Zoo Camper and Family Fun Night!

That's right! I gave Maggie hair cut. Its kind of messy in this picture, but its short enough to avoid lots of tangles, hair brushing problems, and shampooing battles, but long enough to *just* pull back into a pony tail. Its a good length for a head band, which is her preferred style these days.

And here is a picture of our little zoo camper. (If you click on the picture, you can see her face and shirt in more detail) She got to tie-dye her own shirt and all the campers got matching hats and water bottles on a shoulder strap. I was worried she might be too hot at the zoo, but they did indoor activities in the afternoon and had time for lots of water play...even set up a water slide for the campers. We also have a brush fire currently burning in south Phoenix near P.I.R. and there is a TON of smoke blocking the sun and cooling it off a bit. We were brushing ash off of our hair the other day at the pool.

Here is a picture of Sean at the Art Museum for Children. The theme was "table manners" and he was busy at the Japanese table picking up the "sushi".

Today was family fun night from 6-8pm at McClintock Pool so we went! They have a water slide Maggie loved and a kiddie pool as well as a regular pool. Glen, Sean and I hung out in the regular pool while we watched Maggie compete in the cannon ball competition off the diving board (she got extra points for cuteness and was probably the youngest kid up there and won some bubbles). We also watched her in the "dance off" where all the participants won beads. Everyone got a raffle ticket upon entering the pool and we won twice! (diving rings and splash balls). Maggie and Glen enjoyed snow cones and we all had a great time. Got home late! Everyone is peacefully sleeping now though. :)

Maggie has a camera!

And here are 2 of the first photos she took with it during zoo camp today.

Not too bad for a first timer. She is very excited to have her own camera. Lets see what kind of pictures she comes home with tomorrow.

Glen spent the day fixing the vw, fixing grandma's pool pump, and fixing 2 flat tires on his bike that he got enroute to grandma's house. Poor guy. After the kids were in bed he went out again to try and buy a fuel line hose or something. He's is happiest when he is working on something though, so his plate is full.

Sean and I went to "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" this morning at the library. Its a program for little ones that involves singing and shaking musical instruments, and throwing scarves around. Sean mostly sat and watched. He will probably be more into it next year. Then we came home and he took a nice long nap. Then we picked up Maggie from zoo camp. Glen was still busy, and grandma's pool is out of comission for the time being, so I took them both to Eldorado Aquatic center. We had a blast. Maggie went down the water slides many times (even though she didn't meet the height requirement) and Sean loved the zero-depth entry to the kids play area which meant he could crawl around on his own in the water. It was later in the afternoon, around dinner time, so there weren't too many people there and the buildings cast shade onto the water. It was really nice. Oh...and since we came an hour before closing, they let us in for half price. Yeah! We will be going back.

Its so lonely here!

I signed Maggie up for Zoo camp this week. She will be busy there between 8am and 3pm. I signed her up awhile ago because I thought she might start going stir crazy at home all summer, but things have been going suprizingly well. She has mostly found plenty of things to keep her busy but the late afternoons do tend to drag a bit and we rely on cartoons to keep the peace. (She tends to razz her brother around 4pm -- thats when the tv comes on) Anyway, its kind of lonely around here. Just me and Glen and Sean at home today. Glen is busy working on his vw -- its still not running. Sean is busy opening and closing all the cupboards, so I've been trying to "get things done". First task -- clean up my desk. Its a towering disaster of magazines, old report cards, post-it notes, receipts and other junk. I also uploaded about 400 photos to snapfish and ordered hardcopies. I haven't printed any photos since before Sean was born and am a little behind on his baby book. Ok ok...I haven't started it yet. But I do have all the supplies and now all I need are the photos. Ok...this computer on my desk has distracted me long enough. Time to get back to work...

Cruising the living room.

Ice Skating and Blocks

Sean had fun today putting the blocks back into the box. It started out very cute, as you can see in the video. However, soon he started to put blocks from Maggie's creation into the box and tempers began to flare. In the end, everything worked out. I preoccupied Sean while Maggie quickly finished her castle, then she let Sean help knock it down and they put the blocks away together. Lets just say I was stunned that I wasn't tripping over blocks later that evening. These kids just keep suprizing me lately.

