Days of Summer - Day 7

The best part of summer, is spending lots of time outdoors. I've become more of a homebody in my old age, so a backyard kiddie pool is right up my ally. Coop spent hours in it over the course of two days, soaking up the sun and splashing in the water. I spent hours watching him, and getting drenched in the process. What better way to cool off on a HOT summer day!

Submitting these photos to Simplicity's Photo Challenge: Summer

 

And I couldn't leave out our new friends, now could I?

 

What's your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Three Days Off, Swimming Pools, and Chocolate Cake

I took last Friday off, and I spent the last three days hanging out with my son.

After a trip to the grocery store and Target (for new swim goggles!) we went to Grandma's house on Friday to make good use of her community pool, practicing swimming, jumping and diving. No back floats. Didn't force the issue, since I was pretty sure the neighbors would be calling the police thinking someone was being tortured thanks to all of the high pitched shrieks when we did try. Had dinner with Gram at a new Teppenyaki place where they throw scrambled eggs in your mouth. Mmmm.

Saturday morning, we headed out to the movies to see Toy Story 3.

Ohmygosh, I can't not tell you how much I loved this movie! Well, the first hour at least. Cuz that's how long we lasted. Hey, he did better than I thought he would, and for a first-time movie goer, I don't think he did too bad. Afterwards, we headed back to Target, since in the midst of this heat wave, we needed something to cool us off. A new blow-up pool was just the ticket!

We spent a couple of hours in the backyard playing in the water then headed in for a much needed nap.

Sunday, funday, cleaning day! Ok, so those words don't all go together that well, but I did get a lot of cleaning done, put some carnitas in the crockpot (that were, by the way, oh. so. yummy.) The recipe is similar to my previous post, but in my opinion, BETTER, cuz I made a few changes, omitting the water and oranges, and opting for 3/4 cup orange juice, and a 1/2 cup of chicken broth instead! AND since the day was about 15 degrees cooler than the previous week's near 100 degree temps, I even baked a chocolate cake! I found the recipe here, thanks to Sarah at Sugar Bananas. How's that for tempting?

It was amazingly rich and moist and mocha-y. Could be the full cup of coffee in the recipe, but I can't be sure...btw, I used decaf. Can't have a two year old hyped up on Starbucks now can we?

Whew! What a full weekend!! I must say, I loved spending that time with that boy, even if he decided to use the backyard as his bathroom (I'll spare you the details on that one). TTFN!

Days of Summer - Day 6

We had a summer storm the other night.

We were visiting my mom in Yorba Linda (near the inland empire) to go to her pool with hopes of cooling off from this near 100 degree heat wave we've been having. We were not in the pool two minutes before the thunder started rumbling and the lightning crashing. Out of the pool we came, trying to explain to my almost three year old "why?" we had to get out of the pool.

He hasn't stopped talking about the thunder since!

Apparently the lightning caused some fires in the area, and the storm brought rain in some areas, even near the beaches (not too common here in So Cal for the summertime).

My favorite part, was that it brought a beautiful sunset with it.

I snapped this one real quick when we got home that night.

Days of Summer - Day 5

Summertime is swim lesson time! Coop loves swimming and is becoming quite the fish. I never wanted him to have to wear floaties or a vest in the pool, rather to learn early on so he could take care of himself in the water. The lessons are definitely paying off!

Here's a few shots I took at his swim lessons the other day.

Kick, kick, kick!

Swimming to the step on his own.

Arms up for a dive.

And down we go!

I can't tell you how much I love this shot!!!

Days of Summer Day 4

Summer is the perfect time to be outdoors, learning something new. For my little one, it was how to ride a tricycle.

He's had this tricycle since his second birthday. He loves to ride it and is so proud to wear his helmet, but he would get so frustrated every time he tried to use the pedals that he would give up quickly, and just push with his feet. The other day something clicked...and...HE. DID. IT!

Linking up to I Should Be Folding Laundry's You Capture "Vehicles" Photo Challenge.

"Baby Got Back" - Days of Summer, Day 3

Here's the third installment in my personal Days of Summer photo challenge. How could I not share this one?

I'm also linking up to Simplicity, because, as you can see, the photo is full of

COLOR!

Days of Summer - Day 2

Summertime is...

a time to splash in fountains...

See his little feet not even reaching the ground?

The water helped him cool off in this Southern California heat 

(78 degrees and sunny).

"Take my picture Mommy!"

Days of Summer - Day 1

I'm a copycat, and a follower. I'm taking a page out of Alysha's book and starting our own "30 Days of Summer" personal photo project.

Thirty days, thirty photos, documenting the summer of 2010. I tried Project 365, where you take a photo every day for a year, but it just didn't work for me, because like Alysha, the commitment was difficult. But capturing 30 days of our summer, 30 days of outdoor fun, lazy summer evenings, popsicle stained faces, water splashes, ocean waves, bug watching and BBQs, this I can do. Feel free to follow me on the journey.

Tonight was a lazy summer evening sort of night visiting the duck pond and looking for the babies.

