Last Day of July

This is a completely random post of thoughts going through my head on this last day of July.

Today is the last day of July...summer is almost over. Well, I guess it actually goes until Sept. 21, but summer as we know it ends when school starts back in late Aug.

First of all, here are my girls at the splash park. The sun was right in their eyes, so I couldn't get them to look at the camera. Plus, with all the fun and excitement of the splash park going on, I couldn't keep them too long as they were quite ready to start playing. I wanted to include these pictures because it reminds me of how we have spent so much of our summer...in swimming suits!

Can you just read it on their faces..."come on mom, can we pleeease go now?"

We have thoroughly enjoyed our summer. I posted a video clip of Katelyn jumping off of the diving board at the beginning of the summer. Well, that is old news by now. That girl likes to be thrown across the pool or from the diving board without her life jacket! She swims above and under the water now without her life vest. She has really become quite the water bug this year.

Kennedy became very interested in letters and sounds this summer. I had noticed that she was talking about letters, but didn't realize that she knew almost all of the letter names and sounds. I love that she has learned them on her own, thanks to the Letter Factory DVD.

I am actually getting excited for school to start. I have had so much fun buying Katelyn's school clothes. She is going to look so darn cute. Unfortunately, her school isn't air conditioned, so I have had to be careful as to what I can buy her so far, long sleeves and pants are impossible due to the heat.

I am not sure if Kennedy is going to Friday "Playgroup" this fall or not. She isn't potty-trained. If she doesn't decide to use the potty regularly before Labor Day, then she won't be able to attend. She is only 2 years, 4 months. So, I am not too worried. If she isn't ready for potty-training, that's fine. After all, she is my baby. I don't want to push her to grow up too fast. Pull-ups really are the only "baby" thing she still does. She never took a pacifier and we put her in a full-sized bed well before her 2nd birthday. She decided this summer that she was just too big for sippy cups, so I threw them all away. If she wants to hang onto pull-ups, so be it for now.


I am going to have a student teacher this year, for the first time. I am really excited about this new opportunity. Additionally, I am the Literacy Specialist for my school (but I still teach 1st grade). I love learning all of the newest research and best practices in the area of literacy, now I get a chance to keep up my learning and share that info. with the staff. I also got a SmartBoard for my classroom. It is so cool! It is an interactive whiteboard/computer screen. I literally have the Internet at my fingertips as well as word processing, slide shows, videos, etc. It changes the way I will do so many things...bye-bye overhead projector!

Well, I told you it was a random post. I have loved being home with my girls this summer. I am so fortunate to have a job that I enjoy and also get nearly 3 months at home with my babies!