Weekending it

Happy Monday! We hope you all had a nice holiday weekend and unofficial kick-off to summer!

Kip had an extra long weekend with Friday off as well from an unused snow day worked into the school calendar. Mandy and I took both kids to get fresh haircuts (Ivy's first!). 

On Saturday Kip had swim lessons.

Kip had requested we have a hamburger picnic because he suddenly remembered that the summer we moved to the house, we came to the park and had Wendy's. Unfortunately, there was a huge downpour so we couldn't eat outside but he settled for a picnic in the garage.

We spent the afternoon outside with the water table and bikes.

That evening Dan and I took Kip to his first friend birthday party for a classmate. It was 4-8 pm and a completely new experience for Kip (and us since we didn't know many people there). Kip was shy at first, got brave with dancing, got shy again, and then spent the rest of the party running around with his friends. He went to bed at 9 pm which is probably the latest he has ever gone to bed. Dan and I were hoping he would sleep in, but no. 5 am wake up call per usual. 

On Sunday, Mandy and I had to scramble to do our grocery shopping which we typically do Saturday nights. The rest of the day felt like endless chores and I was grateful that yesterday was a holiday to relax. We have some major summer heat right now so we pulled out the kid pool, sprinkler, and water table for some driveway fun. 

Later that afternoon, Dan and the kids built the "Disney World Castle" out of Legos. 

Patriotic dessert to end the long weekend. 

Snip-its of School - Spring

I love it when Kip's teacher shares photos with the parents. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall in his classroom. 

Here is a peek of some of what they were up to this spring.

I cannot believe in one month he will be promoted to Kindergarten!

Ivy's Monthly Photos

Here I go again with the tit for tat. I'm sharing Ivy's monthly photos from age one!!

See Kip's HERE.

I will say, Ivy was relatively compliant for these monthly photos. I only struggled with her last one and that was solved with some CocoMelon and toot noises. Sigh, the life of a girl with an older brother.

Is she not the sweetest thing? She has the softest features and is seriously such a gorgeous girl. Even better, her soul is like melted chocolate and just soaks right into you. 

On Ivy's first birthday she weighed about 22 pounds was nearly 32 inches tall! On her second birthday, she weighs 26 pounds and is 35 inches tall. She grew 3 inches and gained 4 pounds! She is tall and slender.

I'm so grateful for these photos and this cute girl.

The Aviary on My Balcony

I have a beautiful House Finch Mama bird who has made her nest in a crook of my balcony. Oddly, they built their nest in a "bird away" spike that I put in that spot to try to keep birds from nesting there. They just used the spike to serve as a support structure for the nest. Smart! 

I cannot see into the nest but I have a good view of the mama sitting all day. She flies away if she sees me but just goes a short distance away in a tree to keep watch and then comes back. Look at this crazy photo I got of her right as she was flying away.

One little egg somehow fell out of the nest and is broken on the balcony floor. So sad. But she must have others because she is diligent about sitting on her nest. It was such a pretty egg too, a really gray/blue with speckles.

Today I discovered some other bird plopped an egg in my basil plant. I have not seen a bird sitting here so hopefully this little egg wasn't randomly abandoned. It is perfectly whole. Earlier in the spring I kept catching mourning doves squatting in my strawberry plants. Maybe this is their egg? I hope the Mama comes back to it.

I don't really love birds or that they have taken over the balcony and I do try to establish our presence out there. But, I cannot do a whole lot once they make a nest and ultimately, it is really beautiful to see the hard-work of birds to raise their young each spring. Last year we watched a Mama Robin from the cloacal kiss (yes, I saw it) all the way through her babies leaving the nest. I've never see anything like that up close so it was fun to witness.

I need to clean the balcony off of all the pollen and tree caterpillar things but I'm worried about the Mama Finch getting scared away. Any bird experts out there? What should I do? Wait another 2 weeks or just do it quick?

Weekending it

We saw summer this weekend!!! It got up into the HOT 90s and it was woah...not sure anyone was quite ready to jump from a cool 50s/60s Spring to suddenly summer but we loved the dip into it. 

I got to take Kip to his swim lesson on Saturday (first for me!). His best bud from school was supposed to be in his class but she is actually a level ahead of him so that was a bummer. BUT! We got to say hi and wave at each other from the pool and walk part way home together. And I got some friend time too while chatting with her mom during the lesson.

Kip had a private lesson this week since no one else showed-up for his class. He is making slow progress but progress nonetheless!! Our community pool opens next weekend so I'm glad we will be able to work on his skills some with him.

He was chatting it up with his teacher and I couldn't hear a word of it, but it was cute to watch.

In the afternoon we set-up up the kiddie pool in the driveway along with the sprinkler and water table. The kids had a blast.

We followed it with a trip to the ice cream shop for the first time!

Sunday was equally hot but we spent most of the time inside. Kip and Ivy sometimes hit a cool groove with independent play and then the adults can relax. Ahhh, I've been looking forward to this.

Laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping rounded out the weekend.

Question. We all know there are stock and labor shortages but its just so random some of the stuff that is missing from shelves. Formula (eek!) and back in early 2020, the toilet paper shortage made sense. We've noticed weird stuff. Mandy and I have not been able to find frozen onions for over a month. We haven't seen frozen onion rings in nearly a year. What is happening to the onions??? Other random frozen vegetables are gone. What the heck? Also, coffee creamer. A specific type of Popsicle is gone. We recognize our privilege to even have access to food regularly and so obviously not having frozen onions is NOT a life problem. It's just weird the random stuff this is hitting. What are you missing?