School's Out For Summer!!

There's really no excuse for my blogging negligence this time! It's completely because we have been having SO much fun since school let out, that in the evenings after Ella goes to bed (and after getting everything tidied up after partying hard inside and out throughout the day), Adam and I are so tired as well that it's nice to just relax!...BUT we have been busy taking pictures!

We finished up our last week of school last week, and had a few projects at the beginning of this week (we had to put in one summer work day at school that we wanted to get out of the way, and then Adam and I were asked to develop a curriculum for the Life Skills classes we teach - kind of like 'home ec' - that turned out great!). We started our official 'summer' Wednesday because we had all of that done - plus our first TRUE summer day (Monday) began with a busted water heater in our house, so it was too hectic to really feel like the first day of break!
But we have had SUCH a great time spending our days playing! After we finished everything up on Wednesday we spent some time with Adam's grandparents who have been SO great to us with helping to babysit Ella! I've said it before and I'll say it again that we are SO lucky to have them! On Friday we had a 'pool play date' with some friends who live in a neighborhood that has a really nice swimming pool. Then today, we got some things done around here - washed the car, recycling, etc. - and then went over to another friend's house to play!

One of our favorite things to do during the day (when we are not at other people's houses having play dates :-)) - is to SWIM! We have turned the heat completely off in our hot tub, and it makes for a perfect swimming pool for Ella! She LOVES the water as you can see in the pictures above and below! The other day she saw her swim robe hanging in her room, and gave it to me (asking if I would put it on her) and after she had it on, she headed straight out the door and said 'pool'! AND - if that's not enough - she saw me with my bathing suit on as we were getting ready to go to the pool play date and immediately started saying 'pool, pool'!

In the evening (just about every evening) before bedtime (which for Ella is 8 - with the 'routine' starting at 7:30) we get out the stroller and stroll around the neighborhood through the alleyways on a 'dog hunt' as Ella and I call it. Ella really enjoys being pushed in her stroller to go through the neighborhood looking for dogs! Of course, they always come up and bark, and the louder they bark and higher they jump the more she laughs - one would think she may get scared but NO WAY!! We love doing this as a family - the evenings have been so beautiful with awesome temperatures!

And finally, we have been influenced (and inspired I should say because children's toy are SO expensive if to buy from the store) by our friends who are frequent yard salers! (I posted about them a few weeks ago when Ella was playing with her baby doll stroller that came from a yard sale) Adam was out and about this morning and saw that a house down the street was having a yard sale with some children's toys and this toy kitchen (Little Tykes even!) was a great deal! Ella LOVES playing with it! We have started going through her toys and rearranging everything - putting/giving away things she has outgrown - it's so hard to keep up between her outgrowing clothes and toys so fast!

Next week - a week from today we are headed to the beach!! We are going to Sunset Beach (http://sunsetnc.com/) which is where my family went when I was growing up. We can't wait for our first family vacation! I'm sure we will be taking lots of videos and pictures for me to post when we get back!!