Summer!!! I have a love hate relationship with the Texas summer. I love that we get to swim forever and that it's still light outside after dinner. It's so nice to send the kids outside to play while I wash dishes or go for a walk together to end the day. I hate how dangerously hot it gets in the afternoon and how by the end of August it feels like it will never end! Oh and don't get me started about the humidity. I still think I have more love for summer than hate though. I deal with the heat because there is so much fun to be had! <3
Jane is only two weeks older than her best boy friend Nathan. So their birthday parties are usually right around the same time. For some reason those two weeks is all it takes for it to turn into full blown summer temps. I remember being super hot outside in the backyard at Nathan's party. I'm a wimp when it comes to heat when I'm pregnant. Jane had a blast in the waterslide bouncy house and with the water balloon fight. Atlas was still too afraid to try it out and of course, Xan was too young. They both enjoyed holding a water balloon though. ;) Atlas had a great time playing inside as always. He loves all the boy toys! Alexandria loved their doggies. <3
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| The last picture I have of Papa healthy. <3 :,( |
Mama and Papa had to miss Jane's birthday party in 2019 because of a small sickness (like a cold or something). So they made a trip out to see us in June to visit and give Jane her presents. I had no idea it would be one of the last times Papa would be at my parents house. It's the last picture I have of Papa healthy. It's also one of my very favorite pictures. It's like a super hug! Two of the best huggers I know coming together in the sweetest cuddle ever. I still can't believe he's gone. Such sweet memories. So grateful we were blessed to make those memories.
This was our last park day in May before switching to Splash pad days for the summer. It was so hot! I was so ready to switch to a cooler option. But I always miss park days in the summer. We just don't have the same attendance. The splash pad doesn't have the appeal for the older kiddos in our group and the mom's don't want to sit out in the heat even when there is a way to cool down. There's also the fact that every one has different schedules in the summer and so many families are on vacation, their kids are in camp or they just decide it's a beach day. For whatever reason Park Day is not a priority for the majority of our group once summer starts. And that's ok! I still like to make the Splash Pad an option for those that would like to participate. It was still a great last park day despite the heat, mud and all! (Apparently Atlas thought it was too hot for shoes too.)
Starting in June I switch over to splash pad days! Last summer, I organized spalsh pad days every week at the same splash pad. It was too much for me. Going to the splash pad is so much more work than just jumping in the car and going to the park that's 2 minutes away. I have to do swimsuits and sunscreen. I need to remember clothes to change into and towels and toys. I love it but it's hard to go every week and try to be on time. Also, the kids were sooo over it by August. I could barely convince them to go to the Woodridge splash pad anymore. So I decided this summer to only commit to being there every other week and go to Roman Forest since they seemed to like that one better. Then I found someone else to organize a splash pad day at a different splash pad on 2nd Tuesdays and for the 4th Tuesday of the month we did $1 Movie days at the theater. It worked much better! They love all the fun water elements at the Roman Forest Splash Pad. Especially the big dumping barrel. The only things I didn't think about is how the extra driving distance would be a little harder and that splash pad is surrounded by dirt and stickers. So I had to carry the kids from the splash pad back to the tables all the time because they didn't like their feet getting dirty and they were scared of the stickers. We made it work though and had fun!
One of my sweet park families took over 2nd Tuesday Splash Pad for us. It was so nice to not have to worry about being on time for once. They had access to the Summerwood Splash pad. The kids loved it!! Our friends had figured out the trick of covering one of the drains with a towel and creating a sort of baby pool in the middle of the splash pad. That was Atlas's favorite part! Jane's favorite part was the three buckets that would fill up and drop. She loved finding the perfect spot for them to dump on her head. Xan was just happy to run around anywhere. :) Unfortunately the splash pad was closed for maintenance for one of our Tuesdays and then our friend's car was out of commission for another Tuesday. We only ended up going to the Summerwood splash pad twice, but we sure had fun when we made it out!
Another fellow homeschool mom agreed to host a couple of splash pad days on Mondays at her neighborhood splash pad in The Groves. It's a gorgeous splash pad with lots of shade and water elements wound through the foliage. We had a good time and met some new friends! We made it out to the first one but not the second. Back to back splash pad days are tough! I need at least a day in between to regroup. Also, the kids aren't that interested in going to splash pads that often either. There really weren't a lot of exciting elements to the splash pad, so the kids weren't asking to go back like they do some of the other splash pads. I always love trying a new place though!
When July rolled around the kids were getting tired of the Roman Forest Splash Pad. I decided to go to the closest splash pad, Woodridge, and check it out. I had heard they had installed a gate and I wasn't sure if Kingwood Residents were still allowed in. Well, as it turns out we were allowed in with our swimbands and the kids loved being back! I thought they were still super burnt out on this one from going every week last year, but it was like they were coming home. Look at those smiles! They missed it! I missed it too. It's just so close by and so easy to keep an eye on all the kids. They love stopping by the small pool next to it too. After that I split the remaining Heart splash pad days that I was in charge of between Woodridge and Roman Forest. It worked out perfectly! (I planned to the same thing in 2020, but corona put a wrench it that, like it did with most things)
With Jane preparing to start Kindergarten in the fall I decided to do some summer school to give us a little taste of what it would be like. I got a computer reading program I had heard good things about and my favorite workbooks as a kid, Explode the Code. Funnix was recommended to me by a friend and it wasn't too pricey so I thought it would be good to try. Jane loved to play PBS games on the computer. If I found it didn't work we could start the fall off with something different. Well, it did not work at all! After the first 5 lessons Jane hated it. I thought it was more of a computer game to teach phonics but instead it was just a computer tutor and all you got to do was press the continue button. So about 20 lessons in we abandoned it and I went on to search for a curriculum that might work better for both of us. (More on that in Summer part 2) She enjoyed her Explode the Code book. At least that worked out! She was so excited and proud when she finished the first one!
