Aw Sweet Summer!!

 This post is long over due!! But we have been busy busy having lots of summer fun!  Little  is slightly limited on resources for kiddos, so I have had to get creative! We have been doing "mommy camps" where we spend several days focusing on a theme.   We read books, do science projects, art projects etc pertaining to that theme.  We have had a lot of fun doing them.

We did a nature camp where we went on a nature walk and gathered cool things, we read about and bought a venus fly trap plant and made worms in dirt!! This was the kids' favorite part!

The kids took swim lessons and have rocked it!! They each can now swim without floaties on! I am super impressed with their amazing progress! What awesome teachers they had!!

 For another "Mommy Camp" we learned about the life cycle and butterflies! We did a static electricity science project where the kids made these butterflies and using balloons and static electricity they made the wings flap! It was pretty neat!

 Did read about the life cycle and had an edible quiz about it...again a favorite for the kids!

 Then we made these sock caterpillars!! They turned out really cute!

We also did a weather "mommy camp".  We made a tornado which was really cool!

 We made windmills...

 And read about all different types of clouds then as a quiz they kids made different types of clouds out of cotton balls!

 One morning we explored this beautiful park! It was so lovely and magical! We all really enjoyed it even though the heat index was hovering around 100 degrees!!

 Living so near Whitman AFB is so neat! We get neat air shows all the time.  B2 bombers, A10's, jets and apache helicopters fly by all the time.  Can you see the helicopters?

 As a fun science project, the kids and I grew candy crystals!! Here's how they started...

and here's how they turned out!!

 They were so cool!! We made orange and root beet flavored ones!

 We had a very special Memorial Day weekend with just our little family!! We bought a fire pit, a little pool and all the fixings for roasting hot dogs and smores.  Who knew we could have so much fun in our own backyard!

 All the kids just had a blast!!

 And dinner was yummy!

 We managed to get in all our fun literally minutes before a nasty rain storm blew through!!

 For Father's Day the kiddos made daddy a special card and surprised him with lots of treats!

A super neat thing happened this summer...Ryan pinned on Major!!  It was so neat to be there and to see the ceremony! We are all so proud of Ryan and all his dedication and hard work!! The kids even sat really well during the special ceremony.  The neatest part was when the kids and I got to help Ryan take off his Captain pins and replace them with the Major ones!!  Jane and I even got to sing the National Anthem together at his ceremony!! It was all around just such a special day!! We are so grateful for Ryan and all he does for us!! We are so lucky!  Since we were so involved I wasn't able to get pictures on my phone- but someone else was  taking pictures and hopefully I will get them soon and can post some of the whole ceremony!

 Afteward, I took some pictures of the kids since they looked so cute!! Love these kids!!

And last but not least, Elsie Elsie Elsie...she is so busy and at times so very loud- haha!!! We are really having to learn how to include her in all our activities because she wants to do every little things the bog kids are doing!! We love her so much though, and she is just growing so fast!! She talks so so much and is super smart!!

She had a rough week when she had to get stitches...it was awful. I have not bawled and blubbered that hard in a long time!!  We were lucky her injuries were not worse, however!! Angels were looking out for this little lady and I am so grateful!!  Her stitches are out now and her head looks great and Elsie is back to all her crazy antics :)

Summer is moving right along and there is so much more to report!! I will post again soon about more summer adventures!!