Sum(mer) Fun

The next two weeks after I got hurt, we had several days that were over 100 degrees and the heat index was even higher with the unbearable humidity. I even read on someone's facebook post "it's even too hot to swim!" Knowing that many of my friends and family were also indoors made my predicament a little easier. The boys & I stayed in the A/C and had our own fun. I've been terrible about taking pictures, but here are a few from the one day.

First, we've learned a new game. Great Grandma Good gave Caleb a Toy Story 3 Yahtzee Junior game for his birthday. It reminded me of myself growing up. I used to LOVE to play yahtzee with my family (only I had to learn with the real dice, etc.). Every holiday we would play games all afternoon, and even many Sundays, etc. One of the ones that I played even when I was a wee little one sitting on my mommy's lap was Yahtzee (mostly because I could shake the cup and dump it, not that I necessarily understood it all at first). Since my sisters were older, I was brought into games at a very young age. In fact, my baby book has the following recorded as my first four-word sentence: "I GOT IT! YAHTZEE!" Haaa!!! That still cracks me up.

Anyway, we've been playing yahtzee quite a bit. I taught the boys how to chant "yahtzee! yahtzee!" like my Dad did to get us excited. Let me tell you, my boys LOVE to chant it, too, now. It brings back memories! Of course, my Yahtzee wasn't Toy Story, but the boys understand that they have to roll five dice the same picture of the same character. Woody is "wild" meaning that he can represent Ham, Rex, Buzz, Mr. Potato Head or Bullseye. Joshua cracked me up when he said, "Woody is a WILD CHILD!" Haaa!!! He understood the concept of Woody being wild, but I think the phrase 'wild child' is something he's heard before and not related to this game, if you know what I'm saying. Every time I hear it from him, I laugh!

I don't think we've had a day go by since we opened the game that Caleb hasn't asked to play it. Thanks for all the fun, Great Grandma Good!

Daddy is FANTASTIC at creating other games on the fly. I don't know how he's so creative with kids stuff, but I absolutely adore him for it. One such game is "chompers." Shawn & the boys take turns being the "chomper" who claps his hands (like an alligator) and shouts "CHOMP! CHOMP!" and chases the other around the circle of our first floor. The other two run away until they get chomped (quite softly, I might add) and then they fall to the ground saying "I was KNOCKED OUT OF TOWN!" I'm not sure where the knocked out of town came from, but I think that was probably the creativity of the Bean. The boys love playing chompers and it gets them running and their wiggles out. Joshua even taught Miranda our babysitter how to play it.

Then Miranda taught them a new version of "red light, green light" where they dance fast if it's green, slow if it's yellow and they stop and fall down if it's red. Joshua LOVES to dance, so this game was great!

We've also been working on letters this summer here and there. Caleb is getting much better at tracing his letters, and I love it! You can see the words in the picture above that he's working on. You can really read them!

Caleb is also getting better at the letters game where he thinks of words that start with a specific letter. Joshua is getting better at sounding out words, too, even though he can still get frustrated at times with books. It's a process, I remind him. I think he's doing great!

Between my toe and baby Ryan, I feel like it's hard to spend quality time with my older boys. But I know that they really need it. Ryan takes a majority of my time, but he is SO worth it! I love his smile and his little laugh. I love to cuddle with him and watch him grow. I'm so grateful for all three of my healthy little boys!