Summer is here!

Not that our May vaca wasn't a fantastic start to our summer, but it's now June and we have officially started our "summer schedule." I'm a nerd and I really like schedules and planning, and our summer schedule is really kind of beautiful. So today was our first official day!

Monday mornings are our only free morning from classes, so that's our morning to go swimming or to do outdoor outings. Today we went to the Dallas Zoo! The boys were so excited. We saw quite a few animals up close today; we only had time for the lemurs, mandrills, penguins, elephants, giraffes, and lions. But we actually got to see them all because they were close today - maybe because we went so early. Every time I go to the zoo I am struck by how magnificent our God is, because His creation is endlessly beautiful and mysterious and awesome. Today I was pointing out the unique features of each animal and talking about them with the boys, and when we "told" Daddy about our day this evening, Jack told him the special feature of giraffes is that they have long necks.  I thought that was impressive! Crazy how they are really learning and picking things up at this stage.

Back to the zoo - I let the boys out of the stroller so they could see, and of course they didn't want to go back in the stroller, which was a little stressful for mommy. But overall they did well walking on their own. We got there in time for the lion encounter and got to see the big male lions up close while the trainers encouraged their "behaviors" for meat - so cool!

After that we went to the children's area and the boys played on the playground, visited the pony (no rides today, sorry guys), the bird enclosure, and played in the water. They didn't even protest leaving, they were so tired!

After naps, we started our alphabet boxes, and today was the letter A. This was really fun! I saw it on Pinterest and have been wanting to try this, and it was a really neat activity. I put in "A" flashcards, a couple of 3D letter A's, A blocks, an apple, airplane, alligator, ace card, and a couple of "A" notepads. We read a book that started with the letter A (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) and looked for A's, sang "The Ants go Marching," and colored the letter A pages. Ben & Jack really liked it and told Daddy about learning the letter "A" today, pointing it out to him when he asked. So maybe it will even work and we'll learn the alphabet before the fall! Either way, it was cool.

Aren't they so cute :)

Pretend eating the apple after coloring

Of course we both had to do it!

Our play activity was a box of rocks and construction trucks. This kept them engaged for half an hour of play and pretend and we all had a blast! When I told them it was time for an activity, the boys (Jack, especially) got REALLY excited, dancing around and chanting "Tivity!" while I got it ready. I love that they get so enthusiastic about our fun activities. It's serious positive reinforcement for me to keep them coming :)