Lizards at the library

 I LOVE the Taylorsville Library. They always are so nice and they have great programs for kiddos in the summer. One Wednesday morning they had a woman come that had tons of lizards and snakes and small animal/reptiles so of course we had to go.

 This guy (not sure if you can tell in this picture) had a huge boa around his neck. Whoa.

 Collin of course had to come partially in costume. That's just how he rolls.

Collin plays t-ball

 I finally decided I could do some kind of sport for Collin this year. But, I did NOT want a long commitment or something expensive until I decided if Collin would like it. Taylorsville Rec just had a month long t-ball team that was for the month of July, so perfect for what we needed. Collin was VERY excited to play.

 It was quite funny to watch. Collin's age group went from age 3 to 5, so he was definitely one of the bigger kids, but the games were mostly just to start learning the game.

 Sometimes Collin would get distracted, or need to come in for a drink of water while playing out on the field. By the end of the month, he was a much better hitter. He was definitely the fastest runner on his team.

 There were DEFINITELY some hot games since they were played at 530 or 630. Can you see a tomato in Collin's face? Yep, Tippets blood again.

 He was SO excited to get snacks after each game.

 Liam was a pretty good watcher and he often got a snack too because the mommies were nice and brought extras.

 It was really fun to go and watch and just have a low key introduction to baseball. Good job Collin!

July 4th

 Lots of Ryan's family came into town for the 4th of July, so we got to play LOTS with our Sintay and Walker cousins. It was really fun. That morning, we drove up to hike around Silver Lake and go to the parade. My kids LOVE the parade. They just want the candy, but it's nice because it is short, not as hot, and there is still lots of candy.

 It was actually ridiculous how much candy they got and ate in less than an hour, but it was really fun.

 Liam got a huge sucker and once he got that he was NOT taking that thing out of his mouth.

 Liam LOVED Gracie. She was so nice to him. Seriously, I wish she lived closer, she would have been the very, very best babysitter. He really attached himself to her.

 Then we hiked around the lake. Collin made it up the huge hill this time. Liam tried, but I wasn't going to let him attempt it to the top on those totally short legs!

 And hey, the boys liked fireworks this year. It was pretty miraculous actually. Seriously, finally 6 years in the making, Collin only came in once for loudness, and we didn't even have headphones. NICE!

July 2014 swimming lessons

 I finally decided to do swimming lessons this year. I had done it 2 summers ago when Collin was just turning 4 and decided we could do it again. A friend recommended this woman who did it out of her backyard, and I am SO glad we did it there. It was perfect for us. They lessons were an hour long and so no going back and forth just for an hour. They had 45 to 50 minutes of swim time and then 10 minutes of play in the water time. And they always got an Otter Pop at the end.

 Collin really came a long ways in swimming. It's hard to commit more than 2 weeks for me, because it was challenging to get them going at 2pm, but he learned how to hold his breath under water better and several of the beginning strokes.

 One of the biggest things is he learned (when we went swimming ourselves later this summer) to jump off the side and into the pool all by himself. Big step for him.

 Liam's little class was just starting, but he got to practice back floating and bobbing and some other fun things.

 The thing I liked best is it helped me kids learn if you get under water and get scared, BLOW BUBBLES and you will come to the top. We are definitely going to try and do this again next summer.

 It was fun just to sit and watch them go swimming. They always did motorboat at the end.

Taylorsville Dayzz

 We had heard if you dress up as any characters from Frozen kids could ride the kiddie rides for free. SCORE! So we headed over there the first day dressed as Hans....with our very creative costumes.

 Liam wore his helmet and brought the sword, and Collin wore his Hans shirt from Sadee.

 If you look closely you can see the little helmet on the big Ferris Wheel with Uncle Jeff. Liam was brave enough to ride it.

 It was fun to see our Jameson friends there so we spent a lot of time with them. We would have stayed longer, but then it started pouring rain at about 600 and so we came home, but it was so fun riding rides for free!

Booksneeze/Thomas Nelson Review Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook

I really enjoy reading cookbooks. Normally I base a review of a cookbook on how many recipes I would like to make or make and they taste awesome. This book is based on two ladies who start a Third Thursday potluck cooking group with people from all walks of life. Having participating in a monthly cooking group at random times through my life, I found this endearing. Each month has a different theme and some musings at the beginning of that month’s recipes.

This being said, some of the recipes are intimidating for a stay-at-home mom cook of small children. However, there are quite a few recipes I would like to try, especially those that involve using items from home-grown gardens. I love the idea of everything is potluck style and fits with different times of the year, since I find myself often cooking based on moods and feelings of different times of the year.

Another thing I love with cookbooks is if each recipe includes a picture. Not every recipe includes a picture with it, which doesn’t totally matter, just helps please the palette of a cookbook. Since I don’t use alcohol, several of the recipes I will probably never make, but overall, the theme and endearment of this cookbook makes it worth taking a look at.