Today was Maggie's first ice skating lesson. Only 2 other kids in her class. They worked on trying not to fall, skating forwards and backwards, and picking things up off the ice. I think the teacher was trying to get them to do more of a glide motion by having them skate and pick up rubber ducks off the ice without stopping. It seemed to be working. Maggie had lots of fun, and she didn't fall once! A huge difference over the last time we went ice skating where her jeans were soaking wet by the time we were done. She has an hour lesson every Saturday until school starts. Please forgive the picture. I had to take it through the hockey screen.

We are still enjoying swimming lessons. Maggie is quite good at the back stroke but hasn't figured out how to put her face in the water with the crawl stroke yet. She is the youngest in her class, and extrememly coordinated. She is enjoying it. I am taking a water aerobics class at the same time as Maggie's swim lesson which is fun. However, her class ends before mine. She sits on the side of the pool with her snack and hangs out with another girl whose mom is in the aerobics class also. We have an evening class and don't usually get home until almost 8 O'clock. Needless to say, everyone's bedtime has crept back about an hour this summer.

'G' rated movies are sooooo NOT!

Maggie and I went to the dollar theater this afternoon to watch Horton Hears a Who, an animated film adapted from a Dr. Suess book. It started off pretty well. We had our popcorn, we had our Sweedish fish, and Maggie had us sitting in the very front row. She was giggling along with the movie until the part with the vulture. It was sooooo scary! Maggie immediately wanted to leave and so we did. We went out and looked around at other things, played a video game, got a lemonaide refill, but I couldn't convince her to go back in. So after 30 minutes, we were done with that movie. There was some name calling in the movie and some snarky bits I hoped Maggie wouldn't catch, but it got me thinking that there just aren't a lot of kid movies out there! We waited OVER A YEAR for a 'G' rated movie I thought Maggie could handle and finally we tried Horton and were very disappointed. I sure wish they could make a G rated movie that was actually appropriate for kids!

Long summer days...

How do we fill them? Lots of playing at home, swimming at Grandma Nancy's, and the occassional field trip. We went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History, a.k.a. the "Dinosaur Museum" the other day.


I was pleasantly suprised. Lots of dinosaur bones and fossils, but also stuff specific to the southwest such as Hohokam history and artifacts. They had a mock-up of the Lost Dutchmanns mine which was dark and scary, at least to Maggie it was. She really didn't want to go in there, but we convinced her. They also had an old jail from a hundred years ago. And gold panning!

Gold panning was Maggie's favorite. They had puzzles and games to play throughout the museum, and we had a fun time. Glen and Sean's favorite part was the 4 story tall "flash flood" exhibit which had a real flash flood every 23 minutes. We had our watched synchronized so that we could see each one while we were there!

Sean is still teething teeth #3 and #4 and is exceedingly grumpy. The only thing that made him happy during the museum was being carried on Daddy's shoulders.

Here are a few pictures of everyday summer living here at the Hestenes household. Since school has been out, Maggie and Sean have been playing really well together. I think the lack of stress has made Maggie a much happier camper. Plus, she is really growing up and turning into a great big sister.

This morning, they spent over an hour playing together without me having to interrupt and without someone breaking into tears (Sean) or yelling (Maggie). It was great. I hope we have more days like that. Grandma Carolyn's birthday present for Sean (the pull back cars) are a big hit. I'm not sure who likes them more...Maggie or Sean.

Happy Birthday Sean!

My baby boy is 1 years old! I can't believe it! I know this is cliche', but...where did the time go? It seemed like just yesterday I was lounging on the couch with a newborn snuggled up on my shoulder. Time flies.... Here is a little video clip of him with his cake. I made a wheat-free carrot cake with cream cheese icing. He tasted a bit when I put some to his mouth, but he mostly just wanted to get out of the highchair and play with his new toys.

Maggie painted her face with face paints and put on her dress from Katrin's wedding in order to fancy up for the party.