This summer is flying by. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it's almost August. We've had such a great summer with the kids, they're at such great ages.
We've found ourselves staying busy with many activities - the kids favorite is always going to Adventureland! We've attended a few of the local parades - through various town festivals. The kids have enjoyed gathering candy (Gabby) and watching the Fire Trucks (Drake).
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| Airplane Rides with Daddy |
Iowa (much like the rest of the country) has been inundated with the HEAT this summer. This week we will have three consecutive days of 100 degree temperatures. One obvious way to combat this heat is to go to the beach! It's always amusing to see how the kids will approach new events/situations - the first time we went to the beach Gabby was in heaven swimming in the water, while Drake was mesmerized with solely playing in the sand.
We've built numerous sand castles, rivers, ponds...etc. during our beach trips and the kids favorite part is always getting buried in the sand - an obvious summer adventure. Drake spends a lot of his time picking up sticks and rocks and filling up his duck with water to transfer to his "Rivers". Gabby loves making "Castles" and burying Mommy and Daddy with sand.
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| Beach Boy! |
A quick update on the kids -
[Drake]
Drake is still mommys little shadow - which I still can't seem to get enough of! I say he's already grooming his skills to be in sales - as he'll be quite the naughty little 2 year old and then follow it up with an: "I love you Mommy". Drake has taken an interest into always wearing a hat. He's quick to turn it around when the sun isn't out - it's amazing to me how inherently he is like Brandon. Whether it be from his competitive spirit or his natural draw to sports, he is very similar to his dad. With one exception - his temper :) He certainly gets this temper (or passion as I like to call it) from his mother!
Drake still loves his Dinosaurs, Balls and Food. The kid loves to eat! He (like his sister) loves to read books and just recently mastered knowing all of the days of the week and counting to 20. He is getting ready to transition to the next room at school - and will have Gabby's favorite teacher: Miss. Elizabeth. We are excited for him to make this transition as he is cognitively and socially very ready for the move.
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| Best Buds! |
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| New Hiding Spot |
[Gabby]
I know this is cliche' but Gabby truely is 3 going on 23! This child has always kept us on our toes - and being 3 has not changed this. The other morning when I went to wake her up she simply says: "Good Morning, Mom - How was your nights sleep?" Speaking of sleep - she still loves it. She can be quite the bear in the morning, it often takes us around 20 minutes just to get her out of bed. On the weekends, she'll sleep until 8:30 - which is a far cry from the 6:00 a.m. wake-up that's programmed into her little brother.
Gabby recently told us as we were getting ready to go to dinner one evening that her shoes were "Fabulous". The picture below is her explaining just that (the glasses are her Dora sunglasses which she frequently wears). She loves her shoes and dresses - often times when we go to get her from her afternoon rest time, she will have a completely different outfit on. She has been potty trained for awhile and has only had an accident a few times, so I was surprised when I picked her up from school one day and they told me she had had a potty accident. When I asked her why this happened she said quite frankly: "Because I wanted to wear my other pair of pants!".
Gabby loves to learn - we've been introducing her to very simple chapter books as she is increasing her ability to string words together in terms of reading. She's quick to read those words in which she's memorized and is getting very good and sounding out those words that are new to her. One of her favorite things to do every night is to "Jump" into a book - basically she opens up the book we're reading to a certain page/chapter and we all "jump" into the story and then she uses her imagination to act out the story - pictating to Brandon and I what she sees. She's all around a pretty amazing little girl!
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| Gabby's New Favorite Saying: "I'm FABULOUS!" |
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| Hamburger Hat and Princess Hat |
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| Sunday Afternoon Movie |
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| Popsicles on a hot Summer Day! |
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| Princess Gabby |
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| Christmas In July! |
We had another "first" in our house in July - both Brandon and I needed to travel for business in the same week - same days. Yikes! Luckily, both of our mothers were able to bail us out (so - note to everyone, you DO always need your mother) and were both able to attend to our business obligations.
Brandon was able to attend a San Francisco Giants game at AT&T Park - which I had the pleasure of flying over both the Indianapolis Colts and New York Mets stadiums. He loved the game and even got to educate some of the other attendees on what a ball and strike is. Apparently they didn't get Baseball 101 at age 1 like our little Drake did!
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| AT&T Park - San Francisco Giants |
Last week we both traveled again to Savannah, GA as I had the pleasure of standing up in my dear friend Gina's wedding. As noted above, it was hotter in Des Moines than Georgia the weekend we were there! We traveled with my good friend Laura and her husband Jimmy - it was such a great trip. The wedding was a lot of fun and the city of Savannah was beautiful. We spent most of Monday walking around the city center, shopping, drinking and eating. It was a nice escape from our day to day craziness.
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| Savannah, GA |
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| River Street & Savannah Bridge |
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| Savannah Cemetary |
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| Wedding Fun! - Congrats Gina & Keith |
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| Boo & Brew Tour - walking tour of local breweries and Savannah's most "haunted" areas |
We are excited for the rest of the summer and all that it entails. I'm sure more visits to the Pool, Adventureland, the Zoo and even those lovely lazy Sunday movies are in store. We are taking a mini-vacation in August to travel as a family to Omaha in my nephew Braden's 1st Birthday. We'll be taking the kids to the Children's Museum and the Omaha Zoo - which we know they'll love.
As I look outside my window to the 102 degree day - I hope everyone is staying cool!
