Not Bored Yet!

When I first agreed to come watch the kids for the summer, I feared that I would go crazy. Days would drag, we would spend every day the same way and that we would all be tired and cranky with each other by the end of summer. So I kind of pre-thought about things that we could do that would make our summer a bit more enjoyable and not so redundant. Afterall, it is summer break and I don't want the kids saying that they had a boring summer and did not do anything.
Anywho, I really have not felt that yet, with it now being July 27th, and I dont feel that the kids think that either. It is very seldom that we stay home all day and just play in the backyard (which is something I thought we would be doing a lot of, and now I am starting to miss).
We went to the beach twice this week, and sadly, I forgot my camera both times. We hit movie day and saw Nancy Drew, and hit Barnes and Noble story time as well. Mom took us on an errand to book our next family cruise (woohoo for Jan 23) it took much longer doing this than expected though, and me and the kids ended up walking to the library to get books, which is something they both love. Our "surprise" trip of the week was when we got to go to All Fired Up, which is basically a Color Me Mine wanna be. Its a nice place, but not nearly as good as my favorite little Provo store. Bonnie said that if I took her kids there, they each had to paint something "useful." She was not allowing anything that would clutter up the kids rooms, especially the tops of the dressers. It was hard getting Cayd to agree on a plate, he REALLY wanted to paint the snake shaped "knick knack holder" and I almost gave in, but he somehow did first. Below is a picture of their creations.



Dad, Cayden's grandpa, often refers to Cayden as CJ, so that is what he wrote on his plate.

Mom says that its hard enough to take the kids there and help them, so when she did it, she didnt even make one for herself. But I cant go in there and not make my own creation too! So below is my newest bowl. We get to pick them up Wednesday- so exciting!



Molly is coming to visit on Tuesday for a whole entire week! We are so very excited. Last night, after a trip to Chuck E Cheese and before we were hitting Cold Stone, Cayden makes some comment about me being his favorite aunt. Then he changed his mind because "Molly is just a little better." He tried to assure me that I come in at a very close second. It was a harsh reality to face. I guess I better swing into high gear for the remainder of the summer to become the "favorite aunt."

More Summer Fun

Our weeks just seem to get more and more exciting! Here are just a few of my weeks activities. :)

Mom had a friend that came and visited with a daughter who is Aubrey's age so it was just Cayd and me for free movie day this week. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- fun fun times. I even broke and bought Cayd that popcorn too.

Me and Bon and her friend and kids all went to see the sandcastle contest held down somewhere beyond San Diego. There were a lot of really neat sand "castles" there. Pretty impressive. We decided that next year maybe we should get a slot and enter it . . . cant be too difficult right? We parked it by a sand car being built and the kids helped haul up water to the people building it. They had a fun time. It was not the winning castle by far, but one of the least crowded, which made it perfect for our candid shot.


The kids and I hit Legoland as well. It is pretty close to our house and with free tickets all around, it makes for a cheap but eventful day. It started off with a few rocky points, missing bathing suits, shoes that wont go on feet, a horrid lunch incident when I forgot to minus the mayo from a kids burg, but then we all re-chipafied and had a splendid day. We didnt get to go on everything we wanted (our rocky morning caused for a late start) but the joy of season passes means that we get to go back next week to finsh off the fun that we missed out on.




And then we spend lots of time at my mom's house swimming. We now do laps every day in the pool to build up our swimming skills and they both learned to dive (for the most part). Me and Bon have tried to get better into the running thing too, she likes to go right after work when it is painfully hot, but I am getting a little more used to it. Holy smokes, I cant even believe it is already the 17th of July either! The summer is just flying by! No jobs/plans for next month, still crossing my fingers and hoping that everything will work out!

Summer Vacation has Begun!

So I have officially made it back to California and have started my daily summer "routine."  I came to watch Aubrey and Cayden for the month, and possibly a bit into August as well.  I love hanging out with Aubs and Cayd but I didn't want this summer to turn into a long, dragged out, "Im bored" all the time summer.  So I have been doing my best with finding fun and entertaining things for the three of us, without spending much money as well.  Days begin at the kids house, I meet them their rather than her bringing them to me because I hope that they will sleep in a bit.  It works at times  :)  We get dressed and ready for the day and then we start our day somewhere between 10-11.  We go on bike rides and walks and spend lots of time in the pool outside.  Cayden has learned to swim without the life vest which is quite exciting.  I call them my little hoverers though because they are always wanting me to get in the water so they can hang all over me, which frankly, gets a bit tiring.   The highlight of our swimming adventures was one day after swimming and laying outside for a while when Cayden told me "you look like Molly having a bad hair day."  I have since decided that there will be no photos of me while hanging in the backyard, because apparently it does not go well with my appearances.   I am somewhat picky about getting into a dirty pool, and since we have lots of trees in the backyard, each morning there are lots of leaves in the pool as well as a lot of floating bugs, usually bees-- yuck!  So I pull out the net to clean it out before swimming.  But the kids now know the routine and as you can see in the picture below, will often do the cleaning for me now.  

Our city also does free kids movies at the theatre once a week, this week was "A Bee Movie," quite entertaining I will admit.  One thing I have learned about Cayden is that the kid must always be eating.  And I am not kidding when I say always!  So, by the end of the movie he was rolling around on his seat complaining every other minute of being starving.  Since then, I have learned to pack snacks for wherever we go.  We went to story time at Barnes and Noble and have enrolled them in all the city reading programs as well.  Therefore we have started our "educational time" each day when I get a little break, and they have to sit around reading for a while.  "Educational time" is something my parents did with us growing up each night, that we have always kind of mocked, but it was fun to instill it into the next generation of Kellys.  Another little tradition that I wanted to start was the walking to 7-11 "fun."  As kids, one of our favorite past times was getting to walk to 7-11 to buy slurpees and candies and all kinds of fun treats.  So I thought these kids would love it as well.  This is a different generation however, and I did not get the enthusiastic attitude from them that I was hoping for.  I told them to get used to it though- cuz we are doing it weekly!  To wrap up this week, we also hit the library for "Balloon Fest" and Bon even talked us into taking all her empty cans to the recycling place to get a little extra cash. It was a dirtier job than I expected and now realize why Bonnie didnt want to do it herself.  The kids were great helpers though, and I was kind of bummed I didnt have a camera with me while they sorted our plastics and our metals.  Maybe next time.  :)  We have lots of exciting things in store for the rest of the summer though, so who knows what we will be doing next!

Happy Birthday Randi!

So today I was going to dedicate my page to my friend Randi who is celebrating her 23rd birthday- yay!  Since neither of us were going to be in town for her actual birthday, we did all the celebrating last week.  The two of us went to Color Me Mine (we take each other there for every birthday-tradition!)  Then later that week we did her birthday dinner at Brick Oven with some of our other friends, then we went and had cake and ice cream.  It was way fun- I think Randi kept thinking it was kind of silly because it was still a week until her birthday, but you do what you gotta do!  She actually made me feel guilty for a while when I told her I wouldn't be in town, "but its my birthday shawna, you wont be here for my birthday??"  Days later, I find out that she is not even planning on being there for her birthday!  Way to make me feel guilty!  Anywhoo- I think she had a great time on her early birthday celebrations, and I hope she has an even more fantastic day today with her family!

*Pics will be posted shortly- upon receiving them  :)