Fun summer activities

We've done lots of fun summer things the past few weeks. Besides swimming at the pool with Gampa, riding the horses, and just playing/walking outside in general, we've gotten to do the following:

 

Story time... Killian found his friend Chase as story time, and they promptly sat down next to each other.

 

And then held hands :)

This was 2 year old story time... We tried 3 year old story time last week and he LOVED it. Sadly he won't be at my house for this week's 3 year old story time (which is the last story time of the summer). But it did remind him of school, and he's been talking about going back to 3 year old school with "all my 3 year old friends". 

 

Silly string! I bought this on a whim and he loved it.. though he was confused as to what it was.

 

The jeep got "silly stringed" and really needs to be hosed off.

 

Killian was in a children's parade. he LOVED having people look at him and he really loved decorating his bike/helmet. Here he's wrapping streamers around his bike "all by mine self"

 

His helmet. Yes.. I let him decorate with only my help of ripping the tape off the dispenser. I think it's more fun that way.

 

I was surprised when I asked him what he wanted to dress up as and he said knight. I was expecting pirate. But he did the knight costume. And I was happy to have tons of people ask me where I got his costume :) I got to say " I made it "

 

Riding his bike in the parade. He actually rode it the whole way (both ways).

 

They gave out balloons along the way.. so we stopped and got a sword. Little girls dressed as princesses kept saying to Killian "You are a knight in shining armor!" Killian saw a boy dressed as a dragon and he said "mama, do dragons eat knights?" I told him yes and he said "I'm gonna fight that dragon" Luckily he didn't really :)

 

At the end of the parade they had a little party in the park. We stayed long enough to get a tattoo and a freezy.. Killian's first ever.

 

Killian got a playhouse. He's been asking me for about a month for a playhouse. And since we're broke this summer, I kept telling him no, but keeping my eye out for a cheap one. Well.. this one was at Shopko for 47.00 on clearance! AND we had a 10 dollars off coupon so we got it for 37.00. I couldn't pass it up. I set it up at night, and he woke up to it in the living room.

 

I put it on the porch.. and Killian promptly got his broom and cleaned the floor. He loves that it has a mailbox and door bell. I put some mail in the mailbox, and he asked me if the mailman delivered it there :)

 

We've had countless rainy days, and what's better to do on rainy days than to dress up? Remember my story about the alligator vs. Pirate? Well I FINALLY got some pictures of him all decked out :)

 

And this is the alligator and pirate

 

This weekend, we went up to the lake for some swimming fun. Killian and Stella spent literally 2 hours chasing each other in the water, finding and chasing frogs together, discovering raspberries in the woods, and digging in the sand (Stella's favorite past time). It made me SOO happy to see my boy and his dog playing together. It made me realize that he doesn't need a sibling.. a dog works just as well. Anyways, we stopped by my grandparent's cabin (only a 10 min. drive from ours) to see my dad's side of the family.. they're up every weekend so I didn't bother to call ahead. WELL, we got there to find that NO one was there! UGH. However, they have an adorable playhouse in the woods that Killian found and played with.

 After playing, we decided that we might as well swim at their house as well. Their water is deeper than ours is, so Killian had fun jumping off the dock and swimming "all by mineself"

 

In the water, we found a hug water beetle.  YUCK! But I let Killian pick it up and dissect it. He was very interested.. as was Stella. She was desperately trying to eat it. Disgusting dog.

 

As if two cabins wasn't enough.. we headed home to go to a party at my mom's friend's house. She had 2 pools set up and a huge water slide. Killian enjoyed the small pool because no big kids bothered him in it.

 

But he also liked the big water slide too!

 

AND he liked the giant sand box. Diggers + sand = heaven

 

My mom recently bought 9 hens from the women we were both buying our local eggs from. Well one hen became broody, so she got some fertilized eggs from a friend... and they hatched yesterday/today. Killian LOVED holding them.

 

And then he got nervous and dropped it.. it was ok. And the mama didn't peck Killian (much to my surprise and pleasure)

 

Then he collected "lots and lots" (7) eggs for the day. He keeps telling me that we need to buy a BIG house so we can have chickens and turkeys and he can collect the eggs. I keep reminding him that we will eat both the chickens and the turkeys. He seems ok with the idea.. but we'll see when the time comes. 

Killian's done a few other fun summer time activities but without me. He went to EAA with his dad and Messy Fest at the park. I wish I could have gone... but maybe next year. I'm so sad that the summer is almost over. However, our garden is doing well. Killian helped pull up LOTS of beets and carrots. We have tons of beans, more swiss chard than I know what to do with, tomatoes, onions and celery. The broccoli didn't do very well. I'm praying my potatoes are doing well ( the green part is.. I just don't know about the potatoes underneath).

Milwaukee Zoo

I  took Killian to the Milwaukee Zoo last weekend... on a 100 degree day! It was TONS of fun.. but also hot.

