Let the SUMMER O' FUN BEGIN!

Well, it's here Mamas. We have almost made it through the chaos of May and on the border of the school year finish line!

I'm still unpacking the book bag and all the 4,328 pieces of art work they sent home on the last day of Mother's Day Out. I'll admit, I was sad to have my routine slowly slip through my fingers as bible study and school ended. BUT, I am super excited to have the freedom from schedule and to start creating and executing the things on the 2017 "Summer O' Fun" List!

If you'll recall, last summer, I had the same "breathe into a paper bag moment" the day after school ended, but then I went all Operation Summertime, and with a quick mental switch, a free printable, and a banner (YES A BANNER), I quickly turned into the most excited summertime Mama you ever did see. (You can read all about that here.) I declared it the SUMMER O' FUN, and LISTEN. IT WAS SO FUN. We did parks, zoos, splash pads, service projects, aquariums, ice cream dates, indoor play places, backyard parties, cupcake baking, and everything in between! (I wish I knew how to link all my Summer O'Fun posts together, but if you just click on 2016 to the right, you can find all 13 weeks of recap under June, July and August!)

Don't get me wrong. There were still "admin" days at home. And there were certainly some days that the Summer-Magic Fairy forgot to sprinkle her dust on us. And yes, by August, I was over it and if smelled any more sunscreen I thought I might go off the deep end. BUT ultimately, it was the best summer I've had in a long time! And the Summer O' Fun list just gave me something to look forward to and by creating a variety of options (at home or outing type activities), I was never left sitting and wondering what we were gonna do that day! To give you an idea...here was last year's Bucket List:

I'm gonna do my best to recreate it this year! I noticed last year that several of my gals started joining in on the party, creating their own list, and sharing their GREAT ideas! This area is SO BIG that someone is CONSTANTLY telling me something/somewhere I don't know about! 

SOOOO.....that brought me to an idea! Let's put our heads and lists together and have a SUMMER O' FUN LAUNCH PARTY/PLAYDATE! You bring YOUR ideas, and I'll bring mine! We'll all leave with more fun things than we can squeeze into 13 weeks of SUMMER! 

The SUMMER O' FUN Launch Party and Playdate will take place at my new favorite: 

Jack Carter Playground on Wednesday, May 31st @ 10:00 a.m.

(Address for playground is 2800 Maumelle Dr. Plano, TX)

This is nothing fancy-just a chance for our kiddos to play while we load our arsenal with great ideas! This is also an OPEN invitation to anyone who is local! So if you're reading this, you're welcome to join us! 

Get your printable Summer O' Fun Bucket list here! After the playdate, I'll combine all the ideas and report back here! 

I can't wait! Hope to see y'all there!

Summer O Fun Week 3

Summer O Fun Week 3 was a success. Everybody stayed healthy so we got to check off some more things on our Summer Bucket List. We showed up at Tom Muehlenbeck Rec center all ready to go and for the SECOND time we were there when the pool was not yet open. I gave the ladies at the desk a BIG OLE EYE ROLL because it was completely their fault that I didn't check the hours, right? (At this point I could hear my hubby's voice in my head: "Katie-did you check the hours before you went?" Mamas: ALWAYS CHECK THE HOURS BEFORE YOU GO SOMEWHERE. Because getting a toddler in and out of the carseat needlessly will make you wanna cuss.)

Anyway, we rolled with the punches and hit up another splash pad in Richardson that we've been wanting to go to. This was our first splash pad experience and I was nervous, because Lil G won't even run through the sprinkler in the back yard..... even though he's obsessed with it. BUT, it was a huge success! He LOVED it!

#stud

 

Next up was CooCoo's an indoor bounce house place in Plano. And I will have to use Google Images because G was terrified of this place and the enormous bounce houses. I forced him to "face his fears" and took him down one of the big slides. Let's just say we left right after that. The only thing he REALLY wanted to do there was ride the "choo-choo" which I had told him about earlier and even put a "choo-choo" shirt on him. Well guess what, the choo-choo was out of order. BIG EYE ROLL to the young lady working the counter about that too because I'm sure she single handedly broke the train. (Think I need a convoy with the Lord about my attitude?) This place was actually great, and is perfect for kids a little older. It was just a little too big and scary for G.

 

The only thing I wanted to do was sit in the random massage chair in the middle of the room.... don't think I had enough quarters though ; )

 

Never EVER EVER promise your child a train ride unless you are 100% sure it's gonna happen.

Not wanting to waste a car seat exchange, we walked next door to Jumpstreet, which is one of those indoor trampoline places. They had a nice little area in the back for the little ones. It was less of a FAIL that CooCoo's was, but I wouldn't necessarily called it a WIN. G was interested in the trampolines, but MOST interested in the car toys, that of course take $76 of change to operate. So essentially, we could've just gone to the mall and at least I could have gone to Macy's.



 

There were a couple of smaller bounce houses with tunnels which G did not go near because he still had PTSD from CooCoo's.

Both activities still earned him a LONG nap, but we made it to the library in time for the puppet show that afternoon! (One of our bucket list items is to visit all the Plano libraries, there are 5.) And they have the most amazing activities like Storytime, Puppet shows, etc.

 

Greyson LOVED the puppet show, especially the Guinea Pig who moderated the show.

On Friday, we had our "regularly scheduled program", our Square One playdate, which is every other week. My friend who hosted has a girl and a darlin girly play area in her house. And just look at who was enjoying it the most.

 

 

We shoo-ed them into the backyard where we had a pool and popsicle party!

 

Greyson and Claire seemed to be in cahoots the whole morning. I feel like they'll be stirring up trouble soon.

 

Friday we made a trip to Trader Joe's to get some appetizers for dinner. (We call it "App Night" here at the Wells.) I knew they had the little kid buggies so I went mentally prepared that the purpose of this trip was for fun. I did a quick run down the appetizer aisle with G in my buggy then let him down and have his own buggy while I followed behind. This was a good plan because I already had what I wanted so I could just let him go. He did much better than I expected.

 

 

In my head I was picturing Indy 500 with him crashing into people and shelves. Not SO! He casually strolled his buggy up and down the aisles and actually picked out some apple sauce and put it in his cart! It might as well have been my heart he picked up off the shelf because that just melted me and made me realize how fast he's growing up! When we got to the check-out he put his applesauce up on the counter!!!! 

 

 

The Trader Joe's trip was not on the official bucket list but it was so much fun; I love when the random things are the biggest hit! Although I'm worried that I just had beginners luck and next time will probably be a complete disaster and meltdown.

 

Saturday we went with our neighbors to The Lot, a neat restaurant in Dallas. They have a ton of outdoor tables surrounding a huge sand lot that the kids can play in while you eat. AMEN TO EATING WITH TWO HANDS! Can I just say all these years Jeremie and I have taken for granted a restaurant outing. I love how all the hip young singles and unmarrieds look at us like "YOU'RE CRAZY, you should stay home people"....... and yes, with kids, it is more complicated, but you know what, you still gotta live life.  And places like this make it easier. THANK YOU, THE LOT. Even though our child was CAKED with sand sealed with water from the misting machine, we got to eat our entire burgers and carry on a conversation with the other adults at the table.



Superman got sprayed down with a water house we found in the back of the building before we put him in the car. He got a bath in the Wal-Mart pool before his nap.

And we're still enjoying our backyard in the afternoons! I got Greyson some golf clubs and you see whose hogging them.

This week the heat index hits 100, so here we go Texas!