July 1st was the start of our new school year, although technically we didn't start our new learning time activities until the next week.

It's amazing to see how much the kiddos have grown and progressed.

I love these first day of school pictures of each of them.

Bulldozer's obsession with chess continued on into the new month.  We'll be forever grateful for Grandpa Ron's willingness to play, every time he comes over.

Our fourth of July festivities kicked off on the 2nd with a parade in a neighboring community.  We started the evening with dinner at a friends home, and then all made our way to Main St. for the parade.

Once again we brought treats to keep the kiddos occupied while waiting.

The parade was very different than our Memorial Day parade and MUCH louder.  The kiddos all did well, although Sunshine ended up in my lap, needing me to cover her ears.

The kiddos were so excited to spend time with two of their friends at dinner, during the parade and after.  I wish I had taken pictures of their outdoor play when we returned from the parade.

Everyone loved the parade.  It was amazing with so many different bands and varying entertainers.

It definitely made up for the not so great Memorial Day parade.

Smiles were everywhere as the kiddos anticipated each new act, vehicle, and/or float.

When I went through my pictures, I was SUPER excited to find this fantastic picture of Sunshine and Daddy.

The next day, I learned that my camera was missing a key piece to keeping the batteries inside.  :(  From that point on I was very hesitant to take it anywhere.  I might lose more pieces and make it not operable.

We did all attend fireworks on the 3rd of July though, with our patriotic shirts and everything.  It was Princess and Sunshine's first time going.  Princess was a little frightened, but ended up enjoying them.  Sunshine was not frightened at all, and quite honestly had no interest in them.

The actual 4th of July we stayed at home.  All went well until bedtime when Sunshine started in on what would be a 5 hour raging fit.  Let's just say, I had to calm down a for a while when that was over.  I still can't quite figure out what caused it.  My only thought is that there was a build up combined with multiple trauma triggers?  Who knows.  I do know that we didn't go anywhere the next day, in hopes whatever was happening, she would recover from.

On July 6th, we spent the afternoon swimming at a friend's home.  In the evening, Jason took the boys to their first baseball game of the season.  Princess, Sunshine and I had a girls night at home with take out and a chick flick.  We all had a blast!

On July 8th, Princess started her summer gymnastics class.  Sunshine also started a one-to-one gymnastics summer program.  In the afternoon we went to A.C. Moore so the kiddos could Tie Dye a t-shirt as part of their free summer program.

Thursday, July 9th, the boys spent the afternoon at Bass Pro Shop participating in their summer workshops, learning how to shoot a gun and bow & arrow.  They had the time of their lives.  I was so proud of them for trying something completely new and foreign.  If only my camera wasn't broken I would have been able to take some fabulous pictures of this first time experience.  After the workshop at Bass Pro Shop the boys had their first summer science class at the library.  It was all about birds.  Everyone was quite in awe at Dinomite and Bulldozer's knowledge of birds.  The experience was definitely a confidence booster for their homeschool teacher (aka me).  If the boys hadn't already had enough fun, we headed to Bulldozer's first one-to-one gymnastics summer session.  His "friend" was very kind and invited Dinomite to join them.  The boys literally bounced around for an hour, before we finally headed home.

Saturday, July 11th the boys and I headed to the 1000 Islands to celebrate their cousin's 5th birthday.  We had hoped the girls could join us but their behaviors made it impossible to trust that they'd be okay in a social setting with so many other kiddos.  They still picked out gifts for their cousin though and received goodie bags when the boys and I returned home.

The birthday party took place at a local YMCA. The boys played basketball, played in a bounce house, enjoyed pizza, and lots of time with extended family.  It was so relaxing.

After the party we headed to my parents' home for the afternoon and evening.  We enjoyed loads more fun with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  The boys had SUCH a fabulous time.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself as well.

My parents cooked a delicious dinner for us, treated us to S'mores and ice cream, and then we headed home.

After being so busy for so long, we decided to relax a bit the next week in July.  We made a trip to the library.  We went swimming.  Princess and Bulldozer went to gymnastics classes, but that was it.

The week of July 20th, we spent a significant amount of time preparing for the kiddos annual birthday bash.  Princess, Sunshine, and Bulldozer still went to gymnastics.  The boys went to their summer science class at the library.  We did manage to fit in some time swimming.

 We also spent time at the park.

Then we worked hard to make sure everything was ready for all of our friends to come.  I'll show a few of my favorite pictures from the party here, but for all of the details, you'll want to be sure to read our Pirate Birthday Party post.

The party started at our home with dinner and cupcakes.

Then moved to a friend's home for swimming.

    When the thunderstorm started we returned home for more pirate fun.

I just LOVE this picture of Sunshine!

The last week in July flew by.  Princess, Sunshine and Bulldozer went to gymnastics.  Dinomite started private swimming lessons.  The boys attended their last science class at the library.  We had a blast swimming again.  Sunshine made HUGE progress leaving the steps of the pool to swim with Mommy, then realized she could touch in the shallow end.  She practiced kicking and using her arms.  Sunshine even decided to start jumping in the water and going under.  As long as she didn't have a life jacket on and Mommy was with her, she did great. The minute we put a life jacket on her, she flipped out.  Go figure.

Then Friday, it was Princess' birthday.  I can't believe she's six years old!

The morning started out with our tradition of cupcakes for breakfast.  We had several left over from the party the week before in the freezer, so I just used those.

After breakfast the kiddos watched the new Jake and the Neverland Pirate episode they'd been waiting on for weeks.  Then we surprised the them with a trip to a nearby water park for the day.

