Summer Fun Continues!

After a hectic week of fighting off diaper rash, a splinter and numerous other scraped knees, elbows, and other things summer brings, I decided we'd enjoy a day around the house today.

I love my summer schedule. I work Tuesdays - Thursdays leaving me with four day weekends. Due to some scheduling conflicts for most of July as well as last week, it seems like it has been forever since I've enjoyed a long weekend!

The boys and I had a busy morning. Benjamin came barreling through our bedroom door around 6:15 a.m. "Do you have any kids books in your room, Mommy?" ugh.

Benjamin enjoyed making a straw necklace this morning with lots of colorful drinking straws we had. He loved it so much that I had to convince him that he couldn't wear it to bed tonight (after he put it back on with his pjs). You gotta love the simple things that just thrill them!

Around 9:30 a.m. we ventured outside. Samuel would probably live outside if I let him. He just loves to be outside. Benjamin, however, would be perfectly content to veg out in front of the t.v., computer games, V.Smile video games, play with cars indoors, etc. Although, once he's outside he enjoys every minute.

It was a gorgeous morning so Samuel won. We spent a couple hours in our backyard. It's great because the boys got really into playing with the sandbox, water table, baby pool, and slide while I was able to poop scoop and pick weeds (sounds like I got the rough end of that deal). We still have the baby pool I bought for Benjamin's first summer. And he still loves it! Now we just line up the slide and he splashes right in!

After our time outside, Samuel went down for a good nap and Benjamin got his computer time I promised him. We printed out some activity sheets and that lead to some coloring time. Then he settled in for some t.v. time while I caught up on some much needed rest (I've been staying up too late watching Michael Phelps dominate the Olympics!).

Samuel woke up around 2:30 p.m. and eventually we ended up heading out to the library. I had a kids book on hold so I was eager to pick it up before they sent it back to another library on me again. The library closed at 5 p.m. which made it really easy for me to convince Benjamin to leave. He was literally running out of the library saying "The library is closing!" (They kept announcing it so I guess he thought they'd lock us in there or something).

We had an early dinner then headed outside to play with some neighbors. The kids had a ball. We've had some new neighbors move in recently and between two new families there are 4 new kids (including one newborn who wasn't really up for playing much!). But the 5 kids ranging in ages from 1.5 years - 5 years had a ball. Benjamin fell at one point and really scraped up his knee but I guess that's what summers are all about. Proof of a really good summer!

After bathing Samuel tonight I had a very proud moment. I actually plucked a splinter out of the bottom of Samuel's foot! I never imagined I'd be able to handle this task alone. When Don's home this is his task. He's a master with those tweezers, while I usually struggle to hold the child down. Samuel did awesome. Barely even fought it. Ahh. The lil successes in my daily life. (Pat-pat on my back).