Bryce did a sink or float activity at school this year and it really stuck with him. While we were cleaning the playroom this week, he went through things he thought would be fun to test. Here were his predictions.
He had fun testing the items.
Here are the results.
It didn't take him long to test everything so he went through the house for more things and did a few more rounds of experimenting.
The picture on the left popped up on my time hop one day last week so I staged the kids for a "2 years later" picture.
The Jeep has been a great source of entertainment for the kids. Jason rigged up the wagon on the Jeep and Emmy loved being pulled around the yard.
Bryce had another successful week of chores last week. We hit up the monster truck aisle at Walmart today for a prize!
Jason saw a turtle crossing the road on his way home from work today so he picked it up and brought it home to show the kids. After checking him out, they put him in the back yard to make his escape. They named him Digger as he tried to dig under our fence. He was still in the yard when they last checked on him. I bet he'll be gone in the morning.
After four years in our house, I'm getting a little closer to my dream kitchen! We had some helpers willing to help daddy get the process started.
First step, knocking out a kitchen wall to create a bar looking into the eat in kitchen/living room.
Bryce took the job very seriously!
This is the before picture.
After
We still have to take down the rest of the wall on the right side, but we're waiting for a friend who does electrical work to take care of that. We're actually going to cut the wall down a little more once we take off the old backsplash because we'll be putting one flat piece of granite down for the new countertop.
This is the back view from the eat in kitchen/living room before the hole was cut.
Here is the after picture. I love how open it already looks!
These rooms are my inspiration. I will be painting the cabinets white myself because new cabinets just aren't in the budget!
I'm so excited about how open the space will be now. It will be a while before I have "after" pictures, but in the mean time, I will be picking paint colors for the kitchen and the living room since basically the entire downstairs will have to be painted because all of the rooms are connected!
We started the weekend at a birthday party for our friend Maggie on Friday night.
Bryce has been dying to bake our favorite red velvet chocolate chip cookies, but we never have chocolate chips because I may or may not eat them before they ever make it into cookies (just like refrigerator cookie dough). We went to the store Saturday just for chocolate chips and came right home and made them.
Emmy is such a good girl and so go with the flow. She never says a word in the mornings when she wakes up so I don't know if she's up unless I'm constantly checking the video monitor. We decided to go ahead and transition her bed so she could get out of bed on her own in the mornings. We didn't buy the toddler rail when we purchased this furniture for Bryce so we just used one of his old bed rails. She doesn't have much room to get in and out, but it works! She only got out of her bed once after the first bedtime and naptime and then she stayed in there jus like she was supposed to!
I took Bryce to get a haircut for a fundraiser for a friend of ours who was in a tragic accident (he has beat all the odds, and miraculously, he will be coming home soon). They styled it a little more than I typically do, but he looked so handsome and ready for kindergarten!
I re-styled it when we got home and he looked more like my Bryceman. Bryce has been doing chores all summer and he is such a good sport about it. I've been pretty lax with it since it's just to help us stay on a routine and we really don't have incentives for completion. However, he recently saw the Planes 2 movie and wants every single figurine from the movie! He was luckily able to get a few from grandparents who spoil him rotten, but I made him work for this last one! He filled EVERY space last week so I took him shopping after his haircut for his PRIZE!
Tonight we headed to Bryce's school for an ice cream social. This is Jason's cousin's daughter who we hope will be in Bryce's class.
And of course, Thomas, who we also hope will be in Bryce's class.
And because this was a Bryce heavy post, here's a sweet picture of my accessorized girl one day last week.
Emmy is the sweetest little thing. She adds more and more words to her growing vocabulary everyday. She speaks in full sentences and we can understand her most of the time! Her voice is so sweet and I wish I was better about videoing her so I can save that sweet voice forever. My favorite thing she says right now is, "Hey, what". Whenever she starts a conversation with you she says, "Hey, what". I think it's supposed to mean "guess, what" or "you know what".
She has a little sass to her, but for the most part she's easy to handle. She loves Macy and she and Bryce play really well together most of the time! She's not a fan of bows, but I get my way most of the time. Socks and shoes are her favorite except nothing she ever pairs together matches, but insists on wearing out of the house even after I give her ten different options. Oh well!
This picture came across my time hop today and I just melted. This was on my favorite pictures I ever took of Emmy. I'm not great with our SLR and editing, but I thought I did a pretty good job with this one. I was glad to see it this morning!
I'm enjoying spreading my birthday out over about a two week time period! I went out to dinner with a good friend before our vacation (which I posted about) and then we went out to dinner with my family the day before vacation. I actually convinced the kids to dress up, so I insisted on getting a picture!
My mom took the kids to Target one day to pick out gifts for me. I loved everything they chose and I must admit, they know me pretty well (you can't go wrong with polka dots, chevron and Nutella)!
My mom has this juice/drink carafe that I LOVE so I asked for one of my own. She delivered and I love it!
We were at the beach on my actual birthday so I insisted on a birthday beach selfie!
I even sprung for fun drinks for the kids to help me celebrate!
Jason's mom made a cake for dessert. Bryce's cheeks crack me up in this picture.
I already posted about this as well, but I love this towel and clips I got from my friend Donna. It kept me nice and warm on the chilly days at the beach!
I have one more birthday celebration planned tomorrow night with a few girlfriends. I love stretching a birthday out! So fun!
We were lucky enough to spend another week of vacation at the beach with Jason's family last week. This was our 6th trip to Sandbridge and it didn't disappoint. It didn't take me long to find my spot in the sand with my first book of the trip!
The boys made a little pool and would have been fine to stay there all day.
It didn't take much play time on the first day to wear Emmy out.
After the first day, I lost track of the days so the rest of these pictures our probably out of order.
These kick boards were the highlight of the week! They were even more fun in the pool, which I didn't manage to get any pictures of!
The boys took a trip on the paddle board one day.
The weather was actually fairly cool for the beach last week so we spent a lot of time wrapped in our towels (especially after getting out of the water).
She didn't get very wet, but she needed wrapping up too!
Love this boy!
One of my favorite pictures.
The kids each had their own beds, but both found their way into our beds once. She's so cute, but I'm SO not good at sleeping with kids in our bed.
Bryce tested out the bunk bed the last night once Chase and Taylor had left.
MeMa and her girls.
These two played really well together!
There were a few ice cream visits (or gummy bears, if you're Emmy).
There is a great playground that we visited a few times.
So much fun.
Cheese!
Bryce insisted I get a picture of him on this.
There was fishing on the pier. Bryce caught a fish, but it managed to fall off the hook before it was all the way in. Some how, it landed on the deck underneath us.
I got a picture for proof that he really did catch something.
I took advantage of any quiet time I got and was able to finish two books on vacation!
Poor Emmy had a run in with an accidental peanut butter cookie while we were gone and it was more than these amateur allergy parents could handle. We were lucky enough to not need her epi pen, but she needed a steroid because Benadryl didn't do the trick. It was quite scary, but she handled it like a champ and was rewarded with a Target shopping spree once she was feeling better!
I'll leave you with a video of Bryce boogie boarding!