 

We brought the wagon... I bought it a year ago, and never could really use it because it wouldn't fit in the trunk. But with my new prius... it fits :)

 

Killian took pictures with my camera :) Good thing it's so cheap that if he broke it, I'd have a good excuse to buy one that takes decent photos.

 

He loved the apes and monkeys.. though he kept telling me that they were all monkeys. He wouldn't accept that some didn't have tails and were classified as apes.

 

Watching orangutans.. it was a mother and baby snugglying. SOOO cute. 

 

He was also convinced that he could read the map and tell us where to go.

 

My son is CRAZY about snakes, lizards, reptiles (YUCK). SO he loved the reptile and amphibian room. And in there were 2 alligators (or at-a-ga-tas) as he calls them. And alligators are the arch enemy of pirates. So here he was telling the alligators to "come get me. I'm a piate."

YUCK>>> he loves snakes so much

 

We also saw a seal and sea lion show. I now know the difference, and we've since read many books where they feature a sea lion and call him a seal. Interesting that people don't check their facts huh? Anyways... here he is pretending to be the sea lion. He's still doing this in the bath tub.. telling me to be his trainer. It gets very wet/messy.

 

In the butterfly room.. the Milwaukee Zoo's special exhibit right now. A butterfly landed on my head. Bean was very jealous, and tried desperately to "call" the butterflies to him. Sadly, none landed on him.

 

He loved the farm section. He keeps telling me that he wants to "pull milk out of a cow's nipple and drink it". 

 

This was our life saver. They had mist sprayers all over, and Killian would run in, sit there until his clothing was drenched, and then he'd dry off in 20 min.

 

 

Yes.. he got to ride a camel. Which, he now informs me is his favorite animal. (he's so into the word "favorite" right now. He keeps asking me what my favorite song is, my favorite color, etc.) 

 

He told me it was no big deal to ride a camel cuz it was just like riding his pony, Little Bear.

 

He also loved the "big cats". Here's the cheetah. If anyone hasn't seen the new DisneyNature movie African Cats.. you NEED to. Killian asked me if the Cheetah's baby was eaten by the hyena like in the movie. I was pleased to tell him that at the zoo, nothing got eaten unless the zookeeper wants it to be eaten.

 

Before we left, we had to see "killian's hippos". Though he told me I was very silly for calling them hippopotamuses. He says they're only called hippos. I have such an argumentative child. Anyways, he's (and these are his words) "just sticking mine head through this little hole so I can see mine hippos".

 

After FIVE hours of pulling/walking around, I was exhausted. So he took a turn pulling the wagon.

I got VERY sick from the heat and the walking that night, but we had so much fun. I'm thinking that we'll have to make the Milwaukee Zoo a yearly trip. We're hoping the hit up the Milwaukee Museum in August. I loved going there with my grandparents when I was a kid, and I know Killian will find it fascinating.

July's Half over???

Wow! I can't believe we're half-way through July! Which means we're half-way through summer. SOO sad. :(

So what have we been up to? It's been pretty low-key... swim lessons, story time, play dates, tree house fun, and lots and lots of appointments.

Starting with swim lessons. Killian passed out of his tadpoles class! YAY! Today was "fun day", and he loved going down the slide with his teacher Mr. Eric:

 Can you spot him up on top waiting for his turn? See his hands on his hips?

 Then he played in the fountain:

 And practiced walking on his hands:

Storytime:

Killian LOVES storytime at the library. They do a puppet show at the end of every story time, and first they do "Down by the bay" with puppets. Well... this has become Killian's favorite song, and he does his own version of down by the bay. Including things such as: have you ever seen a little girl playing pirate dress up? have you ever seen a penguin wearing a santa hat.. I mean birthday hat? and my personal favorite: have you ever seen a monkey looking at me? hahahaha he does it all with his vast collection of puppets and his puppet stage that I found at goodwill for 2.00.

play dates:

We've seen a few friends lately. Killian loves his friends :) I finished up teaching Wiggles and Giggle (so sad), and Killian LOVED having his friends there. :) 

Tree house fun:

Gammie's worked hard to finish up the tree house. It's not completely finished yet, but ALMOST. Killian's already spent hours playing in it. Here's what it's looking like so far:

 Once the railing gets finished on this side, he'll have a little window and we're going to attach a small box full of fish so he can fish out the window :) Stay tuned for a video/pictures of the finished tree house when it gets finished.

Lots and lots of appointments:

Killian had his first eye doctor and dentist appointments. He did great for both.. though he did NOT like the drops at the eye doctor.  His eyes are great... a little farsighted, but the doctor says that's normal for his age. His teeth are good... though his dad and I need to brush by his gums a little better.
I have a few pictures from the dentist appointment:

This past weekend we had LOTS of fun at the zoo/waterpark..... watch for a post later on . :)