Summertime in Tahoe

We spent a wonderful week in Tahoe after school and all of the kids' activities had come to a close for the year.  It was a wonderful, relaxing, and fun break for us all.  Great Grammy and Papa came up also, making our time even more special.

This post is complete picture overload, but I just can't seem to narrow them down, so here they all are!

The kids spent lots of time hanging out with Sayde who lives next door.  They played in the water, rode bikes and cars, played Care Bears, went swimming together, and did lots and lots of swinging in the backyard hammocks.

S'mores time!  It was Mia's first time roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores, and I think she loved it!

Playground time - pretty much Mia's favorite place

  
Pushes on the swings from Papa for both Mia and Luke (who can absolutely pump on his own, but still likes someone to push him).  What lucky kids!

Luke took full advantage of the arts and crafts offered at the rec. center.  He went and did multiple projects two days in a row

Playing with Great Grammy

Luke's favorite thing to do when in Tahoe is to jump on the bungee/trampoline.  He was able to go two days in a row and is working towards being able to flip backwards!

Fun at the stores in the Northstar Village - one even has a sandbox and tether ball out front!

Checking out the building sites above Day & Paw's house - we had quite the adventurous hike.

Dinner out at our favorite, Pianeta's (thanks to Grammy & Papa for babysitting).  As usual, it was delicious.



As always, we loved our time in the beautiful weather and fresh air of Tahoe.  Looking forward to making the trip up again soon.

Bubbles with Cosmo



Meet Cosmo.  Uncle Todd's dog.  He looks scary, but he's not.  In fact, he's the opposite.  An absolute love.  He's incredibly gentle with the kids (with the exception of his wagging tail - it could cause injury), super playful with his cousin Brooklyn, and completely obsessed with Todd. 

Oh, and he likes bubbles :)

Tiny Dancer

Ready to go on her first day

Mia is taking her first session of dance class at Allegro Performing Arts this summer.  I'm pretty sure that, at this point, Mommy is more excited than Mia.  That being said, she was very ready to go on her first day, and although she tends to take a little bit to warm up to the idea each week, by the middle of every class she is in full swing.  So far, every week has ended with a, "Mommy, that was FUN!"

Stretching like the sun and hiding from the rain

Pool time!

Pool season is now in full swing!  The kids are swimming well and love to be in the water.  LOTS of pool photos to come over the next several weeks/months.

In the meantime, here's how we spend our pool time when we're NOT swimming :)

Vacation Bible Camp

We signed Luke up for Vacation Bible Camp this year with the intention of getting him aquainted with some of his future Kindergarten classmates.  Somewhere along the line, I ended up being persuaded to teach/lead a group of my own.  So, all three of us (Luke with the Kindergarten class, me with the 1st graders, and Mia in the nursery) spent the week at VBC.

It was a very well organized and run program.  Luke had tons of fun, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was more of a group leader than "teacher" ... and that I had two lovely teenage girls to help me with the kids all week!  The nursery ended up being a wonderful experience for Mia as well.  Since she has recently been very much a mommy's girl, we have had some trouble with me leaving to go to work or meetings at Luke's school.  Although she cried on the first morning, she was thrilled when I picked her up after day 1 and announced proudly to everyone who she saw for the rest of the day, "I go to school!"

I didn't get many pictures from the week, but snuck in a few shots with my phone here and there.

Cherries

Thanks to our neighbors planting several cherry trees, ours actually was able to cross pollinate and produce this year.  Not only did the tree look so pretty full of cherries, but they are actually pretty tasty.  Great Grammy made a bunch of jam with them because there were far too many to eat.

Last T-Ball game

Luke's first T-Ball season ended this past weekend with an early game against the Giants followed by a little award ceremony and a donut party.

It was a fun season and a great introduction to baseball for Luke.  We'll be back next Spring!

Welcome, Summer

The kids and I headed out to Happy Hollow for the day on Luke's first day off after preschool graduation.  I was hoping to go before all of the kids in the area were out of school for summer.  We had a great day!  Mia is now at a really great age to enjoy it, and Luke loved it, as always.

I hope that we'll enjoy many more days this summer at Happy Hollow.