Summer Fun

Aside from a few scattered rain storms, we had a pretty nice weekend of summer fun. We went to the movies, attended two birthday parties and enjoyed some time at the lake.

This weekend hasn't been ALL fun for Aurora. Last week she went bowling on a field trip, and she slipped and fell and her bowling ball squashed her pinkie finger! It turned purple and she was really afraid the nail would fall off, but it's healing nicely now. When yesterday's party moved to the pool, she cut her knee on a broken post in the water that had a sharp metal edge sticking out. The lifeguard was so nice when she came to help with her first aid kit, but then she mentioned that she'd noticed the problem and hadn't done anything about it. Huh. It stopped bleeding and Aurora really wanted to get back in the water, but a storm came rolling in so it wasn't meant to be. She had a surprisingly good attitude about everything. She still exclaimed that swimming in the lake and playing with her friends made for the best party ever! I may have overdone the party food and drinks, but hey - at least I have the rest of the week off to hydrate, eat salads and go to the gym, right? Oh, who am I kidding. We're totally going to eat ice cream all week!

Quack

It's been a busy time for me at work and a crazy time in general as we have a new CEO! You probably know that I run our volunteer and intern programs and manage the front desk, but these days I also sell merchandise on eBay, work with our global leader program, and on-board new employees. Today, I went on a duck tour. In a couple weeks I celebrate 9-years at LIVESTRONG and this was honestly one of my favorite staff outings to date. The weather was gorgeous and the team was happy. Here are a few pictures I stole from other people's Instagram accounts (the first one was taken and posted by our new CEO):

I'm taking next week off to spend some time with Aurora. We've arranged some fun and interesting activities for our week of mommy camp, including an afternoon at work (what!?) so be sure to check back again soon!

Jellystone Park

Last year we went camping for Father's Day, but it was with a family camping program that lent us all the supplies we'd need. This year, I bought Chuck his very own tent and we went to Jellystone Park for a weekend of camping with amenities! We met Yogi and Boo Boo Bear, went swimming, jumped on a huge bouncy pillow, went on a Hey Hey Ride, did some indoor crafts when it rained, went hiking, played on the playground, and found lots of frogs and rolly pollies.

I brought plenty of snacks, but we also grabbed food from the "Pic-a-nic Basket," had a pizza party and a delicious pancake breakfast on-site, and on Saturday night we found an amazing hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint a few miles from camp. Even the kids loved it! Maybe our next camping trip will be more primitive and we'll try really roughing it... maybe.

B-D-O-E

I realize Chuck doesn't make it into every blog post, but that's about to change as we've been gearing up for Father's Day. Aurora made a book for the B-D-O-E (Best dad on earth) at school, which he opened a few days early. She is quite the creative little artist!

We have special plans this weekend, which may or may not be hampered by the NON-STOP RAIN in Austin. Today the forecast called for severe weather so all the schools (daycares/summer camps) closed early. I'm sure it will storm tonight, but it's been nice and dry since they made the call. I'm hoping that the better-than-expected weather continues into the weekend. Regardless, I probably won't post again until Sunday evening so I wanted to wish my dad, my brother, and all the B-D-O-E's out there a very Happy Father's Day!

5 Little Ducks

This weekend we had some downtime, and what do you do when you have downtime with an almost 3-year old? You let him pick out big boy undies! I haven't been making an effort to focus on potty training, but many of the kids in his class are already out of diapers and his teachers have been telling us it's time to start. I remember Aurora's first time wearing undies. I said "what are you going to do if you need to pee?" and she said "have an accident!" which is exactly what she did and (of course) exactly what Clark did, too. He sure likes his Spidey underwear and he would love to earn a treat by going in the potty, but we're not quite there yet...

He recently switched up his bedtime routine and now instead of me rocking him and singing a song, he sits in this rocking chair and sings me a song. It's very sweet, even if he does have the most complicated bedtime of all time. I call it the 20-point bedtime routine, and if we don't get it all just right, he cries until I come back and do whatever we missed.

Aurora spent the weekend asking me to pull out her tooth. She went from not letting me touch a loose tooth to letting me pull it out only if it's bleeding and hanging by a thread, to telling me to pull it out before it's even totally ready. I hope the tf has cash and doesn't forget to do her job tonight!

Having a Blast

Remember at the end of 1st grade, when you got your yearbook and decided to use the inside front cover to survey your friends about which rocks and minerals they liked best? Right. So after a few days of signing yearbooks in strange and interesting ways...

We've moved on to Summer Blast! Our sweet girl wrote us a thank you note at the end of her first day. This summer camp takes place at Valley View Elementary but it actually serves all Eanes ISD students so she's making lots of new friends from different schools and (clearly) having a great time!

Tomorrow she has a field trip - in fact, she'll be taking field trips twice a week! This camp only goes for 4 weeks in June and 4 weeks in July (with a weeklong break in-between) so it won't be her only gig this summer, but so far so good.