Unbelievably HOT!

It has been UNBELIEVABLY HOT this summer! The last 3 weeks or so have been at least 95 to 100 degrees actual temp and some days even hotter! We haven't been able to do much of anything outside lately. We usually get hot weather for a week or two, but not this early. The only thing we have been able to do outside is spend a lot of time at the pool! Luckily we have a nice one in our subdivision so we are there alot. Speaking of swimming, Payton has been doing great at swimming lessons. Tonight he swam the entire length of the pool! I was so proud of him I teared up. What kind of person cries a swimming lessons! A proud mama, thats who! I was pretty sure he could do it, but he was a little apprehensive. Now he is so proud of himself and knows he can do it!
Another way we stayed cool is by heading to Iowa this past weekend! It was hot up there as well, but not the 104 that it was in Kansas City! We have been wanting to spend some time with my dad, so we planned a weekend to go up do just that. We took him to John Deere commons and looked at the tractors and such. While we were there, we also went to Antique Archeology, which is the place from the American Pickers show. Justin loves that show, so he was so excited! We also went to the Bettendorf family museum. We were also able to meet up with some dear family and friends while we were there. We went to my cousins house and Payton was so excited to hang out with Allie! He adores Allie. He is normally pretty shy, but he just attaches to her and loves spending time with her.
We were reminded on this trip that Easton not only dislikes car rides, but after about 4 hours, he HATES car rides! He does okay at first, and then he hits a point where he is just done.
We are starting to get ready for back to school. Last week Payton we enrolled in 1st grade! He starts school in 3 weeks! So now we need to do some back to school shopping! So only a few more weeks of summer! Hopefully it cools off a bit so we can enjoy the summer before it is over!

Month full of celebrations!

I haven't had a chance to update a blog lately because we have just been too busy having fun! If I had to sum up the past month, I would say it was filled with lots of celebrations! We started off June with Eastons 2nd birthday party! We held it at my moms again because she has a wonderful patio and back yard. It was supposed to storm all day, so we decided to move the party to the garage. It didnt end up storming, so we could have been outside, but thats okay, everything still turned out and the kids had fun! He had an Elmo themed party with an Elmo cake and decorations! Around that same time in June, Payton went to Camp Invention. He LOVED it! It was a week long and he got the opportunity to create and invent things and do science experiments. The last day was an inventors showcase where the parents got to go and see what they worked on all week. He is already asking to go back next summer, so we will have to find a way to be able to send him again.
The next weekend was Justins birthday/my moms birthday/and fathers day! I made Justin a baseball cake because we got him tickets to the Cubs/Royals series here in KC. Once the schedule came out months ago and he heard that the Cubs were coming to KC, he has been begging to go. This is the first time that the Cubs have played in KC in over 10 years! I know someone, who knows someone who has amazing seats in the Diamond Club. You get private bathrooms and concessions, etc. So, for his birthday, I got him these seats for one of the games! My mom surprised Justin with a Tiramasu cake from an italian restaurant! He loves tiramasu. It is his favorite dessert! She also got him a lawn bin. It sounds funny, but he has been asking for one forever and I thought they were more then I wanted to spend. In our city, you can use the paper bags for your lawn clippings, or you can buy from the city a bin that is similar to our garbage cans we have to use. Every time he would mow he would mention how much easier it would be if he had one of these bins! My mom was so creative and had it sent to our house so when he came home from work one night it was sitting outside!
The next weekend was the Cubs and Royals games! Justins brother, Jeremy and his girlfriend Katie came down to go to some of the games as well. Justin was in heaven! He got to go to all 3 games! I only went to two. On Sunday we took the boys and my mom to the game. It was HOT! We had a great time though. While Jeremy was here he made sure to make time to do Legos with Payton! I am not sure if he buys them for himself or for Payton!!
Then, the final celebrating that we had was the 4th of July. Due to Justins work schedule, we were not able to make our annual trip to Eastern Iowa. We were really bummed and Payton was pretty mad about it. So we made sure to do some fun stuff around here. One night we went to moms and cooked hot dogs and smores over the firepit and lit some fireworks. The next night we went and watching fireworks in our city. It wasn't the same as watching fireworks in Dixon, but we made it work.

It has been unbelievable hot here lately. I just saw the 7 day forcast and the lowest high is going to be 94. Next week it will be 98-100 degrees actual temp. We have been trying to stay cool by playing in the water and going to the pool. But some days it is actually too hot for that! Enrollment for school is already next week and in just a month Payton will be starting first grade! He has been busy doing lots of reading and workbook pages over the summer. Easton is now in the 2 year old room at school and becoming a chatter box! He now wants you to watch everything. He will yell mommy, repeatedly until you watch! So now I have two of them saying, mommy, watch!
I hope everyone is having a funfilled summer! I have added lots of pictures to the Summer of 2011 album.