Our first 2 weeks of summer vacation (and our last...sort of)

Well, in my last post I said our first preschool experience had come to an end. But I spoke too soon! All of a sudden a lot of kids signed up for summer camp at the preschool and Leslie needed more teachers. So, Audrey's 2's Class teacher & I have teamed up to teach the 3's & 4's for summer camp for the rest of June, and possibly a couple weeks in July. The class has 12 kiddos--2 who are new to the school, 3 from Audrey's previous class, and 7 who were already with me during the school year. The biggest change is that Audrey is with me. Even though she is not 3 quite yet, she is potty trained and that is why she gets to be in with the big kids. We'll see how that goes! We aren't going all week though, only MWF. So, we still get to have summer fun, just part of it is at summer camp.

This summer we have tickets for summer kids' movies at Harkins again. She went to the first one a couple weeks ago with her Aunt Rae Lynne and I took her today and she made it through both movies! I would definitely say almost 3 is a better movie theatre age than almost 2 like last summer. Audrey also started her second swim class yesterday. It is the "Tadpoles" class and she is in the water with the teacher and two little boys. No parents in the water for this one. I was a little nervous, but she went right with her teacher and listened and did everything the teacher wanted her to.

Along with a few playdates, a birthday party, baptism and baby shower, here are other highlights from the past two weeks:

On May 26th I started a Parent-Tot swim class with Audrey through Gilbert Parks & Rec. It was the second level just because she is older, but I wanted to do one with her since she's never had any type of lessons before. She loves the pool and loved swim class. Her favorite thing was climbing out and jumping in which she's loved forever, but this year her new favorite thing is to go under water. I know that is good, but it's scary too! She just wants to do it over and over again. Sometimes she forgets to take a rest and get a good breath, or she'll leave her mouth open because she's smiling so big. I know in reality she's never under for long, but I can't help freaking out a little. The class was for 2 weeks, 4 classes per week. The picture is her with her certificate the kiddos got when we were finished...don't mind that is says AuBrey on it, her teacher always said her name right during class.

May 27th was Paul's 33rd Birthday. He's not big into birthdays, so Audrey & I just went out that day and she picked out a big balloon, a card and a yummy Cold Stone ice cream cake. Yes, she really did pick everything out herself. All her choices had a specific reason they were chosen---because they had green. Because that is her favorite color after all, so Papa would love it too! He really did like everything, especially finding out his little girl picked it out all by herself. The cake was chocolate cake with green (of course) mint chocolate chip ice cream. The things on top are not cookies like I first thought, they were peppermint patties--even yummier! If you can't tell Audrey is licking her lips because she is ready for some cake!

Audrey wanted to sing Happy Birthday to Papa by herself, and it was sooooo cute! I am not sure if you'll be able to hear her on this video, but turn up your speakers and I hope you can. The little "Hurray!" at the end comes from a Dutch version Paul's family sings after the traditional one...where they do 3 'hip, hip hurray's. I thought it was great that she put that in because we only sing it with bdays in Paul's family...so it's not that often.

--Ok, it's been almost an hour and this video is NOT posting...I'll try again later!--


Last Friday, June 5th, we took a little drive to have a picnic up in Payson. Paul was very upset that we were doing it while he was at work, but his sisters came up with the idea kind of last minute and since Audrey & I were free all day we said 'why not!' Here are some cute pictures from our day.

Shying away from pictures


Hiding from Auntie Sarah


Running from Auntie Sarah


Jumping off rocks w/Auntie Sarah



Checking out the lake


Checking out the view from the Rim with Auntie Rae Lynne, it sure was windy...

...but she loved it!

Her least favorite part of the trip was when Auntie Sarah pretended to have fallen and needed help. Audrey did NOT think this was funny, she was reaching for her aunt and started to cry she was so scared for her!

Her favorite part was when Auntie Sarah had a grasshopper on her finger, she was freaked out. (She had a nightmare about bugs a few days before, seriously a nightmare that she woke up from with a scream that scared Paul & I to death! She now HATES any kind of bug, before she used to find them all the time and get real close to get a good look...no more!) Anyhow, when the grasshopper jumped and tried to go down Auntie Sarah's shirt, Auntie Sarah screamed and Audrey thought it was hilarious! She can reenact it for you if you ask her.