Oh my goodness, is that a picture of me and Sam on a date?? What? Sorry, it's just so rare. Mostly because we're homebodies and we're both super low maintenance relationship people. But yeah, being broke and having 3 kids has something to do with it too. My mom graciously watched all 3 kiddos for us and Sam and I went to go see Avengers: Endgame together finally. Such a great movie!! Gosh, It makes me feel like watching it now. So glad I made it out to the theaters for that one. Definitely theater worthy. My favorite moment was Captain America picking up Mjolnir. YES! Can you tell we're Marvel nerds? I'm so looking forward to taking the whole family to the movies one day! <3
A little after Atlas turned 3 we tried potty training, but after one day I could tell he wasn't ready yet. Another thing I had heard somewhere is that your child isn't ready to potty train until they can put up two fingers (like the peace sign) when they are asked to do so. Atlas couldn't do that yet. So I waited a few more months. When I realized he could put two fingers up on his own and we tried again. It was around mid summer. He did awesome! He was so proud to earn his monster truck! But for some reason he got it down for a few days and then specifically asked to go back to diapers. I was like, "Wah??? But why?" He said he just liked diapers. I told him he could flip around to face forward in his car seat since he was a big boy and if we went back to diapers he would have to sit backwards for longer. He was good with the car seat forward option! So he was totally pee trained, but he was having a lot of trouble going #2 on the potty, like not at all. Eventually I just decided to not force it and let him have diapers to go #2. It worked out. He never had accidents he just requested a diaper when he needed one. (Months later after every method attempted he was completely potty trained, but I'll save the rest of the story for the corresponding seasonal blog post)
Our local movie theater puts on $1 movie days through the summer of kids movies that have been out for a year or two. We skipped last year since Xan was just a few months old, but since she was over a year in summer 2019 and a super chill baby I decided to try with all three kiddos. I also set it up as a Heart Event on 4th Tuesdays and tried to meet people there. That ended up being too hard. I couldn't tell who was coming and it was sprinkling outside so I couldn't wait with my sign outside like I had planned to. Oh well! At least our group was informed about a cheap way to entertain their kids in the A/C during the summer. The first movie we saw was Small Foot. We hadn't seen it before and we all really enjoyed it and Xan was a champ! The next one we saw was SING which we love, but have seen many times! Our friend Paige was able to meet us there to watch it with us. :) The kids were a little louder and less focused since they had seen it before. I think being excited to watch it with their friend had something to do with it too. Even so everyone still did pretty well. Xan had a blast dancing to the end credits of SING. :D
We finally have a waterpark close by! Just a 20 minute drive. Big Rivers Waterpark was having a special low price admission day on July 4th. So my mom and I decided to take the kids and check it out for the first time. Oh my goodness, It was so busy! It took us 30 minutes just to get in the park. That's a long time to wait with three young children. Once we were in people were spread out enough around the park that it wasn't too bad, but still busier than I would like. We hung out the most in an area that had a lot of kiddie slides in one place. It was a lot of fun but hard for us to keep up with all three kids with just the two of us. I'm still glad we went, but next time we go we'll pick a slower day and hopefully bring some more adult reinforcements. In my opinion the park is not worth how much it costs on a regular admission day. Hopefully they'll add more to do in the coming years and we'll get season passes when the kids are a little older and have a bunch of fun throughout the summer. :D
After the waterpark my mom offered to take all three kids for the first time to have a sleepover at her house! It was the first time I got to sleep in and had a night to myself and in over a year. It was amazing. I didn't even know what to do with myself. I never get as much as I want accomplished when the kids are on a sleepover, but it's always a refreshing and much needed break. So grateful to have my parents close by and willing to take the kids for me. They all adore their grandparents. Jane talks about wanting to live at their house all the time. I tell her that we already did that when she was a baby. ;)
Bryn finally arrived! We had been anxiously awaiting the news of my brother and sister-in-law's second daughter's entrance to the world since the beginning of July. She waited until the middle of July to make her appearance. She was just too comfy in there. ;) We were all so excited she arrived in perfect health. She's just adorable. I was really looking forward to meeting her. It just didn't work out for me to visit them or for them to come to us for a while. But I finally met her in September on our family beach trip. More on that in my next blog post.
Jane is still loving her Gymnastics class! We had been going on Tuesday evenings for a while because it was the only time available that worked, but it made for a very busy day with park/splash pad day being that day too. Finally they added a mid afternoon time on Friday for Kinderstars and we switched right away! It worked so much better! I don't even know how I made Tuesday work for so long. Jane was getting a little impatient for meet season to start back up though by the end of summer. She LOVES meets so much! I think they're pretty fun too!
I mentioned in my Spring recap that part of our side fence fell down from strong winds. Well our favorite fence company was booked until July because of all the weather events in the surrounding areas. We decided we loved their work on our back fence enough to wait and have them do the side fence as well. We were grateful that our neighbors were willing to wait and went in financially for the fence with us. It was worth the wait. Beautiful fence, very well done. If you need a fence give New Caney Fence Company a call. My dad graciously stained the fence for us and made it extra pretty. We love it. We only have one side fence left to replace, but we'll probably wait until that one falls over too. ;)
Half way through the summer is good place to stop for now. Hopefully I'll finish Part 2 of Summer 2019 before Summer 2020 is over!
James 1:19-27
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
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