Spending Some Time With Noah

With school out of session that meant it was time to return to summer camp. This year Noah was able to attend the all day summer camp so he didn't have to return to a daycare on the days I had to go into the office. I kept his schedule pretty sporadic; aside from the Wednesdays he had to attend, I only signed him up for days that sounded interesting. This turned out to be mostly field trips, so Noah had a wonderful time visiting places such as the Museum of Science and Industry, Haunted Trails, Flipstar, Sky Zone trampoline park, Phillips Park Zoo, Kane County Cougars game, the Aquarium, local splash pads, and every Wednesday was a different water park. Lucky guy. I wanted him to have a little chill time too, so he stayed home with me one or two days a week. Sometimes we would go out for lunch or have a picnic.

One day we even went all the way down to our library (the one we are actually members of) and finally signed him up for his first library card.

Another day, after swim lessons, an ice cream treat was on the menu.

Here is trying out my hands-free headset

One week he traded in his usual camp for a special camp a few towns over. I wasn't sure he was going to like it and thought he might be sad to leave his friends, so I really tried to get him excited about how it was a "real" camp. I explained how they had their own grounds and it wasn't like his other camp that just hung out at a school and the older kids actually got to sleep over at the camp. We had had a tour back in April, so when we got there he recognized it. And to my surprise, he loved this camp. He loved the pool, and the pickle shack (snack shack), and the more structured activities, and just the whole atmosphere. I wish we could make this his full-time camp next year, but it is a little pricey and far from home. But I promised him he would get to go at least two weeks next year. 

One day we played hooky from a sporting activity (well we arrived late on purpose) so we could stand by the tracks and watch a steam engine roll through town. It was so cool and so worth it to miss a few minutes of class.

 https://youtu.be/ggQYw603I_k

I love hanging with this sweetheart (that's his "I'm so sweet" face apparently)

A Charlotte Post

Charlotte is such a joy. She loves to play with her Little People and will ask you to come "sit" or "play" with her all the time. She will also play by herself too. The most common playtime activity is setting up the little people in their chairs. There is a character for each of us; she is usually Princess Jasmine. Word of advice, she doesn't like when Baloo the Bear from The Jungle Book comes knocking at the door of her house.

She's a pretty picky eater nowadays, so we have to do some searching to find something for her to eat when we go out. That's nothing new to us since we live with Noah. She really likes chocolate and cookies.

Playing in the house with Noah's Hawaii leis

Her hair finally grew long enough that I could just about put it in a real "big girl" pony tail

She walked up to me out of the blue one day with this chef hat on and asked me to put the apron on her too. She is such a smart cookie.

We really like having girl time. This was a girls only lunch we went on in July.

And later that day with some kind of chocolate treat all over our face

And still later when we went out for dinner at a food truck

Wyatt and I bought her a little pink hat at Lincoln Park Zoo and she loves it. Sometimes she doesn't feel ready to go anywhere until she has her hat on.

A smile that could melt a million hearts

Playing with her new CeCe doll (Doc McStuffin's little sister)

She was so sure that she wasn't sleepy. All that learning and playing really tuckers her out.

Making a Splash

We had some fun cooling off this summer. We brought out the big inflatable pool for a swim day in June and we filled the little pool for Charlotte. She didn't like either, so she spent most of the time trying to avoid them. She also didn't like that the boys had a squirt gun fight and she was sometimes the unlucky victim.

Another day I had an unexpected afternoon off of work due to a power outage, so I took the kids to the splash pad. The boys love this particular splash pad because there is a sand play area nearby.

Noah also continued his weekly swim lessons. He is still in yellow (third level) and working on his forward strokes.

One day while I was working, Charlotte was napping, and Noah was at Camp, Wyatt decided to have a little pool party all by himself

In July, we attended Nick's work pool party. It was a little chilly (it's always after-hours), but the boys still enjoyed it and they collected a ton of money during the coin drop.