We met with our tour guide in the front lobby, and she took us around the center, highlighting different areas used by the VGK for practice (which we obviously knew about), but also gave us lots of cool info about the facility, like other happenings they host (UNLV hockey games!) and fun facts about the ice, it's maintenance and the facility itself. The kids were able to get a first hand touch on the ice, which they all thought was pretty cool (no pun intended).
While our guide was giving us all the details, the Zamboni came out to clean the ice, which all the kids lit up over. Even better, we were able to get up close and see the Zamboni and all it's functions behind the ice!
In between, we tried getting a picture of all the kids in their VGK gear... Acelyn was not thrilled about it.
We continued our tour upstairs, to visit the restaurant on site that overlooks the rinks, as well as the party rooms that serve for birthdays, work functions, even weddings! After our field trip, Nolan made it well known that he is definitely having his birthday at City National... so it looks like that's the plan for the big F-I-V-E!
After our tour of CNA, we laced up our skates and got to skating on the ice ourselves! I was really nervous about how I would handle both kids, plus myself, on ice skates alone... so I was crossing my fingers Nolan wouldn't need too much help and that I could handle skating on two feet, too! The kids were really excited about all their gear they got to wear to get ready to go....
We made our way to the rink, grabbed some red assistant walkers and stepped out onto the ice. A rink employee was there to help Nolan out since I had Acelyn, and to my utter shock, Nolan took a few steps, and literally TOOK OFF. He was so comfortable on the ice and completely did it, all on his own! I was so proud of him, especially since it was a bit out of character for him, but it really made my day to see him so excited and proud of himself for doing it alone! Plus, it helped me out when I basically had to glide-carry Acelyn across the ice for her experience around! The first trip around we ditched the assistant because she kept tripping over it. The second time around, my back was shot, so I made her use it and she finally got hang of it, eventually realizing she needed to move her feet to get herself to go, instead of me just pushing her!
Nolan was a champ and went around so, so, so many times! After we were done, he said, "MOM! I pretended I was Knight, and just got right back up when I fell down. I only fell, like, twice, but I just got back up and went skate skate skate!" Absolutely love his enthusiasm about this team, and we are SO set on having his birthday here because he just loved it so much!
After our time on the ice with our friends, we packed up to go, but not before making a stop to watch some pick up hockey games and a quick stop at the Arsenal to check out some new VGK goodies. We had the best time and it was definitely one of our favorite field trips. We can't wait to be back here more during the fall season for practices and more ice skating for ourselves!
We spent another weekend at the bowling alley (just call us pros, now) where Acelyn got a Strike and Nolan was just excited to use the dino ramp again!
I got a video of Acelyn with one of her favorite books, going over words and I'm loving her toddler talk, lately! "Tomatoes" is my favorite!
At school during the week, Nolan came home with some drawings during free play of his family. He said it was because he missed us!
Acelyn was busy learning about the number 6, the letter B and the color orange. She also made horseshoe prints and an oatmeal sheep, which might be my favorite project she's ever made. So cute! Her teacher snapped some pictures of them while they were making them, and sent them home to us.
She also sent pictures of their class playing with the sand table!
I set the kids up with water beads during the day, which lasted a whole two minutes before Acelyn chucked them across the room. Looks like she's still not quite ready to be trusted with these, just yet!
On Saturday, Courtney and I got up early and headed to the Freshly Picked warehouse sale that was in town. When we got there, there was no one in line at the door, so we grabbed some Starbucks breakfast, and then grabbed some spots in line when we saw people start to line up. We ended up being 4th and 5th in line, and waited just a bit before they opened the doors to score some goodies! The moccs were marked way, waaaay down at the sale, so we did our fair share of stocking up in sizes and came out with some good finds!
Right afterwards, we met up with the hubbies and kids at the Discovery Children's Museum for Amelia's 3rd Birthday party. We got there during pizza and balloon animals, where the kids decided to attack Isaac with their weapons (Nolan apparently asked for a giraffe).
We sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, who had the cutest unicorn cake and blew out her candles like a champ!
It was time to play, so the kids hit up all their favorite spots at the museum. Acelyn loved the grocery store this time around, and both kids had fun pretending to work at the airport.
