Finley & Hadley's Blog: Summery Things

Summer-life finally feels here. I groan when people ask me How's summer going? I get it. It feels like we should be well into summer. But we're not. This was only our second week. The 4th is this week, which is usually the turning point to the later half. Eh, how does that work when we just started summer? The burn-out I felt this spring was the worst in my career. So needless to say I'm super-excited to start a one-credit math class tomorrow. But we certainly got in some summery things this week - camp for Finley, a sprinkler day, a beach, and finished off with a Sunday evening pontoon ride.

Finley went to Safety Town this week! It was a week-long summer program that promotes all kinds of safety - fire safety, calling 911, bike safety, car safety, and more. The program was awesome. Finley loved it and I couldn't believe how much he learned. It also led to healthy conversations at home - what to do in an emergency, rules, etc. All kids should be required to attend. A huge bonus - I'm friends with the instructor so I received some picture texts to see what he was up to.

Finley is sitting in "Mr. Convincer", a booster seat that tips forward to show kids how important seatbelts are in an accident.

Safety Town creates a mini-town for practicing safety skills.

Parents are invited on the last day. We went on a short walk in the neighborhood to practice crossing the street safely. Look left, look right, look left again. Finley has turned into a neighborhood cop - he quickly pointed out a boy that was riding w/ no hands on his bike, criminal.

There was a brief presentation for parents, Finley was called up to model wearing a bike helmet correctly.

Graduation.

Celebrating with cake!

Afterwards, parents were invited to see the actual Safety Town - it was really great.

Sarah, a friend and colleague, was an instructor - Finley loved her and learned so much. I was very impressed with the entire program.

Oh Hadley. She was SO excited to start dance class. She had her bag, her leotard, her buns, her ballet slippers, she told us (over and over and over) that she was going to dance class. Grandma made Hadley's ballet bag.

I had this feeling that she wouldn't dance. Ugh, my gut was right. She hesitantly went in and they brought her out after 5 minutes crying. I didn't force her back in (I tried but she refused), so I had her stand and watch. I hope next week goes better.

That girl-thing is emerging. Sister has been clomping around in high heels all week.

It's especially cute with a diaper. There should be a law - no high heels until you are potty trained.

Speaking of which, she's not. I'd heard many times Girls are so easy to potty train! My daughter was trained by 2! Blah, blah, blah. Yeah right. I had it in my mind it would magically happen. Sister has refused. She's perfectly content in a 10 lb diaper. I'm not in the mind to force kids and drag out the training for painful and frustrating months. So we've waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing. She simply says No. I've put it off until summer and now we need to do it. So we're trying more, a lot of encouraging (always met w/ that No!) But this week there was a glimmer - she went twice at home! And got new Frozen undies afterwards (Thanks Melissa for the idea).

Checking for potty with a flashlight. Whatever you want sister.

She put her new undies on herself.

Summer days at home. I love plain old sprinkler fun. I can park it in a lawn chair and the kids have a blast running all of that crazy energy out.

I love the faces.

The best Dollar Tree purchase ever - large squirt-thingys.

Summer, we are happy you're here.

We decided to make our 4th of July t-shirts at the Fun Dye Factory. It's a local shop for tie-dying t-shirts.

We'll reveal the final product soon!

Filling the bird feeders, yes in high heels.

Finley & I picked up our new car. It's my first brand new car, we love it. It's way fancier than we need, but we're learning all of the cool tricks. It's voice activated and has cameras all over, I'm almost convinced I could drive w/ my eyes shut.

Hadley wanted to play 'babies' and she was the baby. Yup, even drinking from her doll's bottle. I liked the really tight snuggles from a little girl that hardly sits still anymore.

Riding bikes...Finley with his new helmet...

...Hadley with her new baby carrier on back. Adorable.

We helped Maddie celebrate her 4th birthday at the Lake Elmo Beach Reserve. What a great beach for little kids. It's man-made so there are no yucky creatures and it's chlorinated like a pool. It's basically a beach-pool which is a win-win, sand and water to keep the kids extra busy.