it is finally summmmmmmmer!

it's really no secret that i love summer.  in fact the amazing summer's out here are what get me through the long and cold 'springs'.  sorry colorado i don't really think you can call it spring when you're still dumping snow all over the ground.  anyway, it's felt like summer since our last snow on mothers day (horrible present by the way) and we have been enjoying every last bit of our warm weather.  

ellie has finally gotten over her hatred of the stroller and will now ride for a while (and usually falls asleep, which is an extra bonus) so we've been back to taking our usual walks that i missed oh so much.  and it only took me about 5 months to feel like the double stroller purchase was worthwhile but now i am so happy that we have it and i really love it.  we've even walked to the pool with both kids in it and loaded it down with all of our pool gear and it did great.  it's a little tricky to get into the back of the car.  our jeep juuuuust barely fits the stroller in the back and it's not the easiest thing to move around but it can be done.  unless we're going somewhere like the zoo or to boulder to walk along the creek and playground hop we usually just use our umbrella stroller for avery and the ergo for ellie.  anyway, henry always comes with us on our walks too and i promise avery that we'll stop at the playground at the end of our walk, which helps keep her complaining to a minimum.  sometimes she even falls asleep too and then i get a few minutes of quiet.  :)

i made avery her first ice cream cone the other day and she definitely approved.  she insisted that i keep reapplying sprinkles throughout the entire process.  we also finally have organic strawberries and blueberries at the store and have been eating a lot of fruit.  we even made strawberry pancakes for the first time and they turned out pretty good.  they were really sweet so i think the syrup is optional on these guys.  and we've also used our popsicle molds a few times and avery is definitely a fan.  i just froze juice for these but i know there's a bunch of different recipes for popsicles all over the internet.  the only downside to the popsicles is how messy they are.  they definitely require a bath or a dip in the water table right afterwards.

we've been hiking a few times and avery even did her first 'solo hike' where she climbed the whole way up to red rocks by herself.  she did great and was so cute when she had to stop and find a rock to sit on for a water break and a snack.  ellie's also done really well.  i've just kept her in the ergo and she'll usually sleep for at least part of the hike.  i've tried to move her to my back in the ergo but she wasn't having it so she's still facing forward.  there's still a few hikes that i'd like to do by the end of the summer but we'll see how ambitious we get.  right now i think the longest that we've done with the kids is around 3.5 miles.

we've also just spent a lot of time hanging out in our yard.  avery loves throwing the ball to dunkin and playing in the water table, although it's not as exciting for her as it was last year i think.  her favorite game to play outside is to take off all of her clothes and sit in the water table and dump water all over herself.  and when she gets chilly she requests a towel to wrap herself up in (she calls it a paper towel) and warms up in the sun.

  

our 'family' (ellie, too!).  please note that i am apparently the laziest walker of our group.

we also managed to make it back to the museum of nature and science the other week.  and this time the discovery zone was actually open and avery had a blast playing in it.  i'm definitely thinking this will be a great place to take her in the winter when we need to get out of the house.  it doesn't hurt that it's very dino focused and avery is really into dinos these days.  she 'dug for bones', played in an awesome water table, built things with blocks, showed ellie a thing or two, and we watched a dino show that she was really into before we checked out two other exhibits and left.  there were a lot of other things there that were geared more towards older kids so it's kind of nice that there's lots of room to grow there.  also, they have older kids as volunteers and they did a great job getting the little kids involved in the activities and showing them what to do.  

we've also managed to take a few naps, head to the pool (although it's been mostly a little chilly for the pool in my opinion), and grill some meals.  i love grilling because it means we always eat really healthy and also charlie does most of the work.  :)

thanks for being so awesome, summer.  i'm hoping to stretch the rest of you out as long as possible and i'm in no hurry for fall even if avery is already asking for 'trick-or-treat books'.