Summer???

Although this summer hasn't seen much of that thing called the "sun" it has still been quite a lot of fun. The day Ella got out of school this year we picked her up, went to get ice cream, and then went to the pool (one of the few sunny days). We've gone to the libruary a few times. Summer reading programs rock! Fun, educational, and indoors!!! Ella and I have also made flashcards of her sight words to prepare her for first grade. She is doing really well! The other day while sounding out words she accidently said "cunt" instead of "cut". Yicks! I almost spit out my coffee!

On Monday, June 22nd (I think that was the date) we went to our friend Mary's beach house at Groton Long Point and hung out there. This was not such a great day weather wise, but we still had a blast! The kids loved playing in the sand. Weston drove his trucks. Ella build sand castles and collected sea shells. Perfect for both of them! Ella was even brave enough to go in the water. Brrrr!!! It was overcast in the morning, but warm enough to be outside in short sleeves. We then went to the playground. Here is was cold and started to rain a little. The wind was crazy all of a sudden. I think it was just the location of the playground. The kids didn't notice, still in their wet suits they were running around playing on everything they could. Ella just hoped from one thing to another without stopping. Her favorite thing was the big tower of ropes that she climbed up on and "could see the whole playground". We went in for lunch after that and had a nice time with Mary's mother and sister, and Mary ofcoarse. My kids were picky and didn't eat much of anything though. They just wanted to go back outside to play which we eventually did, but by then it was raining significantly so we decided to pack up and leave.

On Monday, June 29th we went to Southwicks zoo in Menden, MA. I had planned to just take them to the children's museum to get them out of the house, but by surprise my friend Jasmine called and wanted to get together. She mentioned that she would love to go to the Southwicks zoo and I've been wanting to go there for years now, so we decided to go for it! The directions were straight-forward and it appeared to be right off the highway. I calculated that it would take me about 40 minutes. Oh vey, is that a long way off the highway!!! 30 minutes of back roads later we finally got there...about 1/2 hour late. Thankfully Jasmine knew we were going to be late and was a little late herself. It may have taken a while to get there, but SO worth it. What an awesome place! We first saw the elephant show. That animal is older than I am! Then we went and saw the lions, tigers, and leopard (my favorite animals of the day). After that we stopped at a playground. The kids had a blast playing on the zip cord thing and took turns. Weston loved the HUGE sand box. Then the kiddos spotted the sky line, a ride that looks like a sky lift, and wanted to go on that. So we started our journey of trying to find it without a map. The Ella's were very impatient about this part, but the things we saw on the way were not to be overlooked. They have a deer park where you go into a fenced off area and feed the deer. They come right up to you and eat out of your hands. It was so amazing. I loved this part as well, so did the kids. We FINALLY made our way to the sky line and it started to rain. Thinking we would be o.k. because they have roofs on them we decided to go on. The girl almost didn't let Weston board because you have to be 42 inches tall (and he is far away from that), but she was nice enought to let him pass when I begged. Really, can you imagine...we had just spent atleast 30 minutes hearing about how much they wanted to ride the skyline I didn't want to hear about it if we couldn't. Well as soon as we got on the skyline the heavens decided to open up and we were drenched (our pants anyway...the roof kept the top halves of us dry for the most part). The kids really enjoyed the ride though. After the sky line we found the petting zoo. Here you could feed goats and sheep which we attempted to do, but almost got stampeeded by the animals once they saw us putting money into the machine. Yicks! Those horns and hooves hurt!!!! The kids still had fun petting the animals....well that was until Weston got knocked down by one. He was a little afraid after that. At the end of our day the kids got to ride on a camel and an elephant!!! It was kind of pricey but so worth it. How often do you get to ride on a camel or elephant when you live in the U.S.! What a great day. Both kids fell asleep on the way home...I almost did too!

Today we had to stay home and wait for the cable guy to finish installing our cable, but Keri came down with Emily and Danny. It was so cute to see Emily in her purple dress, purple tiara, ring, and wings as Ella was prancing around in her ballerina costume. They went outside and played with the riding cars. Weston had to dive to the ground when Emily was driving because she almost ran him and Danny over! That girl is one crazy driver!! After the cable guy left we went to McDonalds and brought the food over Kris's house to go swimming. Weston LOVES to jump off the side of the pool while holding onto me. It's really the only thing he enjoys about the pool. Ella is a fish and would stay in all day, but we had to pack up because yet again we heard thunder and felt sprinkles. It was still fun though. The rest of the day consisted of shopping for Ella's sixth birthday celebration. I forgot it was the 3rd of July...oh vey! The grocery store was packed and the kids were a complete handful. I hate shopping experiences like this!

I forgot to mention that on the first Thurs. of summer vacation we went over my friend Erica's house and played with Emma and Niklas. Ella came down with a funky hairdo that Emma apparently created. Girls are too funny. This was also a nice time. It's so good to have adult conversation and entertainment for the children. It is how I am keeping my sanity during these "summer" months and all the rain!