July Fun

July was a super fun and busy month for the girls! Here are some highlights!

Dollar store day! The girls each got to select 6 things from the dollar store with some money they earned selling some old toys! They spent the rest of the morning playing with their new stuff, most of which were crafting items!

They also had their first sister sleepover! We pulled Jemma's mattress off her bed and into Jade's room! It was so funny to hear them talking, Jade kept telling Jemma it was time to go to bed, and Jemma kept Jade up being silly! I just love the sweet relationship the girls have with each other, they are turning into the best of friends!

4th of July was a crazy and extremely hot day! Nate worked the night previous then again on the night of the 4th as well! He took a short nap in the morning and then we headed out to 2 different 4th of July gatherings at friend's houses! He might have gotten another 45 minutes of sleep before having to go to work for the night. :(

We did some mini fireworks and sparklers of our own at home on the night of the 5th! With Nate's schedule this year, it made it near impossible to catch a real firework display as a family.

I had my annual overnight to Milwaukee with my high school friends to see a County concert at Summerfest! This year was Blake Shelton, we had a blast! Nate held down the fort while I was gone!

Both girls had a week of "camp" in July! Jemma's was a Color camp at her preschool and Jade's was a Taste of Fine Art's camp at the affiliated church. I think Jemma's was primarily play based, but she did learn some things about color mixing! ;) 

Jade got to select the electives she wanted to participate in during camp. She ended up doing music, cooking, dance and a craft! Each day she came home with some sort of food creation (as pictured below).

The following week was VBS for Jade! The theme was Shipwrecked, and she LOVED it! We have been listening to the soundtrack over, and over and over! Jemma missed the cutoff to attend by just a few weeks, so she and I had some fun of our own! Such as going to the Children's Museum with friend Makena and going to The Ball Factory together!

Just a few more pictures of the girls! I realized so many of my pictures are of Jemma and I think it's because every time we're outside, Jade is off riding her bike up and down the street! :)

(we each colored half the heart)

Jade was across the street riding bikes with some of the neighborhood boys! Me and Jemma hung out in front watching! I let the girls stay outside past 8 that night! We're usually the first ones in! ;)

(working on riding her tricycle, this is a very big step for her)

We also had a couple fun park stops!

This park was especially cool, it was just renovated this year and now has this really cool zip line swing! Never seen anything like it, but the girls LOVED it!

Whew! We rounded out July with our family vacation to Myrtle Beach! Another post on that coming soon!!

Summer Successes

Swimming Lessons

The girls both took 4 weeks of lessons (Monday through Thursday) last month! These were Jemma's first swimming lessons EVER and I'm so proud of her! She tried just about everything that was asked of her (minus going under water). Jade also excelled this year and is now running and jumping in and swimming several strokes unassisted. She is most confident when she can touch the bottom of the pool, so we're working on getting over the fear of the deep end still, but this is MUCH improvement for her! Here are a few videos of Jade!

Riding a Two-Wheeler

After a few days of balance practice and confidence boosting, Jade was off and riding her bike without training wheels! Here is a video from the first night she rode on her own!

Name Writing

One of my goals for Jemma this summer was for her to learn to write her name. We started with one letter a day, but by day 2 she decided she could already do it all. ;) Here is a sampling of her writing!

Losing Teeth

Just adding this here, Jade lost tooth #4 and #5 these past two Fridays! She looks adorable with that missing front tooth! The other front top tooth is loose too! Love her semi toothless smile!

Father's Day

Nate's parents had gotten him a driving experience at Chicagoland Speedway for a Birthday/Father's Day gift and it just so happened we were all available on Father's Day to schedule it!

Nate took a 45 minutes "class" and basically then suited up and headed to the track! He then got to drive around the NASCAR track on his own for 8 minutes!! The girls loved watching and cheering on daddy! 

Here is a video of Nate driving! It doesn't look like he is going that fast for some reason, but his certificate said he reached a maximum speed of 144 mph!!

 

Afterward, we headed to Texas Roadhouse, enjoyed a delicious meal and enjoyed celebrating Nate and Grandpa! 

The following weekend we got to celebrate Nate and Grampy with a wonderful dinner at Carson's ribs! We're so blessed and very thankful for these amazing and loving father's in our lives!

Summer Fun - June

We spent a lot of our hot days playing with water in the back yard! The girls are loving our new "water slide" and it has provided many hours of entertainment!

One of the highlights of our summer is always the extended visit of my sister and her family! The kids have such a blast playing together! It was super fun to have them here for my birthday celebration this year at one of our favorite restaurants, Pilot Pete's! On another afternoon we got together with them for a fun lunch at Two Toots followed by some play time at a nearby park!

Another one of my favorite summer traditions is our extended Obermayer Family Weekend! Everyone gathers in the Deerfield, IL area for a weekend full of food, family and fun! :)

Bowling!

Chuck E. Cheese! The kids combined all their tickets and all the tickets the daddy's won for them and were each able to get something worth 1000 tickets!

The kids also received these adorable t-shirt's from GeeGee for their annual great grandchild photo session!

Wouldn't be a family weekend without an entire group shot!

Also a summer highlights is our annual strawberry picking day with Grammy and it was so much fun! Both girls enjoyed eating and picking equally!

Last Day of School

Both girls had such great school years complete with wonderful teachers! I love to compare their first day to last day pictures! 

It's amazing how much Jemma has grown up this year! Her teacher described her to me at conferences as very happy, kinda quiet and very social! Jemma is hard to read sometimes, but she definitely enjoyed being at school! Currently, Jemma loves the social/play aspect of school a lot more than the learning aspect! She's definitely not as eager of a learner as her big sister, but she is counting, identifying letters and working towards writing her name. Her coloring has improved tremendously, literally going from scribbling to staying in the lines overnight! 

Here is a little clip of Jemma's "Last Slide" on the last day of school!

Jemma with her teachers Ms. Carrie and Ms. Karen!

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To say that Jade loves school, would be an understatement! This girl was excited to go to school every single day, and was literally devastated on days she had to stay home sick! Jade's teacher Mrs. Gamboa described Jade to me as a leader and responsible. Jade was often selected to run papers and things down to the main office, because Mrs. Gamboa knew she would do what was asked, and come straight back! She also said she thought Jade could run the class in her absence. ;)

At the beginning of the year, Jade's daily journal consisted of mostly pictures rather than words. By the end of the year, her daily journal was filled with sentences. She loves math and doing story problems and is a whiz at counting! She has progressed so much in her reading abilities as well! She started out not being able to read at all, to now reading complete Dr. Seuss books among others! Her favorite extra is still Art!

There was no Kindergarten Graduation ceremony or anything like that, so I've just included some pictures from the end of the year theme days!

Field Day!

Super Hero Day!

Pajama Day!

Bring on Summer Vacation!!!

Jemma's First Ballet Recital

Jemma's ballet recital was definitely one of my favorite Jemma days, ever! She did such a good job up on that big stage! We couldn't have been more proud of her! After, we all headed to Culver's for lunch and ice cream!

Pretty girl before the recital!

Jemma is the second from the left! Photography wasn't technically allowed during the recital. I snuck this picture and snagged the video below from a friend! I of course did order the full recital DVD! ;)

So proud of this girl!

In addition to Nate and I, Jemma was spoiled to have her sister and both sets of grandparents there to watch her!!

Jade was such a sweet and supportive sister! Kept telling Jemma that she was the best one!!

My girl!