Our Summer So Far...

Well so far it's hot!!! And I mean hot. Of course I am pregnant this summer, but goodness gracious it is pretty miserable. So we are trying to stay as cool as we can. Today I was actually home and done with grocery shopping by 10:00. That's a new record for me, but I was determined to beat the heat! But we have been having lots of fun playing at home, playing with friends and trying some new things! Last week the big girls had their first trip to VBS. They had so much fun and were thrilled every day to wake up and go. Our home church still meets at a high school so we didn't have VBS at our church, so we went to the same church we go to for choir and some friends from our church went with us. It was great. First of all it was great for the girls to do something different all while learning more and more about Jesus, but second of all it was so nice to have so much one on one time with Avery and a little extra freedom. Here they are before heading out to their first VBS.

Avery really wanted to be involved in the picture taking!

This was for crazy hat day.

At the end of the week they had family night. We got to hear all the songs they sang and watch all their cute dances. I had so much fun watching my girls during this time. They were just too cute. Then afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream sundaes. It wouldn't have been the same if the Surguy's weren't there having fun with us. We love this family!

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Even though it is hot out we still had fun baking these yummy shortbread cookies one day.

We have been doing swim lessons for three weeks now, almost every day. Our friend from church has been teaching them along with a couple of other families for super cheap, which has been such a blessing. They have really been doing well. Aubrey can finally swim by herself, she just needs a little more confidence. Adalyn is still pretty fearful but we are trying to help her move past it (she had a scary experience last summer and I know that this is where the fear is coming from). And Avery is going to pass them both up! That girl is our wild girl and literally just tries to walk right in the water. Nothing phases her in the water and I'm pretty sure she will be swimming long before she is four like the other two! Sadly I keep forgetting to take pictures so I may have to come back and add a few later.

Apart from swim lessons we have spent lots of time at the pool. It's just about all you can do to be the heat, right!

Play dough is always fun, and a nice cool indoor activity, kind of my favorite these days.

And of course we have been doing lots of crafts. This craft was really fun and a pretty big hit with the girlies. We started with this, plus two jars.

I poured salt onto a paper plate, and with the side walk chalk they colored the salt.

Then when each pile of salt was colored I poured it into their jars with a funnel to create the look of sand art.

Then they poured some glue in to the top to seal the salt in the jar.

And the finished product. These were so fun!

This is what Avery was doing during craft time. This also happens to be her favorite new thing to do. She LOVES it!

So yes, we have had a busy and just a fun fun summer so far. Now that July is just days away the fun I'm sure will only continue!

Fathers Day 2012

How blessed are we to have such a wonderful Daddy! We had a fun weekend of celebrating Jeff! Saturday we let Jeff sleep in and all four of us girls snuck out of the house early and went and picked up donuts. Friday the big girls and I made a sign and some place mats to complete the surprise. I think we did a good job and Daddy was surprised. Saturday afternoon the girls and I made Jeff his very favorite dessert, banana cream pie bars, to enjoy on Sunday. On Sunday we made breakfast tacos for Daddy (quite a bit of spoiling went on). We were supposed to go to church but at the last minute we decided to play hookie. We had a very relaxing morning, then we headed to the pool which is were we spend most of the day. After dinner it was time for presents and dessert! It's kind of tradition now that I make Jeff a photobook about The Adventures of a Daddy and His girls. The big girls got to help this year and it put a smile of Daddy's face! Daddy and with each of his girls. We are so thankful for Jeff. I'm always singing his praises on here, but it is true! He is such a wonderful daddy and husband and he is an answer to my prayers. We truly are just blessed to have this man in our lives! Thank you Jeffrey, for all that you do for us!

Our Weekend Away

Two weekends ago Jeff and I were able to sneak away for a whole weekend just to ourselves in San Antonio. And it felt great! My sister, who lives in San Antonio, agreed to keep the girlies for us and we got to enjoy two days and nights in downtown San Antonio and on the Riverwalk. It was just so nice to not have a schedule, and to have nothing to worry about except each other and where we were going to eat our next meal. We did lots of walking around, we ate some yummy food, we enjoyed some time at the pool and really we just enjoyed getting to reconnect and talk about whatever we wanted to without getting interrupted! It was just pure relaxing. Now after almost two weeks I think I'm ready for another weekend away! Here is a quick picture of us on the Riverwalk. We of course had to get a little something for the girls while we were gone. We saw these flower headbands everywhere down there and thought they would be perfect for the big girls. They were thrilled and have loved playing dress-up with them ever since. And the littlest girl LOVES to make noise so we knew she would love playing with these maracas.

Window Art Revisted

So remember we tried to do these window art crafts a few weeks ago and it was a failure because I got the wrong kind of beads? Well I got the right kind of transparent beads this time and this turned out to be such a fun fun craft. They turned out super cute and the girls had such a blast making them. We started with these beads. They glued them onto the glass part of frames that I got at the dollar store. We used rubber cement since it dries clear. They painted some too which they thought was fun. I liked the ones without paint better but the paint does shine pretty through the light. I super glued suction cups to the back and we hung them up in the playroom window. I really liked this craft and just wanted to share with all you other mommas out there! I have really been enjoying this blog, as I have mentioned before. They just have so many fun ideas and as you all know I LOVE doing crafts with my girls. I hope this little boy of mine will craft with his mommy?!?! I also got this next idea from the same blog. Another very fun activity that was very exciting to the girls. I started with these squirt bottles and watercolors. After mixing water with the paint this is what we had. I hung some butcher paper outside, handed the girls the squirt bottles and let them create their masterpieces. They did a bunch of these! I love the look on her face! And here are the finished products. We decided they look like fireworks! This was just fun!