July: Two Thumbs Up in Goddamnit! You Will Have Fun Whether You Like It Or Not
I thought our summer was jam-packed – Water park! Yay! Camping trip! Hooray! Family cabin! Yippee! And when all that was done, I realized it was only July 7th and I had a lot of summer days to fill, zero plans and two little kids to entertain. Crap.
My first plan for fun was actually doing some of the 10 zillion DIY kids’ activities I’ve found on Pinterest. Like making roads in the house with painters tape. It provided on-and-off entertainment for about 4 days and one gigantic sticky blue tape ball when it was done.
We also made Cloud Dough and Foam Dough, which, in my case, were way more mess-creating than fun-creating and totally anti-climactic.
Next up – horses! Awesome, amazing, beautiful Clydesdale horses that belong to my Uncle Bob, better known as UB around these parts. Addy and Crosby had the opportunity to up close to them, pet the them and feed them snacks. Crosby loved it and Addy, in her typically Addy way, would not touch them or feed them, just observe them. I am always surprised by what she finds fearful – 30′ water slide = no problem, horses = no way. I think they were just a bit too big for her comfort level.
So then we tried…ponies! And these she was totally ok with. Maybe it was realizing she’d missed a chance to touch a horse or that these looked like large puppies in comparison to the grandness of UB’s clydesdales, but she insisted on taking a ride.
Next up? Trains! Crosby is cuckoo-bananas for trains and has his very own language on the subject. Bumpy choo choo? Train tracks. Upa-down? Railroad crossing. He flips out whenever we go near them. So he got to ride on a very hip, antique electric train that was so pretty I could’ve lived in it.
And there was ice cream, which made it complete perfection.
And how ’bout the county fair! Who does not love a good, local county fair where ridiculously overpriced sugar and rides appear every 2 feet? We went with our old neighbors, Katie and Lydia, who have been the greatest regular summertime companions to us. We went all out, buying the kids wristbands for unlimited rides because like I said, goddamnit! We are going to have fun! And they did. Crosby was in heaven, jumping into every bouncing car and cutesy railroad train he could find. Addy rode her first roller coaster and every crazy fast, spinning, zig-zagging ride she was tall enough for.
We’ve also made a point to visit every park in the city limits, eat copious amounts of ice cream, go for daily bike rides and play with whoever is available on any given day, as well as complete rec dept. gymnastics. All in all, the summer’s been grand so far. Down to the last 4 weeks. Gotta make ’em good.
We are having such a fun summer with you guys!! I’m glad the girls are still so close, but we miss walking out the front door to play.
We love that you have a new blog update, and feel famous because we are on it. 🙂