Ten on Tuesday

(1) I feel like I've seriously neglected the ol' blog lately. I'm also WAY behind on reading and commenting on blogs. But I'm sure that as things start to settle around here, and our back to school routine is re-established, my time (and desire) for blogging will return. At least I hope it does. I miss my bloggie peeps!

(2) We didn't really do as many things on our Summer Fun List as we would have liked this year. Don't get me wrong, we certainly made a pretty dent. But in all honesty, when I think back to our summer, this is all that I seem to remember:

It seems like we spent most of the summer either taking swim lessons at the Y or swimming at my Mom's.

(3) Still on the list, and soon to come, a HUGE garage sale along with the kids' lemonade stand. My friend Tracey printed out a nice big banner for them to use on their lemonade stand. It is adorable and they can hardly stand it!

(4) I've got some really fun home improvement projects I am absolutely thrilled about, and lots of indoor painting that will soon take place. Stay tuned!

(5) Isabella survived her first week and is really enjoying being a first grader so far. We get to meet with her teacher tonight, and we're definitely looking forward to it.

(6) Sam has two more weeks before he starts his 3YO Pre-School. I'm ready! Him... not so much anymore! He's working overtime on his case for staying at Tata's all day, every day. How quickly things change! Poor baby...

(7) Scott has been lusting after a Dyson vacuum for years. No joke. However, I couldn't justify buying one while we had a perfectly good Hoover in the house. I mean, have you seen the price tag on those rug suckers? YIKES! Anyway, Scott decided to vacuum the house this weekend. Yeah, I'm not one to discourage anyone from such behavior! Amazingly, an item of clothing got misteryously sucked in and pretty much burnt the heck out of our perfectly good Hoover vaccum.

(8) Guess who is the proud owner of a brand new Dyson!

 

Yeah!

Coincidence? 

I think not!

(9) The Help

Loved the book!

LOVED the movie!

Did you read the book? Have you seen the movie?
The casting, the sets, the wardrobe, the acting...  It is AMAZING!
Seriously, go see it!
That's all I'm gonna say about that!

(10) Sam was being his silly self yesterday. So, I decided to pick up my camera and snap some pictures. This is my favorite one:

 

Technically, it's all wrong. But he's not making silly faces. He's laughing. Like, really laughing. And he's such an adorable and lovable and awesome child. And all that comes through in this picture. And that is exactly why I love it so much!

Have a great day!

Our Summer 2011 List

I just realized that even though our Summer Fun List is up on the fridge, 

and we've been busy checking things off, 

I never did post it here.

So, without further ado:

After looking at our previous years' lists  

(which you can see here 2009 and here 2010), 

I've come to the conclusion that with the exception of a few new things, 

we really enjoy doing the same stuff every summer. 

But hey, as long as we're having fun, I'm not complaining.

Bowling ~ Check!

My friend Danyelle and I were looking for something to do with the kids this past Tuesday. But being that it is STILL (and will most likely continue to be) around 1000°F, and I'm only slightly exaggerating, around these parts, we knew whatever we were doing HAD to be indoors. So we decided to take the kids bowling. Isabella had been bowling once before, but this was Sam's first time.

So we of course had a lane with bumpers, and we found the lightest balls available and a metal ramp ~ it's all about helping them succeed, right?

 

 

They all loved it! 

And of course, there was a lot of celebrating to do.

And celebrate we did, my friends.

Yeah, he's doing his happy dance. he he he!

I'm sure this is something we'll be doing again soon!

 

So, not only did we have a great time, but we were also able to cross off yet another fun activity from our Summer To-Do list. And considering how hot it's been around here, and how little we've actually done outdoors, that in it of itself is a HUGE accomplishment!

Our Summer 2010 List

Here is our Summer 2010 Fun List:

Yay! We are so excited to have it up and posted on the fridge for us to see every day.

Some observations:
* Unlike last year, this year our list was a joint effort between all of us. Yes, even Sam.
* Apparently, we really want to go on walks since it appears on the list twice.
* There are a couple of things that we're talking about, but did not include on the list to avoid breaking some hearts around here, in the event they don't happen.
* With jury duty out of the way, I AM READY FOR SOME SUMMER FUN!

You can see our 2009 list here.

Summer To-Do's

So, last week Isabella and I got together and thought about all the fun stuff we wanted to do this summer. We came up with a bunch of different activities, some small and some big, but every single one of them FUN! We then decided to put it down on paper so that (a) we wouldn't forget and (b) we could check them off as we did them (this is to satisfy mommy's love of lists and need for crossing things off).

This here is our Summer 2009 Fun List:

As you can see it's not anything formal. Just a few ideas of what we consider to be fun activities. And being that Isabella's school doesn't start back up until September 3rd, well we still have lots of fun time ahead of us.

Some of the activities on the list are ongoing things that we do rather frequently, such as color, paint, swim at Tata's, blow bubbles, play games, take pictures, etc. But then again, I did ask her to list off everything she wanted to do.

Others are currently in process, such as watching all the Disney Princesses movies. Isabella just got into the Princesses and every week we watch one or two movies. So far Tinkerbell is still her favorite, with Ariel from The Little Mermaid a close second.

And then you have the ones that are in the near future, such as the fireworks on the 4th, her carnival birthday party, and going to the beach.

Today we got to check off the Botanic Gardens since we went with our friends to feed the crazy fish and enjoy a nice picnic lunch.

I think it'll be interesting to look at the list in August and see all the fun things we did during these hot summer months.