Summer Splashing!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind and I am only just now catching my breath!

My sister’s family came in town to visit for a week and the boys have grown so much in the seven months since we’ve seen them!  Two kids under the age of 3 is both very fun / funny and energy sapping.  My youngest nephew is just now starting to get his legs under himself and pulling himself up on all the furniture, while the oldest one is a human sponge and in the mode of trying to listen to and understand everything that he hears.  Even though we had four adults to the two kids, I still felt like we were outnumbered.  During their visit, Bowie made himself scarce and spent most of his time in the backyard where the kids weren't.  Our only dog-child wasn't used to sharing his squeaky toys with anyone and he was extremely concerned whenever the 10 month old got a hold of one.

My sister took the occasion to book a photographer and do a family photo shoot (with the grandparents too!) - such a smart idea.  The boys behaved as well as could be expected and the sneak peeks we got of the pictures are really quite lovely.  We even ended up matching our outfits (more or less).

Ever the king of scavenging, Bryan picked up a strider bike, a tricycle, and a toddler-sized plastic Adirondack chair that were being dumped in our neighborhood and cleaned them up prior to their arrival.  My oldest nephew was OBSESSED with sitting in the chair and refused to sit anywhere else during our family photos outside.  The tricycle was also a big hit and we were barely able to get him off of it toward the end of the trip.

Due to multiple unforeseen travel snafus and the Crowdstrike failure, they ended up staying with us 5 days longer than they intended, although their checked luggage flew back to Oregon without them.  The kids were incredibly resilient through the travel changes and even though the delays caused their parents undue amounts of stress, by the time they left, the kids were fully acclimated to being in Texas with their routines intact.  I think my sister was also shocked by the amount of stuff that they could get by without.

The neighborhood cat and pinecones were also a big hit

Even though it was still quite hot outside, particularly for our visitors from the Pacific Northwest, we tried to get the kids outside as much as possible.  A few of the things that were a hit?

This splash pad on Amazon.  We decided to on the spur of the moment to bust it out during a party with my sister's friends and their kiddos and all of the little ones thought it was a blast.  Even my nephew who doesn’t like getting his face wet enjoyed playing in it, especially after he saw all of the other kids dive bombing into it.

Bubble wand.  My sister grabbed one of these from a toy store we went to and it was almost as popular as the toy car that my nephew took home.  Target has bubble liquid refills you can buy but I think you can also make your own.

Hiccapop.  We have been using this inflatable toddler bed for the last two visits and although it took a bit of time for him to get used to, it is very durable and was extremely easy to move / reinflate.  We should be able to get a few more years of use out of it, since it's long enough for big kids too.

And lastly, the thermacell.  I've written about it before but we turned this on every time we were outside with the boys and they didn't get bitten by mosquitoes once while they were over here, which is pretty amazing considering it was raining off and on the time they were here.