Memorial day camping

We had a fun and wet time over Memorial day weekend on our first camping trip for the season!  Camping in the rain was annoying, but definitely not the worst part of the trip.  In fact I wouldn't have minded staying just a little bit longer.  It seems like just when we get settled, we have to pack up and leave.  We camped from Friday night to Monday late morning.  It was pouring on Friday when we left, and we were a little nervous about it, but pressed on.  I knew I had lots of fun new things like dollar store toys and games packed in the trailer for the really rainy moments.  It rained on and off until Sunday for the most part with some dry patches, then we came home on Monday to some beautiful sunshine, go figure.  It was still a super fun trip, and the kids had a blast.  See the smiles...



Having a trailer really helped.  I don't think I would have braved the rain in anything less with kids.  We pulled in to the camp when it was pouring rain, and the camp host said "good luck".  She said some of the spots were pretty muddy.  Ours was a little muddy, but didn't have any huge wet puddles for the most part.  After we got settled on Friday night and had dinner, we went for a walk when the rain stopped for a little bit to do some exploring before it got too dark.  We found a neat suspension bridge with some trails.  We didn't have the camera with us on that walk, but here are the pictures from the same bridge on the Sunday walk.  It had dried out some by then (it wasn't down pouring every 5 minutes).







We didn't even attempt a fire on Friday night.  On Saturday morning Daddy took the kids on a really long walk.  I stayed back at the trailer to get a shower and tidy up a little.  Well, I was able to do that and then sit and relax too!  It was a really long walk!  A nice break for me.  Here is a picture of the main park area where they have all kinds of things to do.  It has a playground, swings, volleyball nets, baseball diamond, covered picnic areas, and a nearby swimming hole in the river.  We really want to go back to this place in the dry, warm weather.


After they took their walk, we had lunch and then took a drive to town (it was about a 40 minute drive) to get somethings that I forgot to pack.  Unfortunately, we still forgot one bag at the store after we paid, so 2 things still got left behind!  We left the bag that had our new roasting sticks for marshmallows, and maple syrup.  Guess it was a good thing those things are cheap.  I am determined to get better at this camping thing, and hopefully someday I won't forget anything...hey I can hope!





It was pretty nice on Saturday afternoon, meaning there was some sunshine in the cloud breaks, and it wasn't really raining for a while.  We figured we'd be safe to get a fire going so we could have some s'mores for dessert.  So, Daddy started up the fire, and it was good for a while, but then it started downpouring.  We let the fire go out and just decided to go inside and try again the next day.  Instead of s'mores on Saturday night we pulled out some fun new things and made some crafts inside the trailer while munching on Junior mints, and sour patch candy.  The kids weren't too disappointed.



On Sunday morning, the kids went on another walk with Daddy and finally found the swimming hole.





When they came back to the trailer they were very excited to tell me that they finally found the swimming hole because we couldn't find it the first few times.  A very fine achievement!

For lunch on Sunday we were going to have hot dogs so we decided to go ahead and get a fire going and do s'mores after lunch because it was dry, just in case we got rained out in the evening again.  Aaron roasted his hot dog on the fire, he was very excited about that.  And, finally we got s'mores too!  The Sunday lunch fire...with Mommy.


...with Daddy


On Sunday afternoon we had to go back home for some clothes for Aaron.  He went through way too many clothes for various reasons, so we decided rather than going to buy him new clothes we'd just go ahead and make the hour drive home because it wasn't too much longer.  So, that's what we did Sunday afternoon.  When we got back to the trailer we had dinner and another round of s'mores because...why not, we were camping!  I bought the huge marshmallows, so it made for a big sticky, gooey, yummy mess.  We got pictures this time of Aaron...



We found out that Aaron is pretty picky about his marshmallow done-ness.  Daddy had to roast several (we had only 1 marshmallow roaster) marshmallows before he got just the right one.



On Monday morning it was time to pack up and go, but first the kids and Daddy got in one more short walk while I started packing up.  We loaded up mid-morning and got home around lunch time.

I almost forgot the playground pictures.  The kids played on the playground several times, and kept asking to go over and play.  So, we tried to take them over when it was dry.

Aaron playing...

I had plans to take pictures of things around the campground to spell the word camping.  I got as far as the letter c, as you can see in the picture above.  Can you see the letter C?  Aaron is sitting in it.  It would have been fun, but just ran out of time to get the whole word.

April playing...


Aric playing...


We unloaded everything after we got home on Monday and spent the rest of the day settling back at home.  It was a fun trip, I can't wait for the other camping trips we have planned this summer.

He's 5!!

Happy Birthday to Aaron!

Yesterday he turned 5 years old! 

This kid had the funnest time at his birthday party last Saturday.  He picked the baseball theme, and it all turned out super!  At first he picked a Star Wars theme, but I decided that he needed to wait a few years for that kind of theme.  We had a lunch-time party, so we had hot dogs, chips, lemonade, and fruit to eat for lunch.  Then he opened presents and we all had cake and ice cream.  We also had a t-ball set up in the yard, but for some reason I never got any pictures of that action.  Which is unfortunate because one of his friends, Ansen, sure did hit some flyin' balls.  That kid is ready for the big league's Dana!  Aaron was also loving having Grandma and Grandpa there for his party too.

 So, this cake turned out pretty cute, but I have decided I will start letting someone else do the decorating.  Thanks to Daddy the green field turned out like I had it in my head.  But, when I was trying to figure out how to cut it out the night before it just wasn't coming together for me.  Michele came to the rescue and made the green field exactly how I wanted it.  Next time I see a beautifully decorated baseball themed yummy cake at Costco the day before the party, I will not hesitate to pick it up!

