Sum-sum-summer time 2018

Ah....summer....time for sundresses and silliness...

...time for geckos and get-togethers

...time for swimming, sprinklers and splashing.

...time for summer haircuts!

Check it out in living color!

Summer started on Memorial Day weekend, when I picked you up early from 'not school school' and took you to Keller's Drive in for some in-car burgers!

It continued with a long walk to CVS to get candy and test out those new pedometer watches and staring contests in the park. 

There were cookies to be baked, critters to be caught and released, and games of chase in the backyard and bike rides...

We finally got together with our friends: 

You learned new games, and played music...

...and had a surprise visit from Kaelyn!

There was more backyard fun, a sleepover (a first!) with Brady, many trips to harvest the garden, a fun trip to the tile store, and more!

And a surprise summer visitor, Holden!

Top it off with swimming, playing cards, cuddling dogs, and  a day trip to the rec center pool, complete with fresh peaches and an amazing million trips down the water slide, and you got yourself the start to a sweet, sweet summer!

Get Caught Reading, Writing, and Chessing

Aidan, Julia,

You both have long had a love for books. And now that you're really gaining some literacy skillz, it's even more fun to watch!

Julia, you are excelling at reading at levels well beyond your years! You're reading chapter books and reading signs wherever we go. Joking around one day, Aidan said he was going to put you in the garbage. Without missing a beat, you said back to him "If you throw me in the garbage, who's gonna read to you?"

You have really been reading to Aidan quite a lot lately! And even working on your British accent for 'Charlie and Lola' books.

Aidan, you are slowly but surely overcoming your challenges with reading. You have the interest in books, and have had that for years. You can get lost in a book, a find it book, a comic book, for hours and hours, just quietly studying. But lately, you have really had piqued curiosity in reading the words too, and you're getting better and better day by day.

In fact, just the other day you came out of your room with a little book in hand and said, "Hey Mom, do you want me to read this to you?" Of course she did! And you read it perfectly, and even went ahead and told us the moral of the story afterwards!

We will continue to read to you as long as you want us to; It actually brings me a lot of joy...even if I have to hide the "Jerry Seinfeld Halloween" book from time to time. But, it brings me even more joy to see both of you literally expanding the world around you by reading!

So, read on!

In addition, this summer the two of you have been pursing some additional academic pursuits with great interest too:

Writing in Cursive (Julia you are begging for "more letters more lettters!")

...and playing Chess (Aidan, you absolutely love playing chess and have learned to set the board up all by yourself. You woke up one morning and must have been dreaming about the game "Dad...what if we take Julia's kings with our pawn...would that work?"