Fun stuff to do with your kids this summer.
If you do not have this game and you have a kid that is about Colm’s age, you should get it. Colm LOVES this game. (Marcia, this game would be perfect for your house.) There are about 20 little doors and there is a special key that opens each door. You pick a card and then you open a door that has the same color, shape, letter or number of objects as the card. When you open the door, there may be a ball hidden beneathe it. You collect all six balls and put them in this special chamber. When you put in the last ball there is a treasure chest that magically opens. Colm can’t get enough of it. The game also has another set of cards for a more advanced game.
I hate it when this happens. Have you ever been somewhere and someone says hello to you and you have no idea who they are? That happened to me today. I was dropping Liam off at VBS and another mom was coming out of the church and she said hi to me like we hadn’t seen each other in a really long time and maybe like she didn’t expect to see me there and she knew my name. No idea. My mind is drawing a complete blank. In my defense, the mystery mom is really pregnant and perhaps her features are rounder and fuller than the last time I saw her. That coupled with the amount of time it has been since I last saw her is perhaps why I have no earthly idea who she is? Maybe. Luckily she realized that I had to scoot Liam off to his classroom so I wasn’t stuck there talking to her trying to act like I know who she is while simultaneously trying to figure out who she is. I have a feeling we are going to run into each other again this week. Maybe I will have an epiphany in between now and the next time I see her. Doubtful.
COLM, DON’T TOUCH THE! (crash) pickles. Poor guy..it scared the crud out of him. He knows that if he misbehaves in any way at the store that he has to sit in the cart. (He HATES to sit in the cart.) Even when he knows he is in the wrong he will usually fight me on it. Not today. I think he was so scared from the crashing and the pickle juice in between his toes he was more than happy to get in the cart. I will say that I was very impressed with the grocery-store-employee-teenage-boy who was the first on the scene after the incident. The first thing he asked me was if Colm was okay. I was so impressed.
How have I never been to Steve and Barry’s when there is one practically down the street from me? I went there today to check out SJP’s new line and they have all kinds of stuff in there. Now, I do know why I have never been there. I thought they just sold sporting goods, but they have a lot more than that. They have some really cute stuff in there and for really reasonable prices. (They also have some really ugly stuff, too.) They have stuff for kids, babies…the whole fam. I got a pair of SJP pants for myself and Colm got a pair of much-needed shorts. I am looking forward to SJP’s fall line. There is a sweater/cardigan that I am going to snap up in every color.
Sorry…I was singing this song to the boys this morning as we were getting ready to go to the zoo. It is one of those songs that sticks in your head whether you want it to or not. The weather today was BEAUTIFUL!!! Does it get any better? It was a great day for the zoo! The boys are asleep in the car right now; they are zonked from all of that walking. 
Aagh…the life
Supercute!
Now that school is out we are getting to do some of the fun things that we can’t do when school is in session. Yesterday we went to Ernie Miller for their storytime. Each week is a different animal/insect theme. Yesterday was ants and spiders. She read a cute book about an ant and they got up and marched around to The Ants Go Marching One by One. She also read a book about a spider. There are always real animals/insents included in the storytime, so she brought out a toad and a tarantula that she walked around with so they could see…but not touch!
I am so happy with the summer program the boys are doing at preschool. The theme is Road Trip Across the U.S.A. and each week they learn about a different state. This week was Kansas. Next week is South Dakota and then it is Florida, New York, Alaska, Wyoming, Arizona and Hawaii. Liam is very excited about the luau they are having on the last day. The trouble I am experiencing is that now that the boys are going to school together, I have to get all of the info I can out of Colm about his day before Liam starts to talk. If Liam starts in on his day, there is either nothing left for Colm to say, or Colm just repeats everything that Liam just said. They both seem to really be enjoying it though and Colm went in his classroom today with no problem. Big boy! 🙂
Colm had his first violin lesson today AND his first swim lesson. He did AWESOME at both; I was so proud of him! Tomorrow he has his first day of school. Liam also had a first today. I know this may not seem big, but it is in our house…he jumped in the water at swim lessons and got his hair wet. That means he was UNDER the water. And do you know what he said after he did it? Something like this: “That wasn’t bad at all. That was fun.” Do you know HOW MANY times we have told him that?! He’s one of those kids that has to make up his mind to do it on his own. He can’t be coaxed into much of anything.
Liam LOVES these books!!! There is a whole series of them. They are about a very witty and funny little guinea pig named Fluffy who lives in Ms. Day’s classroom and the adventures/mishaps that occur to him both in and out of the classroom and while he is daydreaming. I must admit, these books are pretty funny.