The Brown's Buzz: July 2015

Man, it's hard to think about everything that's been going on this summer! We have certainly stayed busy, that's for sure! The weather cooperated for such a long time too, which helped us get outside a lot in June! Here's few things that we've done this summer:

I started a neighborhood storytime. There are three families that live across the street from us with kids all around the same ages as ours. Each mom takes week and picks a theme. Usually we read a book or two and then have a snack with some related activities. The first week I did fish. We did some sorting with baby goldfish and regular goldfish and then made a paper plate fish, colored and went pretend fishing. The second week I did it was ice cream. The kids LOVED this one because they got to eat ice cream at 9 in the morning! ;) We made a cute ice cream cone craft and then they played ice cream shop and took orders while others played with fake ice cream--it really looked real! This has been a big hit and I think we are planning to do it again next summer!

We had Kai's 5th Birthday party the end of June. How is that kid already five?!?!?!??! This seems like a big one to me. He was so excited to turn five because he knows that it means it closer to the first day of Kindergarten. Speaking of, he started on August 13th! Oh my! We had a Lego themed party and it was cute! Kai worked hard putting together all his lego sets so he could display them for his guests. He wanted them all labeled too so people would know what they are called. ;)

We went to Iowa for 4th of July weekend to spend time with my mom's family. There were 10 kids so it was a little crazy, if you can imagine! Luckily, my aunt and uncle have a beautiful home on a large plot of land with a pond, so there was lots of room to spread out. The weather was gorgeous so the kids spend the majority of the time swimming in the pond and jumping off the dock. On Sunday, we drove up to Minnesota to see Derek's family for a few days. Most of them had not met Grayson or Leela. His Grandma had a barbecue so lots of his family was able to make it. Was so nice to see so many of them! It was a long drive home (took us about 9 hours!), but the kids did really well. I think they were so tired from the trip that they didn't have enough energy to complain!

Grayson has been doing an instructional baseball league this summer. He's been learning different aspects of the game and loving it. He has quite the arm too! This weekend is his last one. He's excited because he gets a medal. :)

We have started work to repair the bottom of our driveway. Derek, his dad, brother Scott and girlfriend Britney have been working hard on it. It's going slower than expected, but doesn't every home project?!??! The hot weather isn't helping either! I know Derek's ready to have that project over. :)

Besides our regular day to day activities, we've kept pretty busy with weekly playdates with friends,swimming and trips to the library. It's hard to believe that we don't have too many more weeks of summer left. Time to get back in "school mode". Bedtimes have been a little flexible and we haven't done as much "school work" as I was hoping. Kai is anxiously waiting to go school shopping with me. :) Can't wait.

That's about all. Thanks for reading!