The Hadley Family's Adventures: June 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pandamania!!!

Week 3 of summer was vacation bible school and week 1 of swim lessons at Houston Swim Club. This year's theme was Pandamania, where God is wild about you! The boys and I had so much fun!!! Even Jude seemed to have fun in the nursery this year even though he cried every day when I dropped him off. I was actually quite happy to not be assigned to either one of my children's group this year. My group was comprised of 7 little girls who will be starting first grade in August. I think the director knew I had four boys and decided to take pity on me and only give me girls. They were all so sweet and a wonderful change from my kiddos. We all had fun learning the songs and dances and of course the message of the day - God made you, God listens to you, God watches over you, God loves you no matter what, and God gives good gifts. There were also Bible verses for each day but I can't remember them all. I think all the kids' favorite part of the day was skits. The junior high and high school kids do such a wonderful job acting out the stories from the Bible but keeping it fun and entertaining for the younger audiences. We also did a craft each day, ate a snack, watched a video and played games. Everything we did kept in mind the message of the day. I'm sorry I don't have any photos to share. The director told us not to take pictures since some of the parents didn't want their children photographed.

Each day after VBS, we picked up Jude and Jonah and headed back to the family center for lunch. While this was convenient, James and John didn't care for the lunch provided on a couple of days. Next year we might have to pack a lunch for those days. Once we ate lunch and wound down a bit, it was off to run a couple of errands before heading to swim lessons at Houston Swim Club. My mom found the swim club online and offered to pay for the boys' lessons this summer. They had a great first week. I knew James would do well but was worried about John. He doesn't like his face to get wet so I knew that would be an obstacle for him. Thankfully he's been willing to get his face wet and actually swim underwater for his teacher. I'm hopeful that by the end of the two weeks, that he'll be on his way to being a proficient swimmer.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Cub Scout Twilight Camp

Summer is officially underway at the Hadley House. The first full week Brian was out of town for work so the boys and I just laid low. Lots of swimming, relaxing and getting prepared for three busy weeks in a row. The first week was spent at cub scout twilight camp. Unfortunately there are no pictures to share as I was too busy to take any/forgot my camera every day. James and John attended camp and I volunteered. Brian took the afternoons off to stay with Jude and John and get some work done on his truck. Camp was tons of fun but also VERY tiring. It officially ran from 3-8 but we were busy and on the go from 2-9 and sometimes later. Thankfully it really wore the boys out and they all slept late the entire week. James earned the Archery belt loop and pin, Baseball belt loop and pin, Marbles belt loop and pin, and the Soccer belt loop and pin. He's very excited to be receiving awards during the first pack meeting of the school year. There was only one little boy from his pack there but there were quite a few other kids from his school that he saw/were in his group. I definitely got the premier volunteer spot. I was with the Hummingbirds which were the 3-5 year old children of volunteers. The reason it was a primo spot was that we were in an air conditioned building the majority of the time. I think I'll definitely be volunteering for that room again next year when Jude can start attending camp. John was actually with me all week long and was pretty well behaved. We had play-doh which is one of his favorite things to do so he was happy as long as it was out. We did TONS of arts and crafts and spent about an hour or so outside in the little swimming pools each evening. You could definitely tell the kids and volunteers were tired as the week went on. Each day seemed to end earlier and earlier. We had to do a lot of cleaning the last day and the boys and I were still left camp before 8:15. It was a great week for the kids and I think it will be on the list of things to do next summer.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Jonah at 9 months

The word for this month is MOBILE!! Jonah is definitely on the move and while he can't completely control where he ends up, he's definitely going places. He's not 100% crawling yet but the second I sit him down, he's getting onto his tummy and then on to all fours if possible. He mainly moves backwards and in circles but occasionally he's made forward progress. He's figuring out how to move his hands and drag himself along. As I type this, he just managed to get from his tummy back into a seated position which will come in handy for the times he's tired of being on his stomach. I imagine in the next month he'll be a little speed demon.

Not much else has changed in Jonah's world. He's still eating about the same amounts of foods although he has been eating some table foods. He doesn't have any teeth so they are just things he can gum easily. He really seems to enjoy the fruit puffs and the fluffy part of popcorn (I take off the left over kernel parts). He likes to eat with us when we go out to dinner so I have to remember to take some food for him or order him applesauce. He's tried just about every fruit and veggie Gerber makes but hasn't moved on to the meals containing meat just yet. Maybe next month.