Let's go find us some ducks!

Are they down there?

Maybe if I stick my head all the way through...

Let's go down for a closer look, shall we?

Closer...

Closer, but still no ducks...

Where could they be?

Here they are!

One thing I love about raising my son in the city where I grew up is being able to take him to do the things I loved to do as a child. Like going to this very duck pond.

Prettying up the Front Porch

This post is going to be covering photo challenges at I Should Be Folding Laundry (topic: green), and at a new blog I recently found, Simplicity (topic: home).

I decided the other day that our front porch needed a little sprucing up. Since I am definitely not green-thumbed, succulents were the way to go. Cooper of course was thrilled at the idea of getting his little hands deep into the dirt! Me, notsomuch. As with many types of crafting, I love the "idea" of planting, I love how they look sitting on my front porch, but, really, I do not enjoy the process. at. all. At least, until I did it with Cooper. He had such a great time, I'm thinking we may be doing some more of this. That is, if these don't die.

I think that makes my front porch look a little prettier, don't you?

The Boredom Bucket

Today was the first FULL day of summer!! (I am fully aware that yesterday was the summer solstice and thus the "first" day of summer, BUT it started at 7:28 am, therefore TODAY is the first FULL day of summer. okay rant finished).

Our kids tend to get, well, let's just say "active" with too much time at home, so I've decided to come up with our Summer "Boredom Bucket." (I got the idea from Jen at Parenting in Blue Jeans and her summer "Bucket List."). I'll put a bunch of ideas in a bucket and let one of the kids choose an activity for the day. This will include free activities, places to go, and things to do at home. Of course, this will be a weekend only thing since we work during the week.

AT HOME
Set up pool/Slip N Slide/outdoor water play
Backyard BBQ/Picnic
Buy an Ice Cream Maker and make our own ice cream
Blow bubbles
Go for a nature walk
Bake a cake or cookies

FREEBIES
Atlantis Park
Dotson Park (local park with water play area)
Visit the Library
Visit the duck pond
Centennial Farms
California Science Center (not local, so we'll see)
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (again, not local)
Cerritos Public Library
Shipley Nature Center

NOT SO FREE-BIES
Out for ice cream/smoothies
Watermelon Tour at Tanaka Farms (pick your own watermelon and taste all kinds of yummies - fun!)
Irvine Park (Pony Rides/Train Ride/OC Zoo)

These are all my ideas, so I'll talk to the kids about what their ideas might be too.  I like Jen's idea of using colored paper, so I'm going to figure out how to incorporate that as well. I love the element of surprise this provides, and hopefully the kids will too. We'll probably end up using it year round!

What's in your "Boredom Bucket?"

Diggers

I've got beautiful gardens in my backyard, lovingly planted and cared for by my grandmother before she died (now somewhat lovingly cared for by my gardener), and our kids love to dig, and pick, and pull and dig some more in these very gardens.

They pick flowers for G's mom and for me, they dig up ground cover looking for roly polys, they search under very large stones and bricks that I am just sure are going to break a toe one of these days, and I just about have a meltdown.

Ok, so I suppose I should really learn how to let go of this, but it drives me C.R.A.Z.Y. The once beautiful gardens are starting to look a bit sparse where things have been pulled and picked and overturned.

Last Sunday was no exception, only I wasn't here to yell at them. I came home to this:

How could I get mad at them for that?

Don't Worry, Be Happy

"Happiness is an attitude.
We either make ourselves miserable,
or happy and strong.
The amount of work is the same."
~ Kahlil Gabran

Happiness is:

Spending a warm and sunny day at the park with my son...

Enjoying a picnic lunch...

of sandwiches from Panera Bread (Yum)...

and a refreshing iced tea with lots of lemon.

Happiness is:

Tunnel Slides

long, wobbly bridges,

and even bigger slides!

Happiness is a day at the park, just me and my son.

(all photos were taken with my camera phone, since I forgot my "real" camera)

What made you happy this week? Head on over to Mono Monday at Supermom and share with us!

Top Two Tuesday - Summertime!

I'm participating in The Undomestic Mama's Top 2 Tuesday. Won't you hop on over and check the other great blogs, and maybe make a friend of two?

Top two favorite things about SUMMER:

I love Backyard BBQs. Everyone is relaxed, enjoying great food and getting to play outdoors, enjoying the beautiful Southern California sunshine. We'll pretty much throw anything on the grill...sausage, tri-tip, ribs, chicken, potatoes, garlic bread. you name it, we'll figure out a way to grill it.

And let's not forget the S'Mores...

The other thing I love about summer, is family vacations. Every August when I was a kid, my family would take a vacation...sometimes it was just a quick trip to the desert city of Palm Springs, other trips included Hawaii, Florida, Arizona and Washington. I'm continuing that tradition with my own family.

This summer we're heading to Sea World, with the whol fan-damily! Wish me luck!!!

Thanks for visiting; grab a cold drink and take some time to look around. Let me know if you like what you see!

'Til next time...