Aidric's Quiet Time

Aidric stopped napping over a year ago. But, in order to maintain my sanity, I've continued to enforce a "quiet time" in the afternoon. He has to stay in his room for about an hour to an hour and a half. He doesn't have to sleep or even lay down...he has free reign in there with a ton of toys, books, puzzles, etc. to occupy him. But, the thing is, he is TIRED. He is stubborn and refuses to sleep, but he's tired.

We've found that he spends a good portion of this time laying on his bed, just snuggling with his blanket. (and yes, sucking his thumb...not sure when we need to really work on breaking this habit- he ONLY does it at home and generally only does it when he is holding this blanket!)

He knows that he can't come out until his clock says "THREE ZERO ZERO" and several times throughout QT, I'll hear his little voice at the stairs announcing the current time, "TWO FOUR EIGHT". He doesn't totally grasp the concept of time though and really know when THREE ZERO ZERO is coming. So, he stares at his clock a lot in anticipation; I think partially afraid that if he looks away, he's going to miss the big moment.

Anyway, Chris walked into the hallway during QT yesterday and saw this. He often pulls his blanket out into the hall for some reason. But the addition of pulling his clock out there with him yesterday just cracked me up!

52 weeks with my kids..Weeks 32-34

Week 32
We were getting ready to grab a quick snapshot in the backyard, but Juliet (the drama queen) tripped on her way over to Aidric and me. Chris took this picture of our group hug while consoling her.



Week 33
I've wanted to take a picture like this since I saw a similar shot on pinterest at the beginning of my pregnancy. Thankfully, Chris has been awesome at accommodating my many photo shoot requests and he did a great job taking this.



And I spared Chris this one and asked our babysitter to snap it for me one day last week.

Homemade Ice Cream

Easiest and most delicious thing ever!!! I read the directions, so I was prepared for it to be easy. I was not prepared to enjoy eating it more than Haagen Daaz. It's sooooo goood!!!! Who knew???

Link to recipe here

Mini Golf

This was both kids first time miniature golfing. It was on our Summer Fun List and they both loved it. They honestly didn't seem all that into it at the time, but since that day (about 2 weeks ago) they have asked several times if we can go do it again!







Week 31 of our 52 Week Project

Last Soccer Game

Aidric's first season of soccer has come and gone. It was a very quick summer league, but a great experience for him! He had a wonderful coach, who was positive and fun, but managed to teach him a few things too =)

At first, he did NOT want to play. We couldn't figure out why since he had enjoyed tee ball so much. Finally, the day of the first game, he said, "mommy, I'm scared that I'm not going to make a goal." Awww!! Broke my heart that he was soooo focused on scoring; I worried that maybe we had stressed that unintentionally? We tried to reassure him that the fun of soccer was just playing and it didn't matter if he scored a goal. We went to the first game and he did not score a goal, but despite himself, he DID have fun. During the second game and I think every game after, he managed to score at least once and all was well. He ended up loving soccer and we've signed him up for the fall league.

A few pictures of his last game...thanks to Gretchen, Ryder and Claudia for coming out to support the "Red Superheroes"!




I was lucky enough to have the camera ready here..this is actually him scoring a goal!


High Fives after the goal!




Once their snacks were gone, Juliet, Ryder and Claudia were pretty much done with the game. I was at the end of the field taking the above pictures and managed to get a few of the girls and Chris playing.



And then Claudia came over to model for me...love that!

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Another item on our summer "to do" list..we checked it off last week and have done it again since. I got the idea from a blog...I won't repeat the instructions b/c you can find them here if you are interested!

sidewalk chalk paint


They loved everything about this! Making the paint was probably almost as fun as using it for them. I didn't take pictures of that part b/c it required my help to ensure no fingers were smashed along with the chalk.







Yes, Juliet is only wearing her underwear. She had a super cute dress on that day and I didn't want to risk staining...it likely wouldn't have stained, but I wasn't taking any chances =)