Summer Playtime

A good portion of our summer days have simply been spent at home. With Adley being so young, it's often easier for me to address her needs from the comfort of our home. Thankfully, Cody and Jaden truly enjoy their time at home and are at a stage of life in which they play fairly well together. This is when having twins is such a blessing! I enjoy seeing their creativity as they play, too. Here are a few recent playtime activities:

Wild Kratts

Cody and Jaden are obsessed with this PBS show. It's such a good one, as it's taught them SO many random facts about animals. Definitely a Mommy-approved show. :) For their birthday, Cody and Jaden received these Wild Kratts creature power suits from Grammy and Papa. The suits have been such a hit in our household. It's cute to see and hear the boys act out scenes from the show.

Stuffed Animals

Cody and Jaden have had a renewed interested in their puppets and other stuffed animals this summer. At the beginning of the summer, the boys put on a few puppet shows. They've given each of the animals names (some practical ones like "Stinky" the skunk or "Humpy" the camel, but others very random like "Star of the State" and "Star of the Country" for their look-alike dalmatians or "Bongo Stingerhead" for a small dog). These animals appear all over our home doing all kinds of things! My favorite was the day the boys stuck smaller animals inside each of the puppets and said that they were all pregnant! :)

The Goods Restaurant

One morning after playing with Magnatiles, the boys called me upstairs to show me the collection of food they had created.

They wanted me to order food from them, but I kept forgetting all of their options. When I suggested creating a menu for their restaurant, Jaden and Cody jumped right on board. I have never seen them work so hard on writing their letters! They even came up with a name for their restaurant (The Goods) and made a sign for the door.

Here is their restaurant menu.

The boys were so eager to have Daddy visit their restaurant when he came home from work. Daddy was quite impressed with the menu... and the great service!

In addition to this creative at-home playtime, we've also met some friends and family for some playdates away from home this month:

Family Gatherings

The playmates that Cody and Jaden see most often are their cousins. As of May when my brother and sister-in-law moved to Texas, we now have ALL of the boys' cousins (from both sides of the family) living in the same area. Woo-hoo! :) I love knowing that our boys are developing such close bonds with all these great kiddos. Here are the Walquist side grandkids:

And the Schleicher side grandkids:

Children's Museum

This museum is starting to be at the upper end of Cody and Jaden's interest level, but they still seemed to enjoy themselves well enough on this particular visit. We attended with our young neighbor Jack, who was visiting the museum for the first time, so Cody and Jaden him showed him the ropes of what to do.

Bowling

Towards the end of the month we met some of our life group friends at the bowling alley. Jaden wanted to use the ramp for most of his frames.

Cody was determined to roll the ball on his own. I was so worried that he would drop the ball on his foot (or drop the ball behind him!), but he did okay. Throwing the ball this way gave it some good speed.

Both boys were very interested in watching their scores appear on the screens. They are certainly growing to be competitive little guys.

The kids at the lane: Jaden, Ella, Cody, Andrew, Brie, Ellie

Splash Pad

And, of course, in the Houston summers we frequent various splash pads as regularly as we can! This trip was Adley's first time. She didn't particularly enjoy the cold water.

Or perhaps she didn't like that her 6-9 month swimming suit was already too small for her! :)

Adley's older brothers had a blast with their friends, though!

Grandpa and Grandma Time

Also this month, we had the pleasure of spending time with Grandpa and Grandma who traveled down to Texas after our new nephew Noah's birth. Although Grandpa and Grandma stayed with Noah's family, they spent a few afternoons at our house for some playtime. Grandma brought over a new matching puzzle that Jaden and Cody enjoyed.

Grandma and Grandpa thought that 3-month-old Adley looked quite a bit bigger than the 1-month old Adley that they held on their last visit to Texas!

Jaden and Cody taught Grandma and Grandpa their new favorite game of the summer-- Outfoxed. It's a super cute Clue-type game that our whole family has enjoyed playing. Some days the boys will play 8-10 times. Obviously, they love it!

They played an old favorite together too-- Chutes and Ladders.

Grandma read a few books to Jaden and Cody as well. This particular one, Mr. Tuggles Troubles, was a recent favorite from the library. Thanks for spending time with us, Grandma and Grandpa!

We are certainly enjoying our summer days!