Adventures of Evie

  Today was a BUSY day for us! First Evie had gymnastics camp. Today was pajama day so she got to wear her pajamas for camp. They played games, worked on some basic skills, and Evie had her first go on the BIG kid uneven bars.  Then we got to head up to nana's for some Fourth of July fun! She got to run around in a huge bubble pit, slide through a soapy slip and slide, eat snacks, and watch the fireworks of course! She also got a Kona Ice in a color change cup which she loved. Her flavor of choice is always wedding cake, watermelon, and cotton candy. These will likely be her only Independence Day fireworks this year and they were really cool. They even had skydivers with fireworks as they fell through the sky! It was also just fun to have an extra family day though. :)

  Wednesdays are meant to be our water play days and it has been so hot that we have played with water pretty much non-stop so far this year. Sprinklers, pool days, and endless amounts of water balloon fights. Today we opted for the pool in the yard. Evie took her Barbies and their boat in and had a blast playing pretend with them for hours. We also made some "fancy drinks" in these little pouches I got. It's just lemonade and a splash of grenadine but Evie loves to watch the grenadine creep up from the bottom and eventually turn her whole drink pink. It wasn't a huge learning day although we are still working on reading, but it was a super fun one! :)

  It's Pride month and while we are usually in Boston for their Pride Week (and very sad not to be this year) we couldn't let the whole month go by without doing something to celebrate. So today we made this rainbow turtle. The turtle itself was part of art camp and we made him rainbow with lots of gems.  Evie had a lot of fun weaving the colors into him and adding all his embellishments. We have had many talks over the years about how families look different and how love is what makes a family. As she's gotten older I've gone a little more in depth about those things but mostly she understands that some families have mommies and daddies, some have just a mama or just a daddy, some have bonus parents, and others have two mama's or two daddies and that any and all of these combinations are totally OK. The important thing is that families love and respect each other and create a safe and loving place for everyone involved. I think it helps that her family unit is just...

  Well it's Monday again. Mondays are always rough days getting back into the routine. This week we mixed things up and I set up a series of stations for Evie to float through over the day. She had a work station for writing practice, reading practice, and various worksheet activities. There was a play station with a little farmers market for her to play with. Then an art station with paints, paper, stickers, and glue. Lastly a sensory station with various buckets of water beads and items to dig out. I wasn't surprised that she gravitated first to art and then to sensory but eventually as the day went on she made it around to all of them.  After I finished up work we went outside to enjoy the sunshine. It was so nice out today. Not brutally hot as it's been lately but warm enough to splash in the pool and run in the sprinkler. In the later evening we set up the foam machine on the trampoline and she had so much fun pretending it was snow! She tossed it around, made snow ang...

  This week has been a long one. I'm on overtime at both jobs so after 65+ hours of work and 24/7 parenting I am ready for a break! So today we decided to take it easy. This morning we made our meal plan for next month and then we made a big grocery list. We played games until lunchtime and then we headed off to grab all the food, drop off some packages, and run a few other small errands. When we got home it was time for some R&R! We made snow cones with Nana's ice shave machine and ate them in the yard while we ran in the sprinkler.  Then we got our suits on and headed to the pool. Evie always makes at least one friend down there and today was no exception. She had a ton of fun playing and swimming and jumping in the water. After we finished up swimming we headed home to relax, watch a movie, and eat some well earned pizza for dinner! A perfect end to a fun week. :)

  Today we had another art camp! Before she had camp we spent the morning doing some practice with writing letters and with her reading. She's already picking up words really quickly and doing really well with making sounds. It's funny to be teaching someone to read because I come across situations where the letters make different sounds and it's so difficult for her but for me it's just a second nature. I don't even think about it. It makes you realize that language and reading are not as easy as they seem! But I'm glad she's sticking with it and she's really excited about learning. We also added a few new chalk drawings to the garage floor. Art camp today was a bird mask. She got to pick her colors again and of course she chose purple and pink! After she glued all the pieces together, she picked some pretty feathers and put those on as well. Unfortunately, it was getting dark out before I snapped a photo so it's a little hard to see the bright colo...

