Thursday: balloon animals

I decided I wanted to learn to make balloon animals.

Here we are, about to start.

Our first dogs didn't turn out so well.  They're noses are all pointed to the left.  From left to right we have mine, whose legs are different sizes and ears are too big.  Then Ben's, whose ears and neck are too big, and then Isaac's, whose nose is too big.

The second time around I knew what I was doing and made this one.  The red one is supposed to have a long body, although the tail is a bit long.

Ben's second one turned out as it was supposed to.

Isaac's turned out a bunch better too.

Joshua didn't enjoy the activity quite as much as I was expected.  However, we blew up a few balloons and let him release them and he did enjoy that.

I was most proud of my snail.

Ben made some lovebirds.  (They're supposed to be in a heart, but that part didn't turn out so well.  The birds turned out quite well though.)

Isaac was most proud of his snake. He made it himself and it had some eyes and a curl.  The making of the snake caused the only balloon pop, because he had been trying to make it from the tip to the knot of the balloon instead of from the knot to the tip.  Ben and I were both surprised a few times when the balloons didn't break on us.

Joshua made some presents.  I felt a bit bad for him, but we had played with him quite a bit in the morning.

Which reminds me, we brought Isaac back to the doctor for his cough and the current diagnosis is cough variant asthma.  We have an inhaler for daily use.  If there is an episode, we can increase the dosage and use another medication to calm everything down.  He should grow out of it in a few years.

We also got a new mattress today.  I took off the old one, and will be putting it on the guest bed, but in the meantime it is being used to jump on for a day or until someone gets really hurt.

Wednesday: happy 4th of July

It was a hot day today! 

We hit the beach for a bit in the morning.  We went to the neighborhood picnic, but we barely talked to anyone.  Oh well...the food was good. :)

Everyone took good naps, which made the time until fireworks pass pretty easily.  I mostly finished putting the toy room back together; it looks a ton better!!  I wish I had thought to take a before picture so I could show you an after picture.  However, our low shelves no longer have things on the top of them, and toys aren't everywhere anymore.  I did make better use of under the bed; some of the items that don't come out often or can just fit under there were put under the bed.  They are still visible, but in a better spot.

We also went to the fireworks.  It was Joshua's first time.  I think he liked them, although he got a bit impatient for them to start.

They chose sheets to help with the mosquitoes.  We'll see if it worked tomorrow.

Tuesday: toy room

The toy room has been a mess lately and I couldn't handle it anymore.  So even though the rest of the house was a mess, we started working on it anyway.

We took out all the toys and sorted them.  Part of my issue was that several toys were missing parts, which makes them not quite as fun.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, although there might be more parts hiding in the basement.

I then had the boys pick out their top seven items and their bottom seven items.  It was interesting to see what they chose.  Isaac picked all the green boxes (Kiwi Crates) even though there's only a few boxes that he still uses once we do the 'craft' in them.  I'll admit, I was hoping to get rid of them.  But I'll consolidate them somehow.

Joshua seemed to choose the first things he saw, including one of those rubber bracelets that must cost about a penny.  That's ok though...I still got a feel for what he cared about.

In the end, although we're not at the end yet, several things are leaving, several things are going into storage until they'll be fun again, and most things are staying.  The has been some reorganizing though, so hopefully everything will fit better.

Today was also the last day of swimming lessons.  Joshua did a good job, although he was sick of swimming lessons this week.  He semi-willingly put his face in the water and would happily blow bubbles.  Isaac improved so much from last year...I was so happy with his progress.  He can jump in the water, get to a back float, and kick to the wall.  (It's not easy, but he can do it.)  He can push off the wall, glide for a bit, and sort-of do some freestyle.  (The breathing and arm movement coordination isn't quite there, but it's close.)  And he puts his face in the water even when not required to do so...a huge, huge improvement.

Monday: Joshua

Well...Joshua was a bit of a pain today.

The morning was ok.  He's been a bit whiney lately and this morning was no different, but not too bad.

Then we got to rest time.  Isaac was trying to play by him and it just wasn't working.  I told him he had to play nicely or go to his bed for a while, and he proceeded to crash over his Duplo tower, knocking it on Isaac's foot by accident, and getting some of the things Isaac was making.  I told him to go to his bed for two minutes.  Instead he went to the bathroom and missed the toilet.

I got him moving from that, set a timer, and went back to pretend to take my nap.  For the next half hour he cried.  All he wanted was tasty water (which Isaac got for him), a snack, and for Mom to fix his tower.  Isaac tried to help, but since it was a firm no to the last two items, I had to tell Isaac to just leave Joshua alone for a bit.

Rest time may have ended quite a bit earlier than normal.

The rest of the day was back to normal.  Whining but usually within tolerance.

I did get some nice snuggles though.  And last night he woke up and wanted to sleep with us, so I said yes for some reason.  After a time I brought him back to his bed, but the snuggles are nice.

Sunday:ducks

I finished blowing up Isaac's birthday duck while he was gone.  We hid it on his bed.

Apparently Ben did a really good job of hiding it, because Isaac was in his room for about five minutes and still needed some prompts before he saw it.

After dinner we played outside for a bit.  We tied the duck to the kayak and pulled Isaac, and the duck, behind it.  The slowest tubing ride ever, but Isaac seemed to enjoy it.

Saturday: by ourselves

Ben and I had the day to ourselves.  We played games, got some work done, and spent a lot of time together. :D

I had found out that a local place now sells Dole Whips (pineapple soft serve) so we also stopped for some of that.

The boys seemed to have a great time too.  It's fun to see updates on what they're doing while not being responsible for them.

Florida vacation

Last weekend I went to Florida with Cheryl, Jamie, and Allison.  It was a lovely time!

The first day we went to Fort Myer's Beach.  Being the off season, nothing was very busy was was very nice.  I had an umbrella, and stayed under it most of the time.  With a nice breeze it was lovely on the beach!

And the water was perfect!  I do find that I get cold so fast in water often, but apparently the water temp was about 84 deg. and I felt comfortable in it the whole time we were in the water.  Of course, this is also the time I got a sunburn too.  It looked so pink because I'm so white, but it didn't feel too bad most of the time.

The next day we went by boat to Captiva.

We ate lunch at the Bubble room, which usually has the best desserts ever.  One that we got was a dud though...chocolate mint cherry cheesecake.  There was something wrong with it.  The orange crunch and red velvet were delicious as always though!

The sand was super hot.  We quickly went in the water, which was slightly cooler than the day before but still nice and warm.  I took a little walk down the beach and by the time I got back everyone was ready to go.  (Did I mention the sand was really hot and our umbrella was rather small?)

Unfortunately, sort of, only one engine would start for our trip home.  This means that we crawled along at a slow pace, but it was rather lovely.  There were no kids that were getting bored, there were clouds so we weren't too hot, and a little breeze.  We also had some dolphins jumping behind us for a bit!

That night after dinner I convinced Jamie and Allison to come on a walk around the loop with me.  The night before I had taken a walk and it had been lovely.  This night, though, was definitely a mistake.  We went right as the sun was setting and the flies were out!  We'd walk a few steps and then suddenly spasm as a fly bit us or flew by our heads.  (While not fun, it was hilarious to watch.)  I went around a second time...by that time it was dark and the flies were all gone.

The next day we had a lovely brunch and relaxed by the pool until it was time to come home.