Nolan always loves the science part of the museum, where we make parachutes and test them off the lift, as well as creating your own car and testing that down the ramps.
The arts room had a cool blacklight corner with fun neon paints, and Nolan wrote all over the walls.
We finished up in the water room (always last, because the kids get soaked!), and Nolan went right to work on his ball launching, while Acelyn ran around and kept to the smaller fountains.
It was a fun birthday celebration and we hope Amelia had the best day! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!
We spent Sunday running errands, and decided to take a quick visit to the airport to watch the planes land and take off. We hadn't done this in the longest time (actually, since the day before Acelyn was born!), and Nolan absolutely loved it. Acelyn thought it was cool for a minute, but then she was more involved with her sunglasses and looking adorable for a quick photoshoot.
It was the first week of school here, and I figured our timing was sort of right with their recent start of school, too, so we decided to take a quick little photoshoot for Back to School pictures, too! I also just felt odd having Preschool Back to School pictures last year, and then nothing this year. Even though it's "daycare", both kids have a curriculum and treat it just like "school", so I felt it was only necessary to give Nolan his own happy little back-to-school photoshoot, to continue the tradition!
Of course, Acelyn had to have her shining moment too.... so she got a printable "TWOs class" sign!
School has still been hit or miss over here, as I figured it would be, and I know it will take some time to get into a groove and good place. They often cry in the morning not wanting to leave, and sometimes there are tears at the door and saying goodbye, but I know they enjoy their day because I log in and see them playing, interacting and having fun! Hopefully they will be more comfortable with it soon, but in the meantime, they have a couple of good teachers and friends that really take them under their wing and I'm thankful for that.
I'm also thankful for good friends, like Courtney, who send pictures when she picks up Perry of what the girls are doing. It makes my heart so happy to see! On Tuesday, they were creating paper plate jellyfish! Since it was under the sea week, they also made the cutest little crabs on Wednesday.
When I picked up Acelyn from her room on Tuesday, she wanted to show me her Moana display outside of her class. She even has her own coconut!
Nolan worked on his letter A this week, coloring it his favorite color green, and brought home a tracing sheet from the previous week on the letter X.
He also started practices up for the new soccer season this week! We're hoping it goes better this time around than last, since he was so little before. He was really into his first practice and loved the free dribbling drill, while he kept it super serious at the weaving in and out of the cones drill but finished strong with a great shot on goal! We have a lot of our same friends we've played previous soccer and t-ball with, so it should be another fun season with them! Go Incredibles!
It was my birthday on Friday, and after Dad headed off to work, Nolan orchestrated the cutest birthday gift all on his own- my own birthday cake in bed! I melted when they brought it up to me by themselves and we all enjoyed some yummy fake cake.
We took Harley to get groomed, and he was SO happy and totally feeling himself on the car ride back home.
On Saturday morning, we took an adventure across town to find some Italian Rainbow Cookies, per my birthday request, and checked out New York Bagel and Bakery, where we had some of the best bagels in my life and stocked up on Rainbow Cookie (cake, kind of?) that was waaaaay too good. It was so New York and I loved the East coast vibe which reminded me of back East and family!
Since we were in the area, we decided to take a trip to Fashion Show Mall just to walk around and hang out. Of course that meant a trip to the Disney Store and Lego Store, as always! The kids loved the coloring table at Nordstrom, too.
That night, we had the Espejos and Luks over for dinner before heading to Mission Hills Park to watch Toy Story outside on their big screen. Jess brought tons of snacks for the kiddos, while the adults brought our water bottles full of drinks to get us through! The kids sat through some of the movie, but most of it was refilling snacks, dancing around with each other and just being kids! It made for something different to do that was fun, but we definitely took off before the end of the movie since half the kids were falling asleep and the other half were kind of over it!
The next week at school, Nolan was able to go on the Tumble Bus, and his teacher said he was a little nervous at first, but warmed up and did great! They sent pictures from his first time, which is always fun to see. It really helped out his day since he's had some rough ones lately (missing us on those long days!), and he talked about it for days afterwards. We hope to use the Tumble Bus as a rewards system for him on those good weeks he has at school!