  Today we had an art day. Evie has a TON of sidewalk chalk and we use it all the time. It's one of our favorite afternoon activities. Sometimes we draw castles for her princess dolls, or hospitals for her LOL dolls. Sometimes we draw houses for ourselves or campgrounds for Barbies. Sometimes we just doodle whatever we feel like. Today was one of those days. We spent the afternoon in the garage out of the blistering heat just doodling and laughing and having fun together. She had me draw her a series of characters from her favorite shows... Including Cakey from Gabbys Dollhouse and several of the Heelers (from Bluey). It was a really fun afternoon activity and a good way to be creative together. :) After we finished decorating the garage we went to Kings Island and rode rides and ate snacks til we were both tired and ready for baths, snuggles, books and bed. :)

  It's Nana Day!! Well it's family dinner night rather but Evie calls it Nana day. She was especially excited for family dinner night tonight because when we were up for the weekend on Fathers Day she got to swim in Nana's pool and she really wanted to do it again!  So after we helped make dinner, made slimes with her cousins, and of course ate...she got to swim! Nana nights are our favorite. :)

Today was our first day of Art Camp! Evie got to make this mixed media owl out of construction paper, tissue paper, and googly eyes. She had a lot of fun choosing the colors and putting it together. I can't wait to hang him on our art wall. We started practicing reading today as well. She doesn't need to learn to read for kindergarten but she knows her letters already, so it seemed like a natural progression and we read tons of books so it's been pretty painless to get started. Then we headed down to the ice cream truck for a treat! It was a pretty good start to our week. :)  

  We had a pretty busy weekend this week so we're doing a little wrap-up post! This past spring we ripped some bushes out of the backyard and although I have some plans for planting new things there for now there is a huge open space. So this weekend I let Evie pick out a flat of flowers and she got to plant her very own garden.  We made a little clay and tile butterfly and some painted rocks to jazz it up some. She had a lot of fun putting this together and painting and creating to decorate it. She is already asking if she can paint more rocks! We also threw some flower seeds in there so that when these flowers die she will have a full garden again.  On Saturday Evie got to go back to the gym and she was really excited about it. She has two  mini camps coming up for gymnastics and a three day dance camp soon as well and she's very excited for those! Her gym holds mini skill camps three times a month and then an open gym once a month as well and for this month we too...

  Today Evie got to get her VERY OWN personal library card. To which she immediately informed me meant that I was NOT allowed to put my books on her card. She got to have her own little lanyard with her card attached and she got to write her name on the card. After writing her name she told me she was so excited she could "pay for her own books now!" and then told me "Mama I'm a WOMAN now!". Which, honestly, if she believes that the power to choose and "pay for" your own books makes you a woman then I can't be sad about that. Something went right there! Over the course of her childhood to date we have read hundreds, if not thousands of books together. She would sneak them into her crib as a toddler so that she could read them before she went to bed and as soon as she woke up. I have so many videos of her reading to herself in the morning from her baby monitor. I still remember the awe on her face the first time she went into that library and how sh...

  Today we played with color mixing. We made a pan of sidewalk paint and started with primary colors, mixing them as we went across the pan. After we finished mixing them up we took the colors we made outside to paint! We did this activity last summer and it was a huge hit then as well. It's messy and creative but also a really good way to learn about colors and practice her writing and drawing skills. Plus it takes less than five minutes to set up! This weekend  I plan to power wash the drive way so we'll get to look at our art for a few days before we sweep it away this time! :) There was also a yummy food truck in our hood tonight. We got these delicious oreo chimney cakes to eat at the park and then had a nice walk home while we enjoyed them. Summer is already shaping up to be lots of fun! 

  Block party! Today was another fun summer day.  We spent most of our morning coloring and working on some reading lessons. This afternoon we jumped on the trampoline some more and worked on cleaning up the pool. But this evening Evie got to go to a block party for a nearby church and she LOVED it. There were games she could play to win prizes. There were snowcones. There was cotton candy. There was music which she INSISTED we watch all of. There was also free food although she wasn't too excited about that (but I definitely was)! But the thing she loved the most was... ...the BOUNCE HOUSE! She had a ton of fun bouncing around in there and we all went home full, tired, and happy. :)

  Today Evie turns 5!! I took the day off since in past years we have typically been on vacation during her birthday. For her first and second we were in Boston, and we would have been in Boston again for her third if COVID hadn't locked everything down. For her fourth we went to Florida. This year there are no trips planned this week so instead I took some time off so we could have a girls day together.  We started the day off with some "fancy breakfast" and she ordered her whole meal BY HERSELF which she was very proud of. Then we went to Target to spend some of her birthday money. After that we had planned a trip to the "princess store" (The Disney Store), but it was getting hot and we were tired of running around. So we went home and played with water balloons, foam guns, and a sprinkler we got from a neighbor. I set it by her trampoline so she could have a sprinkler jump like Bluey and Bingo and she played in it for HOURS. All in all it was a really great d...

