Last Day to Vote - Please Help!!!

Today is the last day to vote for the Best of Denton County 2013 Awards. I wanted to share some of the nominees that are dear to my heart and if you have a moment, it would mean a lot to me if you voted for them. You don't have to register and you don't even receive a confirmation email, so your email is not recorded or kept. It seriously only takes a couple of clicks to vote.

I am very excited that Family eGuide is nominated in three categories, because they ROCK. They provide so many resources for parents that I personally have relied on for years. They offer coupons (including Legoland and Sealife), kid friendly recipes, calendar activities, parenting tips and tricks, things to do for free, and so much more!

***Please vote for them for Best Publication, Best Publication Neighborhood, & Best Online Publication.

Jenny Froh donates her time to capture the best portraits of cats and dogs for several local rescue groups. Please take a moment to vote for her in the Best Pet Photography category!

Here are some of my other favorites. If you could please take a second to vote for them too:

AquaKids: Best Swimming Instruction
Art House Studio: Best Art Studio
Best Gymnastics:  Best Gymnastics

Each of these businesses has had an impact in my family's life. The winners of each of these categories receives free advertising and the honor of being voted the best! Thank you so much for taking a moment to help out local small businesses!

June 2013 Summertime Fun Update: Perot Museum, Swimming Lessons, Father's Day Fun and More!

It's amazing how fast summer can fly by! We had a super busy and exciting June. It started off with Madison graduating from Kindergarten, Alyssa graduating from High School and Madison's 6th Birthday, all in the first week of June.

My parents came down to visit and attend all the fun events. We went to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science which was on our Summer Bucket List. Because we love the Perot Museum so much, we have an annual family membership so we are able go often and we were happy to be able to share the experience with my parents.

Madison loved drawing a picture on the computer and then spinning the wheel fast enough that the light projected the picture onto the wheel.

The Perot Museum is so cool, I will have to do a future post all about it, but in the meantime here is a great quick article to read. After having lots of fun at the museum we went down the street to the Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch. They have a trolley in the restaurant! It was really cool!

Madison was able to grow a Zinnia plant from seeds in school. It was outgrowing it's little cup, so she had a blast transplanting it all by herself! She is very proud of how well her plant is growing.

Madison really enjoyed going to a Calloways Kids Workshop. She listened to the book, Princess and the Pea and then planted pea seeds in a cup. It was a nice, quick morning activity. The next one is August 21st!

We went out for Madison's birthday to Texas Roadhouse. It is a tradition and she LOVES to sit on the saddle while they shout out Happy Birthday to her!

We are a foster family for the Humane Society of Flower Mound. In June we welcomed our current foster dog, Sadie. She was kept outside most of her life until she was surrendered by her owners to an animal shelter where she stayed for 5 months! She's only a year old. She is very sweet and loving, but really shy and in desperate need of socialization. She's come a long way so far and I know soon she'll find the perfect family that will welcome her into her forever home.

We had a great time doing a 'Naked Egg' science experiment. We placed an egg in a container with vinegar so it would dissolve the outer shell so we could see the inside of the egg. Madison really enjoyed this! In the end, we couldn't see the yolk as well as we thought we would have. I am not sure if it's because we used an Eggland's Best egg versus a regular one. We'll have to try it again before the summer is over and see.

And after the shell dissolved, we had a squishy semi-see-through egg:

I signed Madison up this year for her summer swimming camp at AquaKids and after being inspired by her swimming Coach, she decided to work very hard to move up 5 levels throughout the summer and join the Swim Team in the Fall. In June, she completed Elementary 3 and Intermediate 1. We are all very proud of her and extremely happy with AquaKids for helping her obtain her goal. I am very grateful that they truly cared about my daughter's love for swimming and that they went out of their way to help her reach her goal! I cannot express enough what a wonderful place AquaKids is. They are currently looking to expand to a third location and are taking suggestions, so if you would be interested in having an AquaKids close to you, please let them know where by clicking HERE. They are in the final three for the Best of Denton County 2013 for Best Swim Instruction, so if you have a moment to vote, it only takes a second (no registration required). Thank you!

This year on Father's Day, Jeff took Madison fishing for the first time. She caught one fish and was SO proud of herself! (Since they left early in the morning, I wanted to note that he dressed her, not me! LOL)

Then they went to Bass Pro which offers a lot of fun and free activities every weekend over the summer. They had a blast!

Madison did a couple of summer dance classes at Top Hat Dance, but then decided swimming was her thing. She is continuing to do gymnastics and tumbling too.

Madison has really enjoyed hanging out at the pool with friends. Here she is going down the outside waterslide!
 

We are currently working on some workbooks and reading books every day so that we don't have the summer brain drain. I bought marble jar reward sheets and marble stickers from the teacher store and when Madison completes a chore (make bed, brush teeth, etc) or does a workbook page, then she gets a marble. When she fills up the sheet, she can either pick a prize from the prize bin which consists of dollar store toys and stickers or she can earn iPad time.

Here's a great blog post on 7 ways to Boost Brainpower Over the Summer Vacation!

At the end of June we temporarily watched another foster family's puppy while they went on vacation. His name is Tony and he was a bundle of puppy love! He has already found his forever home, but I feel really good about fostering for the Humane Society of Flower Mound and teaching Madison to give back to her community. She now knows that she is the voice for those who cannot be heard.

Tony was 8 weeks old here and had just found his unknown love for sprinklers and mud. ;)

Jeff took Madison to the skating rink on Memorial Day for a free skate special we saw on FamilyeGuide and she was hooked. She has been skating every week since. The local skating rink, Interskate has skating lessons every Saturday at 9 am for $3 and she LOVES them! She is learning a lot and becoming a great skater!

Madison also started a musical theater camp at Studio B at the end of June. I'll post pictures and videos from the production in my July post.

Check out our 2013 Summer Bucket List! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and having lots of fun!

Look for more upcoming posts on Walt Disney World, toy room and American Girl Doll accessory organization, and July's Summer Update!

Support Small Businesses Series - AquaKids

AquaKids is the BEST and ONLY swimming school in the area to take swimming lessons! We have only gone to their Flower Mound location, but they also have another location in Keller. My daughter, Madison, can't wait to go to each lesson and doesn't want to leave when her lesson is over. Also the pool is warm, so she doesn't have to take time to 'get used to it'. She just jumps right in!

I love AquaKids because I can trust all of their instructors. AquaKids has a great employee selection process which is very important to to me.

Madison has learned SO much more with the AquaSteps program.at AquaKids than she has with any other swimming instruction. The amount of skills and how quickly she learns while having fun is just amazing! I can say without any hesitation that the amount of skills Madison has learned is worth far more than the amount tuition we have paid for them! I am so glad we decided to give AquaKids a try last year!

The instructors at AquaKids are awesome and have instilled the love of swimming in Madison. Ms. Mackenzie was so encouraging and fun while she challenged Madison during lessons, now Madison wants to work her way up to be on their swim team!

If you love AquaKids, please vote for them to be nominated for the Best of Denton County 2013 award HERE. Just choose Sports & Fitness, Swimming Instruction (at the end of the drop down list) and fill in AquaKids as the Nominee. You don't have to register and it only takes a moment.

If you've never tried AquaKids, coupons can be found for them on FamilyeGuide and Flower Mound Family!

They also have an awesome special going on right now:

Check out the list of my favorite small businesses in the area HERE.

Next up is Best Gymnastics!