They had the time of their lives!  The weather was perfect.  We started out in the wave pool and then ate some lunch.

We moved on to the Splash Factory where the kiddos played and played.

Dinomite, Bulldozer, and Princess all decided to get drenched by the big bucket of water.  After the Splash Factory we headed to the water slides.  Dinomite is now tall enough to go on them by himself.  I was so impressed that he did so several times.

Princess, Bulldozer and Sunshine all took turns with Mommy and Daddy.  This proved to be the most difficult time of day for Sunshine, but she made it through the waiting, so we were excited.  We went on the Mammoth Raft Ride and Adventure River as a family, so I don't have pictures of those. Dinomite and Princess did not like the raft ride at all.  Bulldozer and Princess wanted to go on it again.  Then as we were relaxing on rafts in Adventure River, Sunshine decided she was going to scream the whole time.  I was finally able to get her calmed down about two-thirds of the way through the ride, but before then, she was quite challenging.  The funny thing was, that was the calmest most relaxing ride of them all.

After spending time in the wave pool one more time, we headed home.  Jason stayed at the house with Dinomite, Bulldozer and Sunshine, while I took Princess out for a birthday dinner at her favorite Chinese Restaurant.

We then headed to the movie rental store in town to pick up a new movie for our Friday night movie night.  Everyone relaxed and watched the movie and then went to bed.

What a fun birthday celebration and month of July we had!

That's Renae today!

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Renae Today: June

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My kiddos are growing up so fast.  Princess lost her first tooth in June, just a few months after Bulldozer lost his first tooth.  She was very proud!

June was the last month of our school year.  We had accumulated all of our hours and then some, so I decided to relax our schedule a bit and give our learning time room a makeover.  What I thought would take a weekend, took two weeks from beginning to end.  But, most of that two weeks was spent sorting through our learning time closet and organizing all of my shelves of supplies.

The kiddos helped with the sorting, which made the process a little less painful.

They also helped with the painting!  I must say, they did really well for their first time.

Pictures of the finished room will debuy in August!

Once a month we have grandparents come and babysit the kiddos so Jason and I can take a little break.  Grandpa Ron decided to teach the kiddos chess while he was here.  The boys both enjoy the game, but Bulldozer LOVES it.

He loves it so much that he wants to play it all the time.  The only problem is neither Jason or I play chess.  When he tries to play with Dinomite or Princess, they always fight and at least one kiddo ends up crying.

So, we've had to have Grandpa Ron come over more often to play with Bulldozer to make sure he gets his chess fix, but also so everyone can learn the rules.

Bulldozer is very big into celebrations.  He finds any excuse he can to gather people together to have fun and eat great food,  In June he decided we were going to have a Summer Celebration.  We invited quite a few people, but the end of June is a very busy time of year and only a few were able to come.  Still Bulldozer was thrilled.

Everyone met at a local park with a playground and beach.

Sunshine was thrilled Grandpa Ron came.

Princess LOVED the playground, especially the twirly slide.

Dinomite and Bulldozer enjoyed playing with one of their favorite friends.

Sunshine LOVED the chance to practice her climbing skills.

Even the littlest of friends enjoyed the playground.

Everyone LOVED "the spinning ride," as the kiddos call it.

They definitely burned some energy while playing.

After a bit of play, everyone gathered round the picnic table for summer salads, turkey sandwiches, fruits, chips and desserts.

 Everything was fantastic!

Each of the kiddos picked out a dessert to make.  Dinomite chose lemon cookies.  Bulldozer made S'mores bars.  Princess chose strawberry shortcake kabobs.  I made peach cobbler for Sunshine.

The kiddos did okay while eating, but they were so anxious to start swimming that the meal portion of our celebration was a little bit rushed.  Still they had fun.  You can see Grandma Rose at the end of the table with the kiddos.

Once to the beach area, we met up with a few more friends, who had missed the first portion of our celebration.  The kiddos swam and had a grand time.

Some preferred to be in the water, others preferred to stay at water's edge.

Bulldozer decided that this would be the year he'd finally get his head wet!

Here are a few other friends of the kiddos.

Though nap time, the little ones continued to play.

Even the littlest guy seemed to enjoy himself.

Bulldozer's celebration was a success and definitely left him wanting more celebrations.  Lol.

It just so happened that the drive-in was playing Inside Out and Jurassic World a few days after our party.  The opportunity wasn't one to be missed, so we piled all the kiddos in van, including a friend and went to the drive-in.  It was a first time for our kiddos.  Jason and I thought they'd fall asleep before Jurassic World started, but almost everyone was awake and was determined to watch it.

We packed dinner to bring with us to eat before the show started.

Everyone did so well while waiting.

Princess was particularly excited as she desperately wanted to see Inside Out.

The kiddos had a blast practicing their emotions before the show started.  Can you tell which one is which?

I worried how Sunshine would do at the drive-in, but once she was cuddled up with Mommy she did great.  She fell asleep during the first show, and again during part of the second, but settled right in again both times!

The kiddos moved to the car towards the end of first movie because they were cold and the bugs were out.  I was worried that people might not be able to see, but they all did and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Everyone was tired, but determined to finish Jurassic World.

It was definitely a night to remember!  I'm sure we'll be heading to the drive-in again when they play two different movies we want to see.

I can't forget to mention another huge accomplishment this month for one of our kiddos.  Sunshine is now putting together 12 piece puzzles!  This is HUGE and definitely not expected.  We're so proud of her!  Everyone is growing up so fast.

That's Renae today!

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