Summer Fun, Weeks 4 and 5

Trying to catch up here, since I didn't write last Monday night. Where have the last two weeks gone? Where is this summer going, for that matter? Here's what we've been up to around here:

• Tuesday 6/28, both girls had a dentist appointment. Now wait a minute, that's not a "fun thing," you say...well, don't tell the girls that! They love going to the dentist! It was Rachel's first time there and she did great. No cavities in either little mouth. And at this point, Rachel's teeth apparently don't look like they'll need braces (not so Megan's, sadly). After the dentist, we stopped off at Grand Rapids Township Park for a little bit. The girls had fun at the park, but it was actually a bit chilly, believe it or not, so we didn't stay too long. Rachel saw a few friends from preschool and was frustratingly shy with them.
• We stopped off at Forest Hills Foods after the park so I could stock up on organic produce. I'm starting to make Daniel's baby food. So far it's gone well, and he's been pretty accepting of everything I've made (which is still limited to single ingredient purees). He still really hates peas. But otherwise, he does OK. I got a new stick blender and I LOVE this little kitchen toy! It makes pureeing small batches sooo easy. I will almost be sad when I don't have to puree his baby food anymore. But I guess then I can make lots of milkshakes :)
• Our "lesson" for that day was an art lesson, making sand art. Megan had received a sand art kit for her 5th birthday, and sadly, we are just now opening it up and using it. She was very gracious and allowed Rachel to choose one of the funky shaped plastic jars to fill with layers of colorful sand. The girls had fun with choosing their color patterns.
• Wednesday 6/29 was fun...we went to the library to take Daniel to Babytime, a story time geared especially for babies up to 18 months. Both girls are Babytime alumni. It was fun for them to see Miss Jacque again. She's the children's librarian and somewhat of a local celebrity in kid circles. The girls enjoyed bringing their own baby dolls to include in the songs, rhymes, and reading. During the free play time, the girls and Miss Jacque tried in vain to get Daniel to crawl through a long fabric tunnel tube. He would have no part of it. Oh well, at least Miss Jacque's loud, distinctive voice didn't make him cry (as it did Rachel when she was little). Today our cooking lesson involved making smores in the microwave. It was a good thing we got to this activity when we did, because Mommy has just about wiped out the smores ingredients by making many smores for herself. Testing the recipe, you know :) You can imagine that the girls loved the outcome of this project. We even did a little history lesson, and learned (via Wikipedia) that smores originated with someone who made them for her Girl Scouts. This afternoon we had outside playtime with our friends, the Tatkos.
• Thursday (6/30) was a fun day....we enjoyed a visit from Nana, Papa, and Papa's sister, Aunt Nora, who is visiting from Florida. The highlight was a trip to the Sleep Inn, where they were spending the night, so that the girls could go swimming in the hotel pool. Megan had fun showing off some of her newly learned swimming skills.
• Friday (7/1) we had initially planned to hit the beach with the Grays, but the weather did not cooperate. It was stormy and dark by the afternoon. And very hot. So we spent the morning at Java Gym...our first visit to this indoor play place. The girls were having a ball, until Rachel fell down inside the climbing tubes. Then she was pretty much done with the place. We will be returning though, because I bought a discounted pass awhile back and have to use it up by September. I think I can convince them to go back. It's a great place to burn off some energy. Friday afternoon we did a fun "letter" activity around the house. The girls had to find something in the house that started with each letter of the alphabet. Once they came up with an item, I took a picture of it with the camera. I'm going to make each of them an A to Z book. This project was really more for Rachel, but of course Megan wants her own book too. Rachel did a great job helping to find items. Megan and I were completely stumped on the letter K, and just as I was going to my iPad to look up suggestions, Rachel blurted out "Key!" They really got into this game.
• The weekend brought fun activities, too....Saturday we took an after dinner trip to the Cone Shoppe for ice cream. Sunday, Stacey and her boyfriend Nick came for a visit. We took them to Meijer Gardens and spent time at the Children's Gardens there, then stopped off at Jersey Junction in East Grand Rapids for---you guessed it---ice cream! We grilled burgers and hot dogs at home for dinner.
