Snapshots of Summer

Or, you might call this post "I have a lot of random pictures and need to figure out how to post them all."  In any case, here you go!

Bat Girl!

Mom and Mya date at the Children's Museum...

...and then a big girl lunch at Olive Garden!

Playing in the fountains at Irvine

Eating ice cream at Olson's 

Helping Bompa water flowers

Listening to Pandora on the Kindle

Enjoying a nice rainfall

Using great focus to help Mommy with some cutting 

No words to explain this one

We went so see Monsters University in the theater

Helping cut up watermelon

Totally random, right?

3 Year Old Pictures

I had great intentions of getting Mya's 3 year old pictures taken in the springtime.  Her pictures have always been indoors, so I thought that it would be nice to take some springtime outdoor shots.  Well, spring never came.  So, I scheduled summer pictures instead!  Here are just a few that Sara has shared with us!  I think they turned out beautifully!

Last Call!

A couple weeks ago, we spent our last summer days at the cabin.  Soon enough it will be back-to-school time and we won't be able to enjoy sunny days up there.  :(

Now, it's August.  When we were at the cabin, the temps were on the chilly side.  Like, it was too cold to go swimming.  Well, it was too cold for ME to go swimming.  Mya, on the other hand, stayed in until her lips turned blue and started to chatter.

So, with the weather being not so cooperative, we had to find other ways to spend our days.  She went on a ride with Blane to the landing.  They played with bubbles on their adventure.

Mya got to make her own personal pizza.

But, the coolest thing was trying to catch frogs.  We went for a walk to Dark Lake a couple times a day and there were TONS of little froggies out there.  They were jumping everywhere!  I wasn't quick enough to catch one, but Lisa did.  Then it peed in her hand!

All the kids are so good with Mya.  She kind of thinks that she is their age and wants to do everything that they are doing.  They were so patient with her, especially Cameron.

We also celebrated everyone's birthday!  There are some August birthdays, but we decided to celebrate everyone's!  On the cake it read, "Happy Birthday, Everyone!"  It was really just a good excuse to eat cake!

Our Days

My summer days are quickly dwindling.  It makes me sad to think that I'll be taking care of 18 little people all day instead of my own.  Oh well...I am lucky to have the time off that I do.  

You may wonder what we do with our days.  Well, it sure is a hodgepodge of stuff!  We take advantage of nice weather and go for walks or to the park.  Some days we head to the Children's Museum or go do some bumming around town.  A big chunk of our time is spent at home.  Mya loves playing outside in her sandbox and especially with the neighbor girls, whom she calls her "cousins."  

But, my favorite part of our home time are the projects we do.  My daughter loves learning.  I cannot tell you how excited/proud that makes me!  She wants to always be doing something "school-like."  We have been working a lot on tracing lines, letters and numbers.  She can write "Mya," "Mom," and "Dad."  We work a lot on using scissors and glue sticks to enhance her fine motor skills.  She is very interested in letters on signs and shirts and we are working on letter recognition.  I don't want to push her into learning, it just seems to be coming naturally and she is very much interested.

Mya's favorite part is most definitely the art projects that we do!  She loves painting, coloring, drawing and creating!

FIRST HAIRCUT!

Okay, it has taken us 3.5 years for Mya to get her first haircut...hence the all-caps title!  Her bangs were always in her face and her mullet-like back was just uneven.  It was time to get it trimmed up and I didn't want to be the first one to do it!  So, we headed to the salon to see if we could do something about it.

Mya sat sooooo well throughout the cut!  She was just intrigued with what was going on.  She did great!  It may have been the quickest haircut on the planet, but it needed to be done!

She ended up getting a little certificate and we kept the first cut of her hair.

Now, to the naked eye...you probably wouldn't notice anything different about her.  However, the back is so much more even and she has real bangs now.  She looks so grown up!  And, hopefully it doesn't take another 3.5 years before her next haircut!