It's been nice to have some lazy mornings at home. We also implemented a summer chart that has worked really well. Each kid has 5 things to do each day.
The Girls: Read to Mom/Dad, practice Violin/Piano, read to themselves, do a workbook page or journal page and one chore of my choosing.
Jaron: Read to Mom/Dad, workbook or journal, Practice his speech, Learn his site words and one chore of my choosing.
For each thing they do they get 1 point, for a total of 30 points each week. I don't force them to do any of it. If they want to earn points than that is what they do. They also get no tablet time that day unless these things are done. Then we have things they can get with their points. They can save them up for something big or use them on something small. Some of the things are date with mom or dad, extra tablet time, candy bar, save up for a certain toy they want, etc. It's worked really good and except for the week Christy was in town they've been 100%. :)
All in one day we had all 3 kids start something new for the first time. Siena started piano lessons, Aria violin lessons and Jaron T-Ball. It's fun seeing them learn and grow.
Aria was so excited and anxious to start violin. It was like Christmas when her violin arrived. Her excitement has diminished considerably. Even though I warned her, it's a lot harder than she thought. However, I think she's doing great. She's caught on pretty quick and is already on her first song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Aria's teacher is a senior in High school and Aria is her first student so I think there's been some adjustment there but it's getting better and I think it's going to be a good fit.
I thought Siena would be so-so about piano but she actually likes it more than I thought. She's pretty good about practicing and is excited to learn her songs. I like her teacher a lot and her teacher thinks she picking up on things really fast.
Jaron loves to go outside and play baseball with anyone that he can find. He loves to play catch and hit the ball. I thought he would love T-Ball but it's just been ok. He likes it but it's been a little slow for him and I think he definitely likes soccer more at this point.
The kids are obsessed with pizza and would eat it every night for dinner if we let them. So we decided to celebrate Italian Republic Day. We got pizza but decided to make our own crazy bread. I was impressed that it actually turned out pretty good and it was fun to make with the kids.
We got a new pass of activities to do this summer and went with the Get Out Pass. So we've been doing some activities on our passes. One was we get free horse rides at Gardner Village which of course the kids love! We also got to visit the farm and hold the baby bunnies that were 3 weeks old...too bad they were too little to adopt!! While we were there we did the Fairy Festival scavenger hunt which was so cute and just at their level. There were 26 fairies from AtoZ and each had a clue where to find the next one. They loved finding each one.
We've had lots of pool days at our pool and we've done a week of swim lessons. All my kids are getting to be pretty good swimmers which is nice to see. Of course it's always better when mom or dad get in with them.
We've been on 3 hikes this month. Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove, then we went on a pretty hard/long hike in American Fork Canyon. It starts at Silver Fork lake and you hike 2 miles pretty much all up hill to another lake and then back. I think it was over 4 miles round trip. My kids were exhausted but I was so proud that they made it. They claimed they were never going on another hike again. But...we went on a hike the very next week. A fun one up to Upper Falls past Bridal Veil Falls in Provo. It was short (.8 miles round trip) and fun and we had the waterfall to ourselves.
The Brian's came to town and it's always so fun to spend so much time with cousins. We had our annual dinner up the canyon for hot dogs and smores. We went to Gardner Village one day and the kids even got to have a sleep over with their cousins for the first time. They were so excited to be included in the sleep over.
The Pace's also came to town and it was so fun that they got to stay with us one night. We went swimming and the next day went to a park in Pleasant Grove and it was fun to just hang out. I love that they all just pick up where they left off last and get along and play so well together.
We celebrated Shane's birthday by going bowling with the kids. The kids loved it and then we went to Los Hermanos for dinner, which Shane and I love. We also celebrated the 4 boys that have birthdays together (Well Collin is the day before) and Father's Day.
The girls have been obsessed this month with sleeping in the same bed. Doesn't look comfy but they don't care. I only care when they keep waking up early!
We took our kids to walk around the Mount Timpanogos temple for FHE. We've lived here for over a year and have never taken them to this temple to see up close.
