#15 & #16 park, balls, nails, balls, pools, and balls

Day #15 was a busy, busy day.  We had Take a Trip Thursday to a favorite park with friends!  It was a perfect day for it!

Then in the afternoon while the boys played with balls...

the girls had mani/pedis.  

Finally it was off to Avery's baseball game.  He was very excited because he got to play catcher and pitcher...his favorite position!

On day #16 after a morning at the gym, stores, and mowing the grass...I was happy to do this...

yes it was still a little chilly for swimming, but the kiddos were happy to make their first trip to the pool for the season!  We couldn't hardly pull Ellie away!

Then we wrapped up the day playing with new large bouncy balls...nothing better then that!  The best $2.50 spent.  The boys tried to sleep with these balls tonight even.

Have I mentioned how much I love my fence ;)??  It is so nice to have the kiddos out there playing all the time!

#14 I run & lots of puddles

Happy National Running Day!  I did celebrate by running today...it was on the treadmill at the gym, but at least it happened!  I am pretty amazed that I am still running after more then a year, especially since I pretty much do not like the actual running part ;).  I am now signed up for another half marathon in October so no stopping now.....

I just need to remember this:

So what did we do on our first Wet & Wild Wednesday??  We did get WET, but not in the actual summertime lets go swimming, play in the sprinkler type of wet....that's because it's another rainy and not very hot day around here.

Instead we jumped in puddles to get wet!

When it rains around our house we have no problem finding puddles as there's a creek that starts flowing through our backyard.

{Bella decided to celebrate by chewing on a boat...}

Then we have the puddles out front at the end of our driveway.

It was fun, but we want the rain to GO AWAY!!!

We also went to a "Mad Science" presentation this afternoon.  They boys really enjoyed it, but it was nap time for Ellie so she wasn't that into sitting a listening so I had to stand up and hold her for the 45 minutes...not very fun with a 2 1/2 year old!

#13 boys...who can understand them?

Some days are a little slower around here, which is SO nice.  We had our first storytime in the park {well most of it anyways...I will get to that in a second} for Thinking Tuesday.  The kiddos have loved storytimes for the last three years and we especially love when they have them at the park!

Well the librarian got through the first two books and songs before everyone had to make a dash for it because it started raining!  Oh well, we will mark it as DONE.

Okay, so I totally get now how much boys really LOVE nonfiction books...never understood it as a teacher and really tried to ignore it because fiction books are so much more fun to read...but please that's ALL my boys EVER want to read!!! I am so tired of reading about turtles, frogs, snakes, the desert..................

Since it was a rainy morning the superheroes and princess wanted to pick something off of our bucket list chart.  They decided they wanted to make a puppet show.  We got to work on making the puppets.

They turned out pretty cute.

The actual "show" didn't last long however ;).

{Notice what kind of shows we get to watch around here too....}

This was the boys at "rest" time.  I let them choose what they do after their "homework" is done.  Avery is watching a nature show and Evan is working on his scrapbook...I think they did a good job of still fitting with our Thinking Tuesday theme.

Here's a little look at how my superheroes play.  They have been OBSESSED with these "battling" cards from the Dollar Tree and battle with them constantly...another thing I now understand from my pre-children, teaching years...I used to always confiscate stacks of "pokemon" or related "battling" cards {anyone know what the actual term for these cards are??} from boys ALL the time...and now my own boys love them.  Boys...who can really understand them :)?!

#12 crafting with friends

I would say our first Make Something Monday was a success!  A few friends came over to our house this morning and we got started making a beach house picture frame and some crabs.  It was a beautiful morning and we were able to do it outside!!!  I have to say I am enjoying high 60s and low 70s in June, but I do hope we can really swim at some point this summer!

{Our two crafts we made!}

{Hard at work}

{Then what's better then a picnic with friends!?}

Then the kiddos made their own beach snack.

{The final product...its an "ocean" with fish on the bottom then two bears enjoying the "sand" on top under an umbrella ;)...thanks Pinterest and this website if you want the directions!}

{Of course you need some playtime with friends}

On another note.......I have to tell you I LOVE, LOVE having a fence!!!  I don't know why we didn't do this years ago!  We just might spend all summer in our backyard!  This was my view while folding laundry up in my room:

{The kiddos are playing baseball under the tree if you can't see it.}

I love that I can send them out there with Bella on their own without worrying too much! Thanks Ryan for your hard work!

#11 a pitcher & a party

It was a double header baseball weekend and Avery got to take a turn being "pitcher" today, which really means at his age he got to stand on the actual pitcher mound because the coach actually does all the pitching.

{Look at that stance ;)}

{He was pretty awesome at it if I do say so myself.}

Then we headed to Leah's 5th birthday party.

The kiddos got to do some ball target practice...

make a bear claw necklace...

and shoot a bear with a bow and arrow!  What a party! 

The princess also had to take a turn shooting, but Evan {I guess} is a bear lover because he didn't want to try :).

We also got to spend some time with Aunt Kelsey and Bella's favorite cousin Annie!

#10 what else would you do in 68 degree weather?

We started our morning with an early baseball game.  Avery got two hits in!  Have you ever seen a cuter catcher then this?

We then headed to a local park with friends to do a little fishing...

or maybe more just playing with sticks :).

The kiddos were very excited about the fish that Ryan caught.

Then what could be more perfect to do on a day that is around 68 degrees???

Swimming!!  That's right!  Again, in freezing cold waters the kiddos decided they really had to go swimming.

They seemed to enjoy themselves at least!

That's some brave little girls {by the way if you couldn't tell Ellie is the one on the left...her friend does look very similar to her}!

After warming up from swimming we went on a little canoe trip.  That's a little scary to do with 3 kiddos in there and keeping them from moving!

Ryan made it in this picture, but so did my finger :).

They all decided they needed to do kayaking next, thankfully this is as far as they got!

I would call that a good Saturday when the ride home looks like this.

By the way, if you missed it in the above picture here's a close up of who was also asleep on Evan's lap :).

We wrapped up our day with finishing our fence!!!! That's right we are D O N E!!!

Hallelujah!