Sunny Sunflowers

 Nothing says "summer" quite like a field of sunflowers.  

 They are such "happy" flowers.  I found it impossible to resist taking a few pictures.  

 The kids humored me.

We Went South and Found Summer

Living in the great white North, summer has pretty much peaked by the end of July and August brings a general cooling off.   We went south and found summer alive and well bringing humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife and 90 degree days.  Ryan's Aunt Connie suggested a fabulous activity, hiking to a little creek to catch tadpoles, crayfish and minnows to beat the heat. 

 The water felt so nice and cool on little toes.

 Ryan was introduced to tadpoles, and worked hard to catch them and put them in his bucket.

 Cousins Rachel and Sarah were BIG helpers with the little ones, holding hands to keep them from slipping in slimy spots.

 Amanda and her "favorite guy" check out a crayfish shell. 

 Anna is showing off her catch to Katie and Sarah.

At first, Ryan was scared to get in the water, but with the help of his cousins he soon became bolder and walked deeper and deeper (almost to his knees).  

 Finding tadpoles is so much fun!

A "romp of Kangai" just before leaving.

On the Road: Our Hotel Experience

Recently, we took a trip to see family.   I love road trips, but this one was fairly significant averaging 12 hours each way with potty stops, traffic, construction and food stops.  On the way there it was agreed we would break the trip up with an overnight stop in a hotel.  This was exciting for me since Ryan has no recollection of being in a hotel and this time he would be able to appreciate the experience of a comfy room, little bottles of shampoos, soaps, trips to get ice from the ice machine, and perhaps a contenenental breakfast.

Traveling was complicated by our pooches.  They travel well, but bringing them makes finding a spot to stop for the night a little more interesting since we need to find a place that accepts dogs.  We price-lined a room at a place called Red Roof Inn.  We've had positive experiences with them before, and the room we found was a great deal.

Around 1a.m. we pulled into the place.  Josh offered to take the dogs up to our room first and then come back to help with sleeping kids, so I waited for him.  But when he returned he told me our room had some deficencies that concerned him. Primarily the fact that it was missing it's door knob. He said he would find it hard to sleep there also considering when he walked in, the headboards were laying on each bed.  I agreed that wouldn't work.

So he asked for another room.  He was given a room in an identical state of re-modeling.  Strike two. The lady apologetically offered him the "best room in the house." At this point it was about 1:30 am and both of us were feeling rather put out.  When we pulled up to the "best room in the house," the neighboring room's door was wide open and inside it was pitch black.  Josh, brave man, walked in said room and I wondered if he had taken leave of his senses.  But when he came back, he said the alarm was going off and he didn't want to hear it all night.  Our new non-smoking room, did have it's door knob and appeared to be put in order, but reeked of smoke.  Both kids immediately started to cry upon entering, loudly, that they were hungry.  I reminded them that it was 2 a.m and nothing was open, but they could have a banana, because that was the only thing I had to give them.   They each took one bite and then fell asleep.

So much for a great hotel experience!

Dinosaur Egg Fun

 I absolutely love the blog playathomemom3.blogspot.com.  They have so many amazing ideas for helping children learn through play.  I love how you can select a category and find just about anything you could ever want from sensory activities, language activities, glow in the dark activities, etc.  That being said, I've had this Dinosaur egg activity pinned for a while because Ryan is completely in love with dinosaurs right now. We finally got around to trying it out.  Ryan and I made our dinosaur eggs following the recipe given at "playathomemom3" with flour, sand, dirt and water.  We mushed little dollar-store dinosaurs inside and let them dry for a day.  The next day, we cracked them open with the hammer. 

 And all their little dinosaurs hatched....

Next we had to make them a habitat.  

 We used some sticks and the tree tops of their National Geographic toy set to make a pretty neat tree. I used a small tin and added some blue food coloring to make the water super blue.  Ryan added some grass clippings for the pteradactyl nest.  

 I also added some blue food coloring to the water part of the sandtable.  Dylan enjoyed floating his "prehistoric" sharks and alligators in this area.

 A lot of fun ensued.  This activity kept them entertained for several hours this afternoon.  

 At one point, Ryan went Jurassic Park on his dinosaurs and caged them up. 

Dylan really got into this activity too.  I won't be surprised if they ask to do this one again.

Summer is for Swimming

 One of the best decisions we made this year was purchasing a "small" pool...."small" as in a step up from our typical yearly baby pool.  We weren't sure if we'd really get our money out of it considering Pittsburgh is often rainy even in summer and we have about one-two weeks top of muggy or unbearable heat. In the end, we went for it thinking at the very least maybe the kids would at least get a little more comfortable in the water.  

At the beginning of summer, Dylan screamed, cried and clung tightly to us if we even dipped one of his toes in the water.  But now that summer is nearly over, he is asking to go swimming on a daily basis. He enjoys playing with his toy alligator, shark and boat in the water.  He is able to let his legs float up to the top, while holding onto the side of the pool, and he is starting to kick.  YAY!

 Ryan  was also scared of the water at first.  The first time he was in the pool he began to cry when Josh went to set him down.  His crying immediately stopped when he realized he could touch the bottom.  Since then he has enjoyed walking around the pool, sitting in the pool, and playing with his toys.  We've been working on blowing bubbles in the water.  He has a hard time trusting us in the water.  We tried to get him to sit on a little floating ring, but he was too scared.  He refused to go into the pool for a few days after that event.  But just recently I caught him pushing it around and even halfway leaning on it with his belly.  It's the little steps!

We have really enjoyed this little pool this year!

Spray Park

It was probably one of the hottest days this year that we decided to go on a fishing trip.

 We picked a very good spot and the fish were biting frequently, even though they were not very big.

 Josh asked Dylan to kiss the fish, and Dylan obliged.

Things were getting pretty hot and muggy around noon, and luckily for us, our fishing spot happened to be next to a spray park.  So I took Dylan over to cool off. Bless his dedicated little heart, Ryan stuck to fishing despite the hot sun for another half hour before joining in the spray park fun.

 At first Dylan would only stick a toe in and hung out on the outskirts of the spray fountains.

 Not Ryan though.

4th of July

 Since I'm back-posting, let me just say that we had a wonderful 4th of July.  It was a hot muggy day spent in the pool and playing in the sand-water table.

The clouds rolled in in the early evening.  But the rain was holding off.  We enjoyed Rita's ice and catching lightning bugs until the fireworks started.

Ryan figured out how to turn his glow-stick necklace into a pair of glowing glasses, so we all had fun with that too.

Dylan really enjoyed the fireworks this year.  His eyes were big as saucers and he would yell "Boom!" and "Look!" after about every colorful explosion.  Ryan continued to be not impressed with fireworks, similar to last year.  When the rain began to fall mid-way through the show, he began to cry and wanted to go home. He ended up sitting in Dylan's stroller trying to stay dry. Maybe he'll enjoy them next year....