So, I have ALOT of catching up to do on summer before I can post about the beginning of school! So I am gonna attempt to find time to post several summer time posts quickly so I can post about our wonderful first day of school!
I'm going to start with the Harper Family Reunion in California! This wonderful trip could not have been possible for me without the help of my sweet dad... and Ryan, who stayed home over his 4th of July break with Elsie. I am so so grateful I was able to go because seeing all of my family was so dreamy!! I just loved it!!! I also got to see my newest little niece, Hazel! I loved that chunky little muffin so much...and so did ALL of her cousins!!
We had the super neat opportunity to take a tour of the studio where my uncle, who works and has worked on many amazing movies, doing computer graphics!! What he does is amazing and it was so neat to see where he works and more about what he does!!
Did I mention that he works at a Lucas Films Studio?? Yea, it was a super neat tour!! Here are Jane and Beckham outside next to a Yoda fountain.
In the lobby we got to see tons of Star Wars props and items that had the kids totally fascinated!!
Here is Luke Skywalker's lightsaber...
Darth Vader...
...It was pretty epic :)
They used to make movie magic with this crazy contraption back in the day!
Oh, its just the HOLY GRAIL from INDIANA JONES!!! There was so much more that we saw and did. But this was just a peak at the amazing day we had!
Back at my brother, Matthew's house, all the cousins had a blast playing and playing together! These four little gals stayed close together in the house FULL of boy cousins!!
The dreamy, amazing pool was the star of this trip!!
Both of my kiddos made HUGE strides with becoming confident swimmers here!! By the end of the trip they were both swimming comfortably and pretty well without a life jacket :)
Here is Aunt Christina, entertaining the gaggle of crazy kiddos!!
We played charades...
Of course, being in Northern Cali, we had to visit some red woods!! We went on a beautiful hike through a red wood forest that was so neat. This really made me miss California!
And though I had to fly home on the 4th of July, we had ALOT of fun before our flight. In the morning all the kids decorated bikes and themselves with Fourth of July decor and we had a parade around the neighborhood...music and all! It was fun and just too darn cute!
Here's the whole clan of kids with grandma and grandpa! What an amazing family we have!! Sweet baby Anne is in my Dad's lap. Poor baby Anne was in the hospital for the majority of the time with some major and scary digestive issues. Luckily she was showing signs of improvement even before I left :)
One last picture of beautiful Jane with sweet baby Hazel!!
What an amazing addition to our summer this was. I wish we could have seen all our family in Utah so much... but poor Ryan hasn't been able to take any time off this summer. Poor guy :( But I am so grateful for the time I had with my wonderful family.
More summer fun posts soon to come :)
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Thursday, July 14, 2016
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!!
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!!
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