{Scenes from Summer} Part 2

Back with another edition of  "Scenes from Summer"! How in the world it's July 1st already is beyond me, but on we go!! 

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Some shots of our summer fun.....

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Running into preschool friends after a whole year at the pool meant lots of smiles and giggles!

Birthday dinners in downtown with family!

Beginning to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels!!

Three days worth of playdates with sweet Olivia for Levi.....

While Lane had three fun days at VBS with Claire! You know it's going to be fun when this guy greets you!

Brother sleepovers under Lane's bed!

Thirty Two

Yesterday I celebrated another birthday! They are coming faster and faster I tell ya! Our weekend was full and fun. Saturday we spent most of the day at Lane's 3 on 3 soccer tournament. He did awesome, had four goals on the day, and his team won third place!

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This is what our down time looked like! Ipads, iphones, and Nintendo Ds'!

After the tournament we dropped the kids off at my aunts then that night we celebrated a little early with Megan and Kyle in downtown Ft. Worth! We went to Del Friscos Grill and it was SO good!!! We had the best time eating, drinking, talking and just having a great time!

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Sunday, since the boys were gone, Paul and I spent the day just the two of us! I slept in first of course! Then we went to lunch at Taco Diner, shopped around Town Center, grabbed Starbucks, then walked over to see 22 Jump Street! Perfect afternoon with my man!

After we grabbed the boys that evening, we had dinner at Cheesecake to end the day!

I had a wonderful birthday! Thanks to everyone who sent sweet messages!! Let's see what 32 holds for me!!

{Scenes from Summer} Part 1

**First off, notice anything different!?! I am LOVING my new blog design!! Much needed change of scenery!! Thanks to Kelsey for the great design!!

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Well we are already into our second full week of summer and we've been having fun!! My big camera rarely makes apperances right now so most pics I snap are on my camera! And while I usually post to IG, I need to get all my sweet pics onto the blog so they will make their way into the book!

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Hence, "Scenes from Summer"

glimpses of everyday fun we are having this summer!!

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On our first official day last week, we got brand new library cards! And books of course!

Cartoon watching with brother!

Lots of swimming with my fishies!

Daddy fun on Father's Day morning!

Both boys wanted to sit by daddy!

We sure do love our daddy!!

Bball camp!!

Someone won the "Attitude & Effort" award on his second day of camp! 

Summer Starbucks Snack run!!

I may or may not have introduced cake pops to the boys and they may or may not be slightly addicted now....oops! 

Summer Reading Club at Lane's school...and they even got to have a water balloon fight...just another reason I LOVE his school!!

GO USA!! 

We are in a World Cup frenzy over here!! I love that Lane is not only loving watching soccer, but this is a great avenue to teach USA pride and also all about other countries!

 HAPPY SUMMER!!!

{30 Book Challenge} 10th & 11th Book Reviews

I'm still going strong with my book challenge! Although it's not always easy to find the time to read I do! 

My 10th book I read, where there's smoke, wasn't really a "book" more of a short story. Picoult released it one day for free in light of here new novel about to come out in the Fall. I LOVE Picoult so I downloaded it quick! It was super short and focused one a lady who is a  nationally famous psychic. The character is going to appear in the novel coming out, so this was just a glimpse into her life! Took about 45 minutes to finish and leaves you thinking!

My 11th books was The One and Only by Emily Giffin. This has been on my wishlist and I picked it up when it came out, May 20th! I finally started it on the way to Waco and finished it quick! It was a fun, light hearted read that centered around college football in Texas! It made mention of lots of Texas teams including Texas, which was fun! Although I didn't love the outcome of the main character, I really liked the book! Definitely recommend it!

I would love to know what ya'll are reading!!

Class of 2014

This past weekend we headed to Waco to see my cousin Zach graduate from high school!! I can't believe it was FOURTEEN years ago that I was walking across that very stage graduating from Midway too! 

2014 family graduates...one finished his first year, one finished his last year!

Of course Levi had to have his own picture!

Zach and his girlfriend Riley, both going to Texas State!

Afterwards we went back to my aunts for a party!! Lots of food, sweets, family, and friends!! 

Sharing a late night plate of lasagna!

Congrats Zach!!!

Summer Smart Charts!

Well today is the first official day of summer!! We had a great weekend in Waco celebrating my cousin Zachs' graduation from Midway!! I will post pics of that soon, but since today is kicking off our summer break I wanted to share a little something that I have in place for the boys this summer!

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Enter our Summer Smart Charts!! Every summer I try to be very intentional in keeping Lane on track for school. Being a teacher I know how very easy it is to do nothing school related for three months and regress a little skill wise, and I want to keep Lane right on track as he enters first! I usually just do things on the fly here and there, but I knew I wanted a little more structured routine this summer. I first saw this idea here on this blog and I immediately loved it! There are so many different summer ideas out there but I really liked this one.

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Based on the one I saw, I set out to make ours and this is what I came up with! Basically its a grid with lots of squares, each one containing different activities that ideally I want him to spend about 25 minutes on. Each time he completes a square he'll cover it up with a sticker and when the whole chart is complete he will receive a reward!! And since Levi is quite the copy cat, I knew that I needed to make him his very own smart chart, filled with age appropriate activities!

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I set up a tray for each boy that houses most of what they need for their charts!

I picked up two workbooks for Lane, a writing journal, a cute science activity book I threw in their last minute, and stickers. Everything else is stuff around the house (ipad, books, etc.)

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For Levi I got a "journal" to color in, flashcards from the house, and stickers. And again I already have puzzles, colors, books, legos, and everything else!

I explained it to Lane this morning and he was into the idea!! I feel like this is a super fun and easy way to include learning in our summer fun this year!