Adley Day

We were so excited that Grammy was feeling well enough this summer to host grandchildren days with the kids. Jaden, Cody, and Adley look forward to their special day all year! What a treat it is for them to have one-on-one time with Grammy and Papa and to choose the activities all day long.

Adley was our first child to have her special "Adley Day." Grammy and Papa took some wonderful photos during the day. Here are Adley's explanations of what she did:

I am digging in the sand pit. I am making a sand castle.

That's my sand castle. It's made with a bucket.

Papa is cleaning off my feet from the rain. I got really wet.

I am doing sand art and making my giraffe. I like sand art.

That's me taking a picture of my giraffe because it's so fun.

I am reading books with Papa and Grammy. They have a hide and seek book about a fox and a doggy.

I am doing my snack. I put in marshmallows and chocolate chips and I don't know... oh, and gummy bears. It was good.

I am eating my snack.

I am making a cake with Grammy.

I am cracking eggs and licking off the batter. It was so yummy.

I am doing a jungle puzzle.

I watched Veggie Tales on the Road.

I am eating lunch. It was good. I liked eating strawberries.

Adley had an absolutely wonderful day!! Thanks, Grammy and Papa, for loving her and spoiling her this summer!

June Misc

Chef Cody

For his birthday, Cody was thrilled to receive a "Baking Book for Young Chefs" cookbook from Grammy and Papa. He excitedly flipped through the pages and marked several recipes that he wanted to try. He made three different recipes in just over a week. The cookbook was set up in a way that Cody could read and follow many of the steps on his own. The first recipe he chose was Jam Thumbprint cookies. This was a bit complex for his first recipe, but he did a great job!

 

Cody loved the taste and was so proud of the cookies he made! He even asked to bring a few over to Grammy and Papa's house right away so they could sample his first recipe.

Next, Cody tried out a snack recipe called S'more Banana Boats.

What a unique snack! Cody LOVED the topping on these banana boats but wasn't a huge fan of the actual banana part-- ha! Definitely an interesting recipe to try.

Cody's next recipe was for Chewy Gingerbread People. I realized too late in the game that, despite owning over 50 cookie cutters, I don't have any great gingerbread men shapes. Bummer! Cody was a great sport about it and decided to use two different cookie cutters--a bear and a flower--instead. He found the process of rolling and cutting out the dough a bit tiresome. ("You mean we have to roll out the dough AGAIN?") He stuck with it to the end, though!

The next day, after the cookies were fully cooled, Cody used frosting to add some decoration to his gingerbread cookies. After all this work, unfortunately, Cody decided he didn't like the strong taste of molasses and couldn't even down an entire cookie. Nevertheless, he seemed to still be proud of what he had made!

Creator Jaden

One day, Jaden spent quite some time building with Tinker Toys to come up with this beautiful building/castle. Gotta love these timeless toys!

Rain-Loving Adley

This girl loves her umbrella and her rainboots! She wants to play with them rain or shine. So, when we got a light rain one morning this month, I suggested that we take our umbrellas out and walk in the rain. Adley didn't hesitate!

Puddling jumping was a blast!

Sign-Toting Grandkids

My mom continues to receive chemo infusions every other week, but due to the coronavirus concerns, our family can't accompany her to these 4+ hour sessions any longer. So, during one of her infusions this month, I decided to surprise her with some parking lot visitors. We had an appointment that morning less than 10 minutes from the cancer center, so it was easy for us to stop by and "visit." I had the kids hold signs saying We Love You (which unfortunately didn't turn out quite dark enough!) and stand just below the cancer center building. I called Mom and asked if she could find a nearby window. The nurses helped her walk down the hallway with her IV bags, and then we were able to see one another out the window! We loved being able to surprise Grammy and add a bit of cheer to her infusion day.

Cousins Serving Others

My sister regularly signs her family up to help prepare items for their church's food pantry. This month, she asked our kids to join in too. My kids love any excuse to play with their cousins, so they readily agreed. We spent the first part of our morning packing bags full of beans, then rice, and then organizing oatmeal packets.

The kids all worked hard...

...and accomplished a lot!

Swimming Lessons

We signed our kids up for private swim lessons this summer with Ms Amber, a friend of my sister's. Ms Amber did an amazing job teaching all three of our kids. It was remarkable seeing the kids' progress over the course of 6 lessons. At the first lesson, Adley was with Jaden and Cody, which we quickly learned wasn't the best setup. Thankfully Adley was able to switch to be with another 3-year-old for the next sessions.

Unfortunately, even though Adley has always loved being in the water, she wasn't a big fan of the lessons. At all. She was pretty much either whining or full out crying every time. See her sad little expressions?? The poor girl eventually gave up calling out for me (since I never came to her rescue) and whined for Daddy the whole time. So sad.

 Surprisingly, though, despite all her fussiness, Adley still listened to Ms. Amber and followed all of her instructions. She may not have ever been happy to get in the pool, but she sure made some rockstar progress! By the end of the third week, Adley even swam across the short length of the pool all by herself. It was remarkable! We were very grateful for Ms. Amber's patience and expertise with crying students like Adley and for our little girl's strong determination too!

Here is a video of Adley from the first week of lessons. This will demonstrate just how much progress she made by the end.

Ms. Amber emphasized safety by always telling the kids to "swim to the wall" if they ever fell into a pool. Here is Adley's first successful "swim to the wall."

And finally-- Adley's successful trip across the pool! I think she suprised us all. Woo-hoo, Adley!

On the last week, Ms. Amber helped Adley jump into the pool before swimming to the edge.

Jaden and Cody have several years of lessons under their belt, so they mainly just needed to work on their technique. Ms. Amber helped the boys kick more smoothly and how to breathe more effectively. Both boys grew in confidence with the various strokes and even (kind of!) learned the butterfly stroke.

Here is a video of them swimming on week 1:

Here is the freestyle stroke a bit further into lessons:

And the backstroke:

At the end of many of their lessons, Ms. Amber let the boys do cannonballs or other silly jumps into the pool. They absolutely LOVED this!

The boys also worked a bit on diving.

With our crazy Covid-changed world, we were so thankful that lessons were still an option this summer. We were very pleased with all that our three kids accomplished.