Jonah's 9 month check up went really well. Not only is he really tall for his age (74th percentile) but he's been growing by leaps and bounds weight wise. At 4 months he was in the 30th percentile for weight. At 6 months he was in the 40th percentile and now at 9 months, he's just above the 50th percentile. He weighed in at a whopping 20lbs 10oz!!! Not bad for a guy who started out at 5 lbs 6oz. He's still taking Prevacid for his reflux and we haven't discussed when to start weaning him off if it. Thankfully the pharmacist adds flavoring to his medicine so he doesn't mind taking it each morning.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

James' End of Year Celebration

Last Tuesday was James' end of year celebration and the boys and I had a great time. Ms. Meyer read a list of some of the things the kids accomplished over the year like how many spelling words they learned and how many teeth they lost. It was amazing to hear just some of the things the kids learned this year. After that, she read out which awards the kids had earned and had them each read something they wrote about first grade. The kids wrote about their favorite part of the school day or their favorite subject as well as something about their favorite field trip of the year. It was so great to see each of the kids reading something they had written out loud to the room. The kids then read of their top ten list as a class. Thankfully John, Jude, and Jonah were all well behaved. John and Jude found some toys to play with in the back of the class while all of this was going on so that kept them nice and quiet.

Last Friday the whole school had their end of year parties with each grade getting a 1 hour party in the gym. Thankfully 1st grade was from 1:30 to 2:20 so it was a great time to leave early for our Sea World trip. The party was a blast for the kids. We served them ice-cream sundaes and a variety of snack foods like cheese balls, chips and chex mix. The DJ the school hired was great. He had all the kids dancing the entire time. Plus he had great juggling skills that amazed the kids. It was a great way to close out the year. Just 2.5 days left of school and then it's summertime!!!

Sea World Getaway

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Sea World this year and had an absolute blast! Even though it was incredibly hot, we all had a great time. James went a few years ago with MaMaw and Poppa Steve but the rest of the boys had never been and Brian and I hadn't been in probably 10+ years.

We left for the weekend on Friday after James' end of year party. The drive took longer than expected due to a stop at Buc-ees and a stop to feed Jonah a bottle. It was also rough because Jonah refused to take a nap even though he was really tired and had not napped well that earlier day. Thankfully it got better once we arrived at the hotel. We had a total of three rooms for the whole family and there were super close to one another. We got the van unloaded and then headed to my parents room for James' birthday celebration. We enjoyed pizza and yummy cake and then James opened up his gifts. After that we got changed and headed down to the pool to swim before bedtime.

The next day we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before headed to Sea World. The first day we focused mainly on the shows and other attractions they have there. We saw the Beluga whale and dolphin show and the sea lion show. Unfortunately, we had to wait until Sunday to see Shamu since the 4 pm show was full. James and Jocelyn rode the Steel Eel roller coaster and both James and John rode the Shamu Express. The boys also fed the dolphins at the Dolphin Cove, saw sharks at the aquarium and visited the penguin exhibit. We ended up calling it a day around 4 Saturday afternoon because the heat had become unbearable. We got back to the hotel, cleaned up and then headed to Genghis Grill for dinner. Later that night the older boys went swimming at the hotel pool.

On Sunday we managed to do just about everything else at the park. We played at the new Sesame Bay of Play until the rest of the park opened up at 11. The boys did some of the rides and enjoyed the splash pad area. My dad, Jocelyn, James and John headed out to ride the Journey to Atlantis water ride while my mom and I stayed with Jude to watch the Sesame Street show. Jude really enjoyed it and afterwards wanted to say hi to the characters - well from a distance. Once that was finished, we walked over to the ride area and watched the boats come down. We managed to see everyone on the boat and were all ready for them once they got off. Next up was the Shamu show - Believe. My sister and I noted how different the shows are these days. Lots of extras go into the productions. When we were little it was just the trainers showing everyone some of the behaviors the animals learned and educating the audience about the animals. Now it's all lights and film and costumes. Once the show was over, we grabbed lunch and looked into riding the Rio Loco. Unfortunately, the wait was 2.5 hours so we had to skip it. Jocelyn rode the Great White roller coaster which thankfully had no line. After that we were off to the Lost Lagoon water park where we spent the remainder of the day. It was really nice. The boys enjoyed the lazy river and the wave pool. James and Jocelyn did some of the body slides as well. We ended the day with snacks and playing at the Splash Attack. We grabbed dinner on the way back to the hotel - McDonald's for the kids and Bill Miller BBQ for the adults. We got cleaned up and ate and then dad, James and I went to see Thor.

Monday morning we got up, ate and then started loading up the cars. The ride home was uneventful and fairly quick despite the amount of traffic on I-10. We stopped at Buc-ee's for lunch and snacks and have found a new favorite - Beaver Nuggets. I'm not sure what goes in them but they are delicious!!!

All in all, it was a great weekend! We converted our tickets to season passes so we'll be going back again, hopefully when it's not so hot.