Weekend Top Five: Father's Day Edition

I haven't done a top five in ages but it has been awhile since I came off of a weekend feeling that we made the most of it and actually enjoyed it. This was a good one though.

5. First Boating Trip
We decided that since we had gone mini golfing for Mother's Day (our usual Father's Day activity) that we would do something different for Father's Day this year. We discovered that the little beach by our house has now added boat rentals to their offerings. So after church, we headed out for our first family boat adventure. It took us awhile to get the hang of it and the boys both had a turn at the oars. It was a fun adventure that we followed with swimming and playing in the adjacent a splash pad. Noah has asked if we can do kayaks next time and I think it's a great idea.

4. Aaron's First Tooth Fairy Visit
Aaron has watched two of his younger cousins and countless younger friends lose teeth all year and now he finally got his chance. His tooth had been loose for ages and with a little help from his brother (accidentally, I think) it became super loose while we were getting ready for our boating adventure. That night when we got home, we were teasing Aaron about pulling it out with a string and he vacillated between excitement of pulling it out with a string and whining about being scared to lose a tooth. However, while I was gone for the dog's walk, apparently they worked it out because as I was walking in the door I was greeted by a very excited six year old who had a hole in his mouth and tooth in his hand. For some reason, Aaron with a tooth hole looks very strange to me. Maybe it's because he's my baby and it's the last piece of babyhood left in the Wheelz Home :(

3. Harry Potter Round Three
I started reading the Harry Potter books right when they first came out and bought each one as they came out. Steve started sometime following. Noah has been asking for quite awhile now to read them and has been told all about them from the kids at school. I had been fighting it thinking that the plots are too mature and that they would scare him. But he has been reading the American Chillers and Michigan Chillers books for awhile and really enjoying them so this weekend I finally gave in and decided to get him the first one (our old copies have long since fallen apart due to over reading). Just like his father and me and millions of other readers, he was hooked. He actually forgot to play his allotted half hour of DS one day this weekend because he was so wrapped up in the story. When I took the boys to the park on Friday, the book went with us and while Aaron was doing his usual craziness at the splash pad, Noah settled himself at the end of some play equipment on the playground and read. Yes, he did stop to play on the equipment a little too.
2. Tree Climbing

Steve usually comes home from work Saturday around noon in a pretty grumpy mood and needed a break from us all. So I packed the kids up and we headed out to yet another park. This one has a large wooden castle structure and the kids had been asking all week to go. They played for a very long time while I settled at a table to read and then the next thing I heard was, "Mom, look at me". Noah had found some great climbing trees and scaled very high into one. A little piece of me was tempted to call him out of it, but I figured that this is what boys are meant to do during summer vacations and let him climb to his heart's content. I still can't believe how high he went. We followed the tree climbing with a quick walk through the woods (which I will be posting on later because I need plant identification help) but we turned around when I realized we were getting deep and didn't have bug spray. We have plans to return when we are better prepared.



1. Father's Day Gift Prep

We have made a tee shirt for Steve for Father's Day most years. This year was no different. The boys and I headed out for supplies and later to paint a shirt for Daddy. Of course, Aaron has always been a terrible secret keeper so luckily Daddy was good sport among Aaron's hourly comments of "Daddy, don't go downstairs" where the shirt was drying. He was very happy to put on his newest addition to his wardrobe this morning though.

Notice the smile on Aaron's face since it was taken about five minutes after the tooth came out :)

So it was a nice weekend and we all needed it. We're so very tired with the new summer routine and this week will prove to be a test in all of our patience and stamina. In addition to the regular tiring weekly schedule, the boys will be attending our church's HUGE VBS every night this week and not getting into bed until after 9 every night. Combine that with getting up early since I have to work and an additional activity since I will be teaching two hours of piano lessons an extra morning and we're going to desperately need next weekend to recuperate.

Let the Crazy Week Begin :)