Today in the morning we read a book together and then played in the morning. Camp went great. After camp Jude had a play date with Declan and Ollie and I went to the park at parkhurst and then to izzy's house for a bit to play. Ollie likes to dig and swing. Jude and dex did Legos and played with the kittens.
At some point Ollie had a balloon and it flew
Out of the car and he was hysterical. Absolutely beyond the point of no return. We drove back and found it.
We played at home, drawing, hexbugs and outside. Jude helped me water the plants.
We packed up dinner and went to the pool. Ollie walked into the deep end!
I forgot to write! Let's see if I can remember yesterday.
In the morning I'm pretty sure we just played with our toys. The boys drew in the playroom and ate their breakfasts. It was sprinkling in the morning so they boys made crafts at camp. After camp I think we a me home and relaxed for a while and then met up with Charlie, Connor, Meghan, Nicole, Annabelle, page, Charlie, Henry and Patrick at the park at trinity.
Jude said mom "Ghosts are functional. They're not even real."
We then went to MMA where we didnt bring our trusty iPad and Ollie did a workbook and got all of the answers correct! It was awesome.
Today was the first day of Rock Spring summer camp! Before camp, Jude made more Qixels and Ollie worked on his train.
The boys had a great time at camp and when they got home, we played "Stranger Danger" because they wanted to replay scenarios where a stranger approaches and they had to figure out what to do. Not my idea, but loved that they wanted to do it. We didn't do a lot...we played outside, red light-green light and we washed our car...which they loved.
Grandma Cathy came over to babysit, while Jude went to MMA and Brock and I went to Wolf Trap to watch "Flight of the Concords"...which was incredible.
We also read a SkippyJon Jones book while eating lunch that was mainly leftovers from our weekend. Ollie keeps saying things like "Why we go 2 times this day?" Meaning "Why are we going to camp two days in a row?" Jude is busy just building things. His little brain is just hungry for learning.
Today we spent as a family and it was chalk full of other family so we didn't need to come up with a lot for them to do. We actually watched 2 movies in the car as we were driving for almost 4 hours.
We woke up early and went to Spotslyvania to celebrate Chase's 2nd birthday. All of the cousins had so much fun. It was fantastic.
They played on the trampoline and blew bubbles and played hide and seek and trains. We saw Grandma Donna, Shane, Amanda, Ava, Chase and some of Amanda's family.
After we left, Ollie slept in the car and we quickly cleaned up and then my family came over. Papou, Mike and Kara, my mom. We made Qixels and played outside and ate a ton of food. Ollie built an "uptrack" for Jude. Boys went down around 9:45.
Today was sort of a lazy day. Boys went to kids club with Brock in the morning. Jude had built his Lego Finn from Star Wars and played with him in the morning. I set out some paints for Oliver and then they both spent quite some time making paintings.
We also made milk and cookie pops. We took condensed milk and heavy cream with crushed chocolate chip cookies and froze them. The boys each had a different job and then really enjoyed them.
That afternoon Jude has his final T-ball game around 4 and we stayed at the field until dinner time. Jude got the "Laundry Machine" award for always getting down and dirty on the field. We didn't bring the iPad for Ollie so he blew bubbles and we played catch on the side.
After the game we ordered pizza and ate outside while playing in the yard. Day 2 of no TV was pretty good!
After seeing my child wake from a deep sleep, start thrashing around, swinging his arms, yell "No I GET THE IPAD!!" and start crying...I decided that we needed a long break from technology.
After writing my husband all day saying things like "We should probably discuss our plans for this summer" and then coming home, sitting next to each other and watching a mindless TV show and not saying a word to each other...I decided we needed a break from TV.
That's why we are going to try and unplug a bit this summer. Nothing extreme, just listening to more music, reading more books, talking during meals, making more art, being outside more, taking more trips, discovering more joys.
This does include stipulations. My husband has two: Liverpool games are okay and Game of Thrones on Sundays (for the next three weeks) is okay. The boys are allowed to go to an actual movie, watch a movie at a party/friend's house and watch iPad movies on long road trips. So it won't be "TV free", but it will be mostly that way.
Day one so far has been great. We woke up and instead of turning on the TV, Jude, my older son created something original out of Lego pieces and my son Oliver built a Lego Duplo train track.
We then met friends at the park for bike riding, kite flying and digging in the sand. After that we left for Target to get a few supplies for this 'TV free' summer and then we came home, whipped out the slip n' slide and played for a bit - stopping to do chalk drawings on our front walkway.
They are now inside having a snack, building and listening to kids reggae. We have a dental visit later, but we plan on just playing around the yard, eating outside and stopping by the library for some new summer reads...for the whole family.
My summer reading list is kindof non-existent but I'm gathering ideas from friends. Brock typically looks at ratings and chooses a book. I want to finish listening to "Unbroken" as I draw...I'm almost done. What an incredible story and history lesson.
I don't really have an stipulations except that nothing applies in an emergency situation. Can't wait until we do some camping stuff. It's really not too hard to occupy the boys as they love music and being outside. Tv free winter would be impossible.
We also got Jude some cute little boxer briefs 
