visits have been a little unproductive--Boy has been really goofy and uncooperative so that he can get a laugh out of Bean (can you say Class Clown?!)  But at his last session, I got really sad!  J has become a good friend of ours and we have looked forward to her visits!

From this point on, Boy will be doing the articulation class and then we ended up enrolling him in the special needs preschool, even though he doesn't qualify (and we'll have to pay for it now.)  We just felt that his progress has been so amazing that we don't want to lose momentum--there will be a speech pathologist in the class to monitor his progress, and they will intervene if necessary.  Enrolling him early in preschool wasn't my goal.  His needs are different than Bean's, though, and I'm grateful that there are programs out there for little kids like him.

Summer in our Backyard

We full on experienced the pain of getting left behind on year-round school while all of the other kids are out of school.  We lucked out having a week off the first week of June for Kindergarten testing, but cabin and camping trips have been delayed until Bean was out of school.

But I think we did alright in the meantime!

We have spent so many evenings eating dinner on our back porch.  These dinners have seamlessly transitioned into the kids playing outside and staying up way too late.  It's not like it's their fault--my motivation to get them inside and into bed is completely gone when it's a warm sunny evening.  Summer evenings are my very favorite part of summer.

We started a new tradition this summer: Water Day Fridays.  Bean was out of school early on Fridays so we alternated between water activities on those days.  She anticipates it every single Friday we're home now.

Another Friday evening tradition is to go get SnoCones from the local SnoCone shack.  Best tradition ever.

A tradition that S and I live for is going out at twilight after the kids are in bed.  It has been awesome this past June to watch Jupiter, Venus, and even the moon align.  I am definitely an amateur astrologer, but I find the nighttime sky so fascinating.  Our evenings outside remind me of when S and were dating and he got hold of a telescope and took me up Emigration Canyon.  (I have an awesome setup, by the way, to take photos at nighttime...this particular evening would have been a good evening to practice using my real camera instead of my phone!)

Bean loves fireworks.  Like, loves fireworks.  Our town's summer festival was a few weekends ago.  S was working so I kind of wasn't thinking about watching the fireworks this year.  But when they started going off I instinctively ran up to Bean's room to see if she was awake.  She was awake and very excited!  So she and I went down and snuggled on our front porch bench to watch the fireworks.  Not a bad view from our house!

Lastly, Bean went to a birthday party a few weeks ago, full of water fun.  I initially thought Boy and I would just leave her there, but when Boy saw all of the water games, he got so excited--I ran home and changed him into a swimsuit, but when we got back we realized it was just a little too rough and tumble for him.  So we ended up leaving.  I stopped and got some dinner and took him to a local splash pad.  I've known about it for years, but we haven't actually ever gone there.  It was great!  He had such a fun time!  And I had a fun time going on a date with this little guy.  I am kind of looking forward to more one-on-one time with this dude next year when Bean starts first grade!

So I guess you could say that we have made the most out of being stuck home the first month of summer.  While I anticipate finally getting out in our trailer, I also look forward to spending more time playing at home this summer!