The Vance's

Here's just a sample of what we've been up to this past week.

More swim lessons! The kids' teacher is so good and really pushes them to learn proper stroke technique all while having fun.

 Our sitter sent me this picture of Simon the other day while I was at work. He was insisting on climbing in her kitchen drawer all day long. The kids have so much fun at her house each week. She has 2 kids who are great friends with our kids and even better...she lives just a few houses down from us!

 We love our local farmers markets! The kids love looking at each booth and surprisingly do very well just looking and not grabbing every single thing they see. I love the opportunity to teach them about buying local, especially produce. A few days ago we were in need of an afternoon snack and local berries were the perfect choice!

 Then it was time to do a little grocery shopping. Shopping with 3 kids isn't always my idea of a fun time. But, pushing the massive car cart to contain 2 kids while the 3rd is up top with me helps. Well, that and the free cookie they get from the bakery!

 Carter (and every other young boy we know) is big into Legos. He even gets a Lego magazine each month. The last issue he noticed a contest he could enter to win more Legos. So he spent time thinking about what he should build and spent a solid hour in his room creating this "Hawaiian volcano" to enter into the contest. I hope he wins!

 Yesterday we spent the morning at church but since it falls right during Simon's morning nap he ended up refusing to go into the nursery and hanging out in the preschool room while Matt and I taught Sunday School. That meant a later in the day nap when we got home which eventually led to cuddling in my arms for the last hour. It was a nice little break for both of us!

 After he woke up from his nap we headed up to the Everett AquaSox game. Matt had tickets and a group of people from work were meeting there for pre-game catered food and fun. This really is the perfect way to bring our kids to the game. Closer to our house, cheaper tickets, a huge grassy field to run and play, free parking, bounce houses and Felix happened to be pitching last night, which was so fun to see! The kids could have spent the entire time in the bouncy houses but they still enjoyed watching the game and eating some kettle corn.

 Simon did pretty great too, considering he's officially a squirmy toddler who is more interested in walking everywhere than sitting in a seat in a crowd of people. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon for a baseball game and another thing we could check off our summer bucket list. Happy July!