Here's the front view.

Aaron looking so big and 5!

Fun decorations....

Everyone enjoying their lunch on the neat-o picnic tables that my Hubby made.  No adult sized one yet, just the kids.  Pictured from left to right:  Hudson, Aric, Melissa, Amelia, Aaron, April, and Porter.

A view from the other side.  Pictured from left to right:  Aaron, Lucia, Diego, April, Porter, and Ansen.  And, yes, there are a few missed spots that didn't get finished on the table, oops.  He was in a hurry and was doing this table late in the dark.

Opening presents.  He got a lot of fun things.

He was just sitting here with all of his new things just looking so happy after the party was over.  I think he had a good time.

Even Aric got an early Birthday present...

...a cars guitar!  He was so thrilled!

Aaron really wanted a guitar, so Grandma and Grandpa got him one.  But, Grandma was oh so smart and realized that there would be some fighting sadness if Aric didn't have a guitar to play too.  We love Grandma (and Grandpa)!!

After the birthday party we had 2 other birthday parties to shuttle April to, but then we went to Red Robin for Aaron's birthday dinner.  We didn't take the camera with us so we didn't get a picture of him when they sang to him, but he loved it!  They gave him a hot fudge sundae. 

It was a happy day!

 On his real birthday we:

*Went to Target to spend his Great Grandma birthday money.  On the way he said to his brother Aric that he would buy him something too.  It was sooo sweet.  I was already planning to buy something little, but LOVED that Aaron was so willing to spend his precious birthday money on his brother too.

*Ate Panda's Express for lunch.

*Went home to get ready for swimming (I told him we could go swimming for his birthday)

*Picked sister up from school

*Had to wait to go swimming because Aric fell asleep

*Went swimming after dinner and had fun!
*Had some birthday brownies

*Got all dressed up in PJ's and took a drive to check out a campsite.

It was a birthday whirlwind, and I'm glad it's over.  One down, only 2 more to go this summer.  The other 2 are excited for their birthday's now.  Aric keeps asking me if it's his birthday time yet.  He also keeps asking his Brother if he wants to come to his party.  It's really cute.  Hopefully July comes fast for that little guy.  He's already picked a race car theme.  I'm way excited for April's too, she has picked a pink cowgirl theme.  All the decorations for hers are so cute!  I love summer, and birthday's! 

Preschool: Birthday fun; Tot school: letter B

Aric is 34 months old

 

We had a fun week in Tot school!

Aric is exploring one of our new school toys.  I picked up some block play people, worker themed.  He stood them all up, and we talked about who did what.  He was telling me that this was the train conductor, I think.

Aric made a Mother's day card to send to his Grandma.  Here he is decorating his card with our new jewels.

We had fun with Birthday's this week since his Brother's birthday is coming up on May 24!  We put some unused birthday candles in our playdough "cakes" and sang Happy Birthday.

Aric traced the letter L as best he could from his Kumon book of letters.

Tot school printables (letter B)

Aric worked on the letter B printables.  He did good, and really liked them still.  First we looked at B is for Ball.

He also did his Highway letter B and b, these can be found here at Make learning fun.  He really loves to park all his cars on these.

He wanted to make another "train" out of the vocabulary cards. 

We did a lot of painting for this unit because both boys really wanted to paint.  He painted the letters Bb.

He started to stamp with the letter b, but quickly lost interest so I got my rolling stamper out.  He loved that.  If one way doesn't work, it's always a good thing to just find a different way to accomplish the activity.  Especially at this age.  It's more important for him to have a good time.

He wanted to keep using the rolling stamp, so he rolled on his letter Bb coloring page.

He practiced cutting paint cards.

He painted again.

Finding shapes with beach balls.  I called out the shapes and he would circle them.

He painted #'s

He cut out and put together this dolphin puzzle.

He cut playdough, and played with his brother. 

Here he is doing more birthday fun play.  He has two #2 candles because he's 2!

Preschool corner

Aaron is almost 5 years old!

 We found some new learning tools at Lakeshore learning, and each boy got to explore.  This is what I picked up for Aaron to help him with sight words.  He was making the word "he".

Aaron's birthday playdough creation.  These were some of the candles leftover from last year from his cake, and the #9 is leftover from his Sister's birthday last year (we forgot to use it).

He worked on the birthday preschool pack from Carisa's free printables this week.  He really liked it and got way excited for his birthday.  Here he is putting birthday's in order from 1-10.

I thought it would be fun to match the real birthday candle numbers up with each number.  We didn't have all the numbers, but he did what we had.

This is another birthday activity, but he did this one on a hot plate with crayons.  This is a very fun way to color with crayons, but needs constant supervision.  They actually did this a lot at Aaron's preschool.  We just used our griddle, but the wax does go through the paper when melted so I might consider getting a separate hot plate or griddle.  My boys love to do hot plate coloring, it feels really neat how the crayons just melt as you color.

Put the paper on the hot plate, turn on low, put a dish towel or cloth down to hold the paper in place, and watch your child carefully.  The crayons just slide across the paper because the wax melts so fast.  Mr. Aaron asks to do this all the time, he really loves it.

He's putting his handprint on the Mother's day card for Grandma.  He wanted to paint his hand himself.

He did playdough Bb is for Birthday and for balloons.

He did this Birthday color by number.  It went directly up onto his cork board.  He was very proud.

Mom's Favorite

Right after we opened baby's new high chair, the box became an instant toy!