Monthly Archives: July 2018

Our weather lately has been forcing us to spend time indoors. We have had poor air quality due to surrounding fires, severe thunderstorms in the afternoons, and extremely hot weather! As much as we enjoy being outside I think we all needed some time inside and we found plenty to do.

Jordan still loves to paint and I realized with our swimming daily, playing outside, and heading to the library I haven’t created many opportunities for him to paint. My husband had recently bought some poster boards for a project but realized they were the wrong size so I quickly snagged them up and put some painters tape on them and let the boys go for it. Even though Jonathan is more into building Legos he still will participate in activities like this which I love. They thought this project was pretty cool and were very proud of their final results!

Another, great indoor activity that the boys have been enjoying is making paper airplanes from this book that one of their Aunt’s bought for them. They received it in the mail just the other day so it was great timing! The patterns are so beautiful and the airplanes fly very well. So far we have several flying around the house at all times and a few are scattered in lights hanging that we can’t reach or windows. I’m sure all 100 birds will be scattered throughout the house very soon (thanks Aunty D 😉)!

So lastly, when the boys tire of art and airplanes their imaginations take off and they create an epic battle using various toys. It’s quite entertaining to watch them and I think they enjoy setting the scene the most. They find toys they haven’t played with in months, army guys, toy cars and trucks, and action figures and let the battle begin! The cleanup is their least favorite, but it seems to be worth it since it has been happening several days in a row. I love their creativity and imaginative play!

Being stuck inside hasn’t been too bad we have all agreed, but we are not ready for Summer to be over and are making the last few weeks count by swimming or playing outdoors!

What do your kiddos do when they have to stay indoors? Also, who is on the countdown for Orange is the New Black??!!! Hope you all are enjoying your Summer!

Our sweet Jasmine turned one and I am still in shock that our little lady is one!! Seriously, where does the time go??!! We ended up having her party in our backyard. We swam, grilled, and ate lots of cake. It was the perfect way to celebrate!!!

Jasmine is growing up so quickly and reaching all sorts of milestones. She can say several words so far, momma, dada, baby, hi, go, and loves to wave to people. She is slowly growing out of the phase of people other than her immediate family looking and talking to her without bursting into tears. She is walking all over the place and I feel completely outnumbered most days! She gives the absolute best hugs and squeezes your neck so tight (I hope that never ends!). She has almost ten teeth and loves to eat rice, fresh strawberries, grapes, basically everything that we are eating (cut up in tiny pieces). I’m still breastfeeding and I swear I keep saying I’m ready to transition, but I’m just not ready to end our journey and that special bond. She still wakes up at least two times throughout the night to nurse and I do enjoy the quiet time together even though I’m a walking zombie (but that is the norm once you have kids right, what is sleep?!!). Jasmine loves to go for walks and loves to swim and splash around in the pool! She is getting braver each swim and my husband and I joke she will be swimming before Jordan! She always has something in her hands, mainly whatever toys her brothers were playing with, she has a way of getting what she wants already!

We have her one-year-old check-up with her pediatrician next week so I will update her weight/height at a later time, but I guess she will be in the 90th percentile in height (hoping she might be my basketball player, fingers crossed).

Bib/  Table cover / High chair / Jasmine’s High chair banner and cake topper handmade by myself/

Jasmine was enjoying having all eyes on her while we sang her Happy Birthday. She would smile from ear to ear. Once her cake was in front of her she kept looking at us for reassurance that it was ok to dive into. She started off very carefully, but by the end, the cake was everywhere! It was an easy cleanup since we were outside.

Happy Birthday sweet Jazzy! We love you to pieces and are so lucky to have you!!!

Summer is a time for family, outdoors, late-nights, tan lines, and yummy food! I want to eat yummy food, but want minimal cleanup and don’t want hours spent in the kitchen, I know I may be asking for a lot, right?! I have found recently that I love the idea of platter dinners. I love the fact that you can throw several different foods on a platter and let everyone decide what they want. We have been grilling our meat (chicken drumsticks and steak below), boiling some eggs, and throwing various vegetables for sides. Also, cooking some bacon and adding that to the platter is a huge hit with the boys! All in all the platter meals are very quick which is a major win. The grilling is nice because we are outside anyways so it doesn’t necessarily feel like cooking. Prep your meat per your liking, wash your greens and vegetables really well, boil your eggs while you’re doing a little chopping and throw it all on. Simple, easy, and tasty!

Another quick and easy meal I stumbled upon at our local grocery store is a pasta kit, which you can totally create yourself, but I was in a hurry and thinking well this will be easy for tonight since I am always scrambling nine times out of ten with dinner ideas. The boys are not fans of pasta salads so I am still on the search for one that they might enjoy. Suggestions? However, for lunches, these are a great meal that I enjoy. I had some Dutch French bread and sliced peaches. It is a light, delicious meal. We also, do a lot of sandwiches for lunches in the summer. I bought some croissants the other day and made turkey, ham, and salami sandwiches for the boys and they enjoyed the change. I think as the seasons change eating what’s in season is always best and just changing something as easy as bread can make the same ole meals have a new appearance as well as a different taste.

What are you cooking this Summer? I hope you have a great rest of your week!

Happy 4th of July!!! We celebrated the fourth at home which is my kind of celebrating. My husband had to work so it was just me and the kiddos for most of the day. We started our day off with some pancakes and strawberries. I told the boys they could have a water balloon fight the night before and they woke up asking what time they could have the water balloon fight.

Soon after breakfast, we were dressed and outside filling up balloons! I thought the water balloons were the ones you hook up to the hose and 30 plus are filled in seconds, but I was mistaken. We had to fill each balloon individually. The boys had an assembly line where Jonathan filled the balloon, I tied them and Jordan placed them gently in the bucket. They had a nice system working and they had almost as much fun filling the balloons as they did throwing them at each other. They were completely soaked!

Jasmine was all smiles while she watched her big brothers run around, dodging balloons, and getting wet! I know she can’t wait until the day she can run around and join the fun!

After the boys were all dry and we had lunch we attempted to craft some Fourth of July rockets out of toilet paper rolls. They painted them, cut stars out, and stuffed them with tissue. We followed this template!

Star Garland from Etsy (similar here) / Captain America hat / Jordan’s shirt (old from the GAP) / Jasmine’s headband / My shirt from Hello Apparel

Overall we had a great Fourth of July! I hope yours was fun filled as well!