We needed to get the oil changed in the car, so we went to the place with the arcade to keep the kids busy since it worked out so well last time. The kids were excited to play games right off the bat, but our quick hour oil change soon turned into a FOUR HOUR ORDEAL since we had extra stuff going on with our oil filter casing. The kids were losing their minds despite all the snacks, iPads and arcade games surrounding them. We ended up taking a walk down the street to a new sandwich shop which was SO good, so the one good thing to our morning. Jason had to take work off and pick us up because there was noooo way we could hang any longer, and thank Goodness because the car wasn't finished until close to 4PM! Yikes. It was quite the day.
Another week at school, and it was Acelyn's turn to try out the Tumble Bus! They said she did amazing, even though she told me later, "bus was hawd (hard) and fun!" haha. Nolan actually got to go on with her again, lucky him, and they both enjoyed the rest of their day at school with that little surprise thrown in!
She snuggled with Harley later in the week, and he actually let her.
We were invited to Logan's 2nd birthday party with Grandma at Little Local Playground, and the kids loved the new play place and getting to run around for a couple hours! They all had fun together and Acelyn was stoked about his choice of Coco themed party stuff! We snacked on brunch goodies and the kids (mostly Acelyn) got down on cupcakes and made a huge mess. Watching this girl eat sweets might be one of my favorite things about her, haha!
That afternoon, I searched for some family pictures for Acelyn's class that her teacher was asking for for a project, and realized our last one taken was at Easter! I rounded everyone up and made us take one ASAP, because that's just crazy!
After dinner, we made a quick batch of eggless cookie dough and snuck in lots of bites before bedtime!
We took a trip to the park in the morning during the week, hoping the weather was a bit cooler, which is was by a few degrees but still HOT. We are really ready for fall and over the heat!
Acelyn's class made apples on their room apple tree, while they learned about the letter A.
Nolan had a really fun project in tracing his body and getting to bring home his "body self", as he called it! He loved this!
He also practiced tracing his sight words for the week: I, A, Am, And.
Acelyn played quietly in the playroom by herself on Thursday morning, and when I walked in, she was having a picnic to herself!
Nolan practiced his first Homework packet from school and has been pumped to do a page each afternoon.
To end the month, we took another Field Trip Friday trip to the Springs Preserve, except this time we made it on a Saturday! We hadn't been here in quite a while, so the kids were excited to explore new exhibits and ones they have seen before but didn't remember well. We started in the Origen Museum, where the little kids loved the changing water floor, and the bigger kids jumped from exhibit to exhibit while we tried to keep up!
We took a pit stop at the Flash Flood Exhibit, and some of the kids were a little apprehensive about what was going to happen. The small room gets muggy, dark, and a pretend thunderstorm rolls in... but once the water started pouring down the rocks, all of them thought it was pretty cool and they were super into it!
Outside, we spent lots of time checking out the animals, with lots and lots of reptiles and some bunnies in hiding. There was a fox that we all fell in love with, and Acelyn kept running back in to check on him in his little window.
We rounded up all the kids to snap a group picture, which surprisingly worked well and turned out cute!
Inside again, the kids explored the train while the Mamas sat, for a second!
The Nature's Ninjas Exhibit was all about more reptiles and amphibians, and we spent lots of time searching for animal friends in their habitats.
We grabbed another group shot before heading outside and down to the playground, while we had all the kids in the same spot for a minute!
On the playground, the kiddos ran their energy out and did lots of climbing and sliding.
We refreshed with some popsicles on our quick train ride over to Water Works, which we thought was going to be an exhibit with actual water play to cool down with... we were wrong. It was all about the pumping system of, literally, the Water Works of the Vegas Valley. Whomp whomp. The kids still had fun dressing up as water lab scientists and playing in the fishing boat, but we definitely called it a day after that and made our way back to our cars. It was a fun morning out exploring new exhibits, and we didn't even put a dent in half of the Springs Preserve because there is just so much to do there! We'll be back, for sure!
We had an eventful month and can't wait for this weather to start cooling down for more fun!
...Until then!
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