• July 4! Bill, Stacey, Nick, the kids and I trekked down to 28th Street for the annual Cascade Fourth of July Parade. I could again be heard saying to anyone who would listen, "Remind me NOT to do this next year!" It's a parade with occasionally interesting floats/participants with lots and lots of boring in between (every tractor, fire truck, and off road vehicle within a 20 mile radius participated). And it was hot. But the kids were excited to run out to grab candy that was being thrown by some parade participants. After the parade we headed briefly to the fair being held at the library, so the kids could enjoy the bounce house, inflatable tunnels, slides, and mazes, and a few snow cones. The fire department even turned on a sprinkler from their fire truck, and Nick had fun running the girls in and out of the water. We picked up Culver's for lunch and went home for a competitive lawn bowling game called Molkky that Stacey and Nick brought back from Finland. After our guests left, the day was capped off by a visit to Lamar Park Splash Pad. The girls especially had fun running through rainbow colored rings that spray water. The scene was a little crowded and rowdy for our taste, and we worried about the girls getting run into by bigger, less careful kids. Plus we couldn't really take Daniel in the water for the same reason. So we left after about 45 minutes, but it was enough. Everyone was exhausted by the end of this day!
• This week, Daniel tried peaches and barley cereal for the first time. Peaches: thumbs up; barley: right now it's a thumbs down. But we'll keep trying.
• Tuesday 7/5, we had a cooking day. The girls and I made cinnamon and sugar pretzels out of refrigerated bread stick dough. They liked shaping the dough to form letters, spreading on the melted butter, and sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar onto the pretzels. Both the girls ate them and asked for more, so it was a hit!
• Wednesday 7/6 Rachel had a gymnastics class to make up in the morning. In the afternoon, our "art lesson" was wet sidewalk chalk. I wet down the driveway, with the girls' help, and they used sidewalk chalk on the wet pavement to create vibrant chalk pictures. They thought this was great, and were fascinated with how fast the driveway dried after it was watered down.
• Thursday 7/7, I took the girls to Portland to meet Grammy and Gaga for lunch. Then they went home with them for a two night "sleepover!" It was Rachel's first time, and she did great. She was so excited. Afterward Megan told Grammy that she likes it better when Rachel's not along, no doubt because she didn't totally want to share the attention. They had a fun few days swimming at the indoor pool Grammy goes to for water aerobics, going to the movies to see "Mr. Popper's Penguins" (which Rachel deemed "terrible"), going to the park, baking cupcakes, and eating out at the requisite Bob Evans and Culver's. Back at home, I enjoyed lots of one on one time with Daniel. It was a quiet house, and it reminded me so much of being a new mom back when Megan was a baby, just having one little one to care for and talk to. Daniel really enjoyed the extra attention and was really verbal while the girls were gone! At the time I was wondering if it was because they weren't around making so much noise, but it's been almost two weeks, and his increased vocalizing has continued. So fun! He's very fond of saying, "Babababa" and "Bwaahh, bwaaahh, bwaahh."
• Bill picked the girls up Saturday and took them to Gymco for gymnastics. While they were gone, I discovered a new skill of Daniel's...sitting unsupported! I've been trying to get him to sit for awhile now, and usually he just flops over unless he is leaning against me for support. This morning when I sat him on the floor, he stayed sitting! He is able to do it for several minutes at a time. However, his preferred position is still commando crawling around on his belly. He very proudly demonstrated his sitting abilities for sisters and Daddy when they got home, but since then, he's been kind of a stinker about it. He usually throws himself backwards when I try to sit him up. If he is distracted enough by a toy or something, he'll sit for a little bit, but usually, he'd rather not.
• Sunday 7/10 we went to Versluis Beach....our first trip to the beach this summer, sadly! It was hot, but the water felt nice. The girls had fun building sand castles with Daddy and swimming in the lake. Daniel was not a huge fan of the beach. He didn't really enjoy putting his feet in the water or sitting in his ducky wading pool (I think it was too cold for him). And he got really annoyed that he couldn't just crawl around everywhere. We ate a picnic lunch at the park there, and by early afternoon, he was pretty much done with the whole thing. He was hot, he was getting sand in his eyes and mouth, and he didn't have anything to keep him amused. Hopefully our upcoming trip to the Jersey Shore will go better. We stopped off on the way home from the beach at the Cone Shoppe and got ice cream, and had a Papa Murphy's Pizza for dinner (a rare treat, since our Papa Murphy's closed awhile ago).