Sprinkler Park

Something that has been really fun for us this summer has been a sprinkler park that our friend discovered a few months ago. It's not as big or fancy as the other one we've been to, but it's about half the drive!


We've been several times this summer and Caroline loves it. We went yesterday and were the only ones there! Which I think is great, but Caroline is usually disappointed if there's no "big kids" to play with.



The other great thing about it is there's a huge playground next to it, that's shaded! Why aren't there more playgrounds with SHADE?!!

We usually bring a picnic lunch and spend a couple of hours going back and forth between sprinklers and park.

I used to lament the fact that Caroline had a late-fall birthday and would have to wait another year to go to kindergarten - especially since she's already so big for her age. But now that all her five-year-old friends are in school, I'm SO glad I have another year at home with her!!! I think things have worked out just fine, and even though she might look like a giant next year compared to her other fellow kindergarteners, I know she'll be ready AND I know I'll be ready too!

A Penny Saved

For several months now, Caroline has been saving money for a new Barbie. We explained to her that we couldn't just buy her toys for no reason all the time, and her birthday and Christmas were far away, so if she wanted something she was going to have to work, save, and be patient. She did really well with this, and had a bank that she collected coins in. If she found coins on the street, or if Dave gave her change from his pockets, or if she did extra "chores" to earn money she would put it in her bank and every now and again she'd pull it out and ask us to help her count. Some of the chores that Caroline can do for money are:
-Dusting the living room with a Swiffer duster
-Cleaning her room with no help (if she asks for help she doesn't get the $)
-Wiping the kitchen table and counters with a washcloth
-Setting the table for dinner


After several months of this, Caroline started to get restless with her money. She no longer wanted to save and wanted to spend it on things like Icee's at Target. So we told her that if she would keep earning and saving that in 2 weeks she could go get her Barbie and we would pay the difference if she was short.


She knew exactly which one she wanted ahead of time. She has had her eye on it for quite a while! When we went to Walmart and they didn't have it, I was a little worried, thinking that they stopped making it - it's been a long time since she started saving!


But we went to Target and there it was! She was so proud to hand her money to the cashier who was nice and patient (we didn't use all the pennies and nickels- she gave those to Dave who gave her paper and quarters).


She loves her Bicycle Barbie and hopefully since she had to work and wait for it, she'll take good care of it too!

At our house...

Not much excitement around here lately, but here's what we've been up to...

We visited a friend last week and she gave Caroline this birdhouse. Caroline was so excited and insisted we paint it as soon as we got home. We still haven't figured out how or where we're going to put it outside, but we will soon and Caroline will be so proud to see little birdies visiting!


We were supposed to start watching the boys again full-time this week, but due to a registrar's error, the dates were wrong and now we don't start for another month! I was a little disappointed, but we still had them over a couple times to play and Caroline was actually very excited and they got along surprisingly great! I think this is what changed her mind: About a week ago I told her the boys would be coming to our house almost every day again and she groaned. I then told her that Jaden had a birthday over the summer and was 3 now, so he would be more fun to play with than a 2-year old. She totally bought it and is looking forward to their visits now!



This isn't the greatest picture but you get the idea. Caroline has become re-fascinated with baby dolls and carries them around all the time. She asked me to teach her how to "wrap it up like a burrito" (which is how we described they way we used to swaddle her when she was a baby) and she can now do it by herself quite well!


And lastly, the video games. It wasn't more than a month or so ago that I was wondering how old she would be before she caught the video-game-fever and was asking for a Wii or a DS or something. Well it just so happened that I came across a killer deal on games for Playstation 2, which we have, but don't use very often. I bought a Princess game and let Caroline give it a try to see if she could even do it. Well, she can! And now she wants to play video games, not all the time, but at least once every day! Sometimes she convinces Dave and I to join in, although I'm not much of a gamer. Hey, she's devolping hand-eye coordination or some junk like that, right?