Last Day of Soccer

Today was the last day of the soccer summer camp.  Hayden enjoyed it SO much more than last year.  I love to see how much he has grown and all the skills he learned this summer.  Since it was the last day, the parents got to play, and they also received a neat medal. 

It's a Snow Day!!

I know in the middle of January, I will be wishing for summer, but this heat & humidity has been awful the past week.  Since we haven't been wanting to stay outside for too long, thought it was time for a Snow Day!! :)  So we had a "lazy" morning and watched Snow Plows Mighty Machines, had some yummy Snow shakes, and made some snow for the snowplows!! :)

Soccer Dog

This summer, Hayden has been enjoying his Soccer camp, as well as practicing soccer with Daddy after dinner.  Although, I think Tanner has been enjoying it a little more than Hayden! :)

White Water Ice Cream & Rapids

I think we have started a new tradition this summer... After Dinner Sunday Ice Cream!!  There is a new Ice Cream place, White Water Ice Cream, that opened which is super yummy!  It seems we are starting to frequent it more and more, typically after dinner on Sundays!  After we enjoy our sweet treat, we explore the new river walk, which isn't as nice as Naperville's, but still pretty neat to watch the mini-rapids!! :)

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog

(Hot dog Sugar Cookies)

I think we were officially Hot Dog'ged out after National Hot Dog day!!  We celebrated by having tons of different types of dogs!  We invited the cousins over to help us eat all of them!!  For appetizers we had bbq mini-dogs, pigs in a blanket, bacon wrapped dogs, and Hayden's personal favorite octopus dogs! :)  For dinner, we grilled some more doggies, and for dessert enjoyed yummy Hot Dog cookies!!  After it became dark, the cousins had fun playing with our "hot dog", Tanner with Flashlights!

Earning Boulders

Lately, Hayden has been testing out his limits... aka... spending some time in time-outs a little more frequently lately because he has had "selective hearing". :)  So in the hopes to help out with that, I created a rewards chart... if he shows positive behavior or doesn't end up in time out during different portions of the day, he earns a boulder in his dumptruck.  So far it has been working pretty well, although I am sure it may be the novelty of it, but either way, he has been a really good listener the past week.  Once Hayden earned 10 boulders, he was able to choose a reward; he decided on going to Odyssey Fun World. 

Lollipop, lollipop, oh la la la la lollipop!

Of course we had to celebrate Lollipop Day! :)  We had a yummy Lollipop pancake breakfast, made Lollipops using lifesavers (they turned out pretty cool), colored some lollipop pictures, and listened to the Lollipop song.  Hayden enjoyed trying to make the lollipop sound, but only Jake was successful with that :).  We also tried to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Pop... although we lost count after 30.

Little Passports

Perfect timing to receive our Little Passport/Pen Pal suitcase in the mail, when the weather is yucky outside! In the suitcase was a letter from a pen pal, a large map, boarding pass, and passport.  We started learning about different countries... Hayden is excited to learn about Australia next, because he read a book a few days ago that mentioned Excavators being in Australia. :)

Ice, Ice, Baby

Today was a HOT one... getting into the mid-90's.  Because of that, we originally planned on spending the day inside due to the heat, & went to the Dollar Movies to Stuart Little.  But after naptime, we both decided to head outside and brought some fun ice activities with us!  Even though it was hot and humid, we had a lot of fun!!

We were ice excavators, and tried to break into a "glacier" to find the frozen toys.  We also did some ice painting...of course he used the ice cubes to paint an excavator, as well as playing a "melt the ice cube" game!!  We enjoyed some home-made icees(slurpees) that turned out really tasty, too!!

National Ice Cream Day

What a fun day to celebrate!!!  We had ice cream galore!!  We started the morning with a yummy build your own breakfast sundae... aka...yogurt/fruit parfait. :) Later in the day, we went to White Water Ice Cream for lunch :) (which is new in Yorkville)... VERY YUMMY!!  Hayden had cotton candy ice cream... it actually tasted just like cotton candy!  We did a few crafts with ice cream stickers & stamps.  Then after dinner, we made our own ice cream in a bag!  Poor Daddy had to do most of the shaking, but tasted pretty good!

(granola, vanilla yogurt, shortbread, bananas, blueberries & strawberries)