Summer Swing of Things

I've been looking forward to summer for months.  Not just because of the warm weather, but because I've been excited (and a little nervous) to have Koen back home every day and enjoy these beautiful months with my 3 boys.  This week was our official start.  Here's a look at what we've been up to...

On Monday Tavin had his first speech therapy session where I was asked to go in the observation room instead of sitting in on the session with him.  He was confident and proud of himself to stay with his therapist on his own.  Thankfully I get to watch him through a window and wear headphones so I can hear all that's going on.  It's a pretty interesting (and cute) view.

The speech therapy continues to be quite an adjustment for me (appointments, phone calls, coverage, heartache over watching him struggle through speech, etc., etc.), but Tavin seems to enjoy it more and more.  He looks forward to his "school" each time for which I am so thankful.  On Tuesday we finished our therapy sessions with the Pittsburgh Public Early Intervetion program.  They run on the school calendar.  We may get a few weeks of therapy in the home over the summer, but we were sad to bid farewell to "Miss Rachel" whom Tavin has enjoyed so much.  Next Fall Tavin will have a therapist from this same program come directly into his preschool for 45 minutes per week.  

After Penn's morning nap on Tuesday, we headed to Highland Park to meet up with my dear mommy friend, Deborah.  She and I haven't hung out at all this year as Koen and Miles attended different schools and getting together on days off just never worked.  We have a standing playdate every Tuesday this summer so that we can get these two guys together frequently.  They play really well together and have known one another practically since birth, so it's a fun friendship to continue to develop (not to mention I love hanging out with Deborah and Tav has a friend in her middle child, Claire, as well).  They had a blast running around the playground equipment and then thought the tire swing was fun.

Tav had his own twirling swing thing happening.

After a picnic lunch the boys wanted to climb on the rocks.  They ended up getting an idea to collect sticks and build a "fire."  

They were so proud of their "fire" construction, they wanted me to take a picture.

I decided not to pass up this opportunity to get all 6 of our children (seems crazy that we have that many kids!) in a photo together.  Here's the best of the...well, attempts.

The kids had so much fun together.  I'm already excited for next Tuesday.  It was great to have them outdoors, playing in the woods and at the playground and finally getting these good friends back together.  Thanks for meeting up, Deborah!  

With Koen home this summer and my aptitude for planning, I set up a calendar for us so that I would have an idea of how to keep afternoons interesting for my pal who is up much of the little guys' naptimes.  Koen still does rest time for about 45 minutes to an hour where he listens to audio books or plays with Legos, but the rest of the time he's usually hanging around on the first floor with me.  I wanted to plan a few things to keep him learning this summer as well as to help me be prepared with some ways to spend some quality time with him in these special times where it is just he and I.  So, on our calendar for Tuesday was a science experiment!  Thanks to Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan's birthday gift for Koen we have a great book full of ideas and I've mapped out which ones we will do this summer (about 1 a week).  Our first one had to do with leaves.  We went on a leaf hunt while at Highland Park and then here's Koen sorting them by shape and size in the afternoon.

After making some observations we did some leaf tracing.  I haven't done this since I was a kid and it was a fun pleasure!  Both Koen and I loved the surprise of seeing the leaf detail come through as you rub a crayon across the paper with the leaf under it.  I was impressed at how interested he was in the project and how many leaves he wanted to do.

After nap/rest times, we headed up the street for another classic summer activity...hanging out on the sidewalk with our many neighbors who have kids similar ages.  We are so blessed to be on a street with so many families (and ones that love to just hang out and play almost every evening!).  It's a great activity for post-nap and pre-dinner.  Penn ate his dinner in the stroller while Koen and Tavin ran around and played.  Penn has his own buddy, Everett.  They are about 7 weeks apart.

Today (Wednesday), we had some more start-of-summer-schedule fun.  I've made a standing Wednesday playdate with another family that we lost touch with this year due to differing school schedules.  It was a happy reunion today when we got all the kids together (total of 7, but 5 are pictured here picnicking).

While the big boys were busy eating, I put Penn in the swing.  He is literally gleeful when he's swinging.  He hums/sings as he floats back and forth.  It's precious.

The big bros did end up coming over to help push Penn.  They would've love to practically send him flying, but I stayed close by to keep them under control.

After the swinging, Koen and Tavin enjoyed about an hour and a half of playing with Owen, Claire and Carson.  They are all a nice match for playing together and it was such a positive time seeing them play well.  The best was when they made the playground equipment their ship and they marched over to us to report for duty.  They all had sticks with them and went on to fight the enemy before running back to their ship.  =)  Adrianne and I had fun finally catching up after a schoolyear of barely seeing one another.  This has been such a fun start to summer this week.  We are so thankful for our great friends and neighbors to share our summer with!