Summer Time and the Living's Easy

I had Parker put on the outfit he wore on the first day of school so we could take a picture and compare it to the last day of school. I see only a slight difference which makes me super happy. ha ha He has lost one tooth, for sure grown taller, and perhaps gained a few freckles. But he's still a cute little 6 year old boy!!! 

You'd think with everything we've been doing I would have a billion pictures but I don't! We must have been too busy to take any.... Parker started tennis lessons and continued basketball. He played his last day of soccer for the spring season. He went to the $1 movie with Amy and her kids and went bowling with Stevie and then over to his house for a play date. We swam at least once a day (still doing laps in the morning for exercise. Sometimes Parker hops on my back and I run /"fly an airplane" across the pool and he "shoots bad guys" with his water gun. When I do that I feel like a cool mom.) We went to Target more times than was probably necessary. We bought all kinds of awesome food at Trader Joes. We went to the library and got signed up for the summer reading program. We watched Shiloh and Homeward Bound (both books we just recently finished reading). Parker has been doing so good with his "No TV until homework and chores are done" routine. He has to make his bed and tidy up his room, do 1 workbook and 1 math page, write in his journal, read for 20 minutes, practice the piano and do one chore around the house like vacuuming or dusting. We made homemade banana bread and pizza. We wrapped Tanner's Father's Day gifts. We worked in the garden and bought some chairs so we can finally sit back there! Basically the first couple weeks of summer break have been successful!

She is a fan of Trader Joes cookie butter!

One of the awesome dinner's I made recently. I feel like I have so much more time to prepare dinners now that school is out. And I'm going through a phase where I actually feel like cooking. We got so many great foods to eat at Trader Joes and I love all the summer time produce! Of course, I never follow a recipe and nothing ever turns out the same but we have enjoyed some pretty tasty meals.. If I do say so myself! 

Homemade pizza. I was going to take an "after" picture when this was all baked but... I ate it. 

Rayleigh got her first cold and it was heartbreaking. She has never once been sick and she actually kicked this bug pretty quickly but I was not going to subject all the other cute kiddos at church to her germs so we kicked it outside on Sunday. Plus also she went through a super fun screaming phase when she could just burst out in a fervent scream every so often. It was usually when she was feeling sleepy which is all three hours of church.... Don't worry, I sang her primary songs and we ate a snack. Totally churchy.

Parker is a fabulous tennis player. It's in his blood. When Tanner was in middle school he won a tennis tournament and received a racket. He would love it if you asked him about it right now. He'll tell you all about it.

My bathing beauty!

Sometimes Rayleigh is sad...

The clubhouse had a Big Old Backyard BBQ and we went early before the crowds so we could be first in line. The kids loved the snow cones!

It's official. They look nothing alike.

Cuddle time!

I busted out all my old dolls for Rayleigh. Parker giggled at the naked Barbies. I couldn't believe how much dolls clothes I had! And it was almost all hand made by my mom! She said she never gave us a doll without a little blanket and a dress. It's those things you don't appreciate when you are young. But man, I'm in awe with my mom and this just prove how amazing she is. I love that I kept all these dolls for my daughter! I can't wait to give her my American Girl Dolls someday!

 Sweetness. She loves to cuddle.

There's a pretty cool arcade at the bowling ally and Parker and I have fun playing games there while we wait to get a lane. I could play ski ball all day!

He played this motor cycle game where he rode through Spain! So we had to take a picture to show Kassidy! :-)

No hurries, no worries. We are having a "fun in the sun" summer!