  We're still working on our summer bucket list and we've made some pretty good progress. This weekend we visited a Touch A Truck event and Evie had tons of fun climbing into recycling trucks, SWAT vehicles, and living her dream of pretending to be a real life excavator driver. We also got snow cones and checked that off the summer bucket list! We have also ridden our fair share of rollercoasters but I forgot to check it off the list!  We typically try to travel over her birthday but this year we didn't since we are working around several schedules. Instead of that I decided to take the first few days of the week off to just relax and have some fun with her. Today we drew a huge Barbie campground and played with her new camper. It's been super hot these last few days so we also took another trip down the pool to swim! Here's hoping that it cools down just enough to be tolerable but not so much that we can't swim! ;)

  A few days ago I signed Evie up for a 4 week art camp. Basically three times a week she gets to have a virtual class and we will make a project together with supplies they send us. While we were signing up for that I came across these throwable paint balls that say they don't stain skin or clothes. Since they weren't very expensive and Evie LOVES things that make a mess I decided to go look at them and maybe pick some up for a rainy summer day. They come in lots of colors: orange, blue, yellow, teal, and pink...so we grabbed her two favorites and put them aside to use later. Luckily it's been a rainy week though. Now I'll preface by saying these do not have to be used in the rain! You can use them on a sunny day and you can even use them to toss at paper or a canvas to make cool art but I don't know how well it would last since it does wash out of clothes. They even offer bags of the paint that you can fill little squirt guns with and shoot at each other (or, aga...

  Today we had art day and worked on some fun projects together. I told Evie this morning that it was arts and crafts day and she was SUPER excited because other than STEM day, arts and crafts are her favorite. We started off this afternoon with some potato stamping. I set this up while Evie was doing her quiet time and when I presented her with the paint, canvas, and potato she said to me "Mama I thought that potato was my snack!" 😂😂 She was definitely relieved to find out it wasn't for eating.  She had a lot of fun smashing it around and combining the colors to make her picture. After we finished our potato painting we had some free play and made chalk houses for her LOL dolls for awhile. We also made use of the sunny day (the first in awhile!) to plant a tree in the yard together. But as the evening wore on and dinnertime came around she told me  "Mama you said it was arts AND crafts day and we did art but we didn't do a craft!!" So we broke out some pe...

  Well you guessed it...it was another rainy day today. I'm really glad we have a double garage though with plenty of space so we can run and play and get some air instead of being stuck inside all day on days like today. Our usual gym schedule is gymnastics in the summer and fall and then dance from winter to spring but this year I wanted to take a break so that we could really enjoy our summer together and also just to be sure that with school in the mix the gym schedule isn't too much for her. Evie was pretty sad about that and even though she still has upcoming dance and gymnastics camps she still really wanted to start up again. So today we got out her gym equipment and she practiced her tumbles and balancing in the garage. We also did some dance with her ballet bar again. It's really fun to see how far she's come with her skills since she first started two years ago. In the fall we will probably start both gymnastics AND dance and see how she does with everything ...

  Well it was another rainy day today so we decided to do a little craft to keep us busy. Evie really wanted to make some bath bombs so we mixed up the stuff to do it! Her first and second attempts were a touch too wet and they didn't hold together well but on the third try she nailed it! She did a purple/pink lavender scented one with roses which she called her Isabela bath bomb. Then a vanilla and lavender scented one with teal and purple for Ariel and with the remaining mix she made a little half bomb. It was a fun project and she can't wait to throw them in her baths later. We also had plenty of supplies left over so we'll definitely be doing this one again one day!  We also got her very last Imagination Library book today. We were both pretty sad about it. I can't believe she is starting kindergarten in just a few months. It feels crazy. But she's super smart, super social, and super excited so I know she's going to love it and do amazing. Ten weeks til she...

  This week is going to be a long one. Evie is out of both dance and gymnastics, I am working longer hours for awhile and it's been super rainy. Over the weekend we scored a ballet bar from a neighbor and even though Evie does hip hop and not ballet she is in love with it. So today we set up some online classes for her to tide her over until fall classes resume and she spent a lot of time following along to the moves and also making up her own. Later in the day we set up her bar in the garage to get some time outside even though it was raining. Hopefully it will be less dreary next week but until then, at least we have plenty to keep us busy!

  Today was dress rehearsal day for Evie's big recital. She has had a lot of questions about performing and I was worried she'd be nervous and maybe even freeze up but this kid is a natural born performer! Once she got up on that stage she just lit up. She was SO excited to be dancing on stage like JoJo Siwa. In fact when her turn was over she asked immediately if she could do it again!  After her performance she gets a flower and then that's it for dance this year! She's already super disappointed that she won't be doing dance for a few months but I'm sure the time will fly by. We started with gymnastics and the plan was to do dance over the winter/spring and gymnastics in the summer/fall but she is really stuck on dance now and not interested in going back to the gym for now so instead of swapping off we may add jazz into the mix since she really loves hip-hop but is really curious about jazz as well. I am so proud of her for sticking it out, working hard, and...