July iPhone Rewind

July seemed to really fly by.  We had a lot of play dates, ran a lot of errands, enjoyed time with family, and took a quick trip to Oklahoma.  

Popsicles on the back porch in his swim suit-- can't think of a better summer activity.

We've made a few trips to the library to pick up books and Cooper loves getting to play a little when we go.

I snapped this picture of my Apple Watch because I more than doubled my goal for "active calories" for the day, so I grabbed this picture before I went to bed.

We took advantage of our Arboretum membership and went with Grandma for a morning.

Checked out the story time at Northpark mall for the first time in over a year.  Cooper loved singing along to the songs and playing the instruments.

Free slurpees on 7-11 Day

Drying off with his towel and sunglasses after an afternoon swim.

We took Cooper to his first movie-- Toy Story 4 at the Alamo Drafthouse during one of the Alamo for All Showings.  And he did really well.  He loved the movie and the snacks!

Another trip to the Arboretum with friends.  These sweet friends melt my heart with their love for each other!

Our McCullough friends invited us to play at the splash pad in their neighborhood!  It was so fun getting to be out there with them-- we had the place to ourselves and the kids loved it.

Tried our hand at finger-painting.  We have a BINGO card of summer activities from the Allen library and we didn't make it through all of them by the deadline for a prize, but it still gave us some ideas of things to try like this one.

We took a day trip to the Magnolia Silos in Waco with my mom, aunts, and cousin.  The store was too crowded for Cooper and I to maneuver, but he had plenty of fun playing soccer in the open field by the silos.

David and I celebrated our 6th anniversary.  We had plans to cook steaks at home after Cooper went to bed-- instead we took him with us to an early dinner at Chili's followed by dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.  Then after bedtime we just enjoyed some time together on the couch.

We celebrated National Ice Cream day with a trip to Dairy Queen.

We had a playdate with our friend AJ and then the next day this picture of them from 2 years ago came up on my Timehop.  Love this family and Cooper and AJ's toddler friendship.

We took a trip to visit David's Nanny in Oklahoma.  She got Cooper this bat and a ball and he had so much fun playing with it outside.

In the midst of a night of playing, Cooper's 2nd cousin went and laid down on a pool float and then his sister and Cooper decided to join in.  Guess we wore them out with too much fun that day

Cow Appreciation Day

Today was our very favorite holiday-- Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A! ;)  This holiday has evolved over the years, but basically if you wear anything to dress like a cow, Chick fil A will give you a free entree for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Last year was our first year to go and I was excited to check it out again.  Little did I know that Cooper would be even more excited!  

I started working on our outfits yesterday during nap and last night Cooper saw the Cow headband I was making for him and he wanted to wear it non-stop.  So we had to put a limit on it so that it lasted for Cow Appreciation Day.  Which means he woke up this morning telling me he was going to dress like Easter Cow (since that's the last cow he saw at Chick fil A) and go to Chick fil A.  So we put on his headband first thing while he played at home.

He was so excited about his "cow hat" and he kept going to look in the mirror in his room.

We decided to go for breakfast and start our day right.  We went to one of the ones that isn't as busy and we were the only ones dressed as cows.

We enjoyed a scramble bowl and a sausage biscuit.  After breakfast we had a playdate at church.  Our church is doing summer playdates where they open up the playrooms for preschool families to come play, so we hung out with some fun church friends.  And then we headed with a few friends to get lunch.

I changed Cooper into his cow shirt-- a white shirt (the only one he had was long sleeves) with black paper spots safety pinned on.  I decided to just do my headband and not add spots to my shirt and it was perfect.

They had the cow in costume come out to take pictures.  Cooper is always really excited to see the cow but doesn't want to go see him.  So this was the progression today...

My friend was trying to get a picture of Cooper and I and he was not taking his eyes off the cow as it got closer to us...

Then he waved from afar...

And then it was closer and he was waving, as soon as the cow got close he grabbed my arm but was all smiles...

and then he said he wanted to go see the cow.  When we got closer he asked me to pick him up and take him to see the cow.  He was all smiles even close up.

We had a fun time celebrating this silly day and getting some free food out of the deal!  My only recommendation is to go on the earlier end of a mealtime.  Our playdate at church lasted til 11, so we got there around 11:20 and it was already busy and was hard to find a table.  Last year we were before 11 and it was perfect, so we'll probably try for that again next year!

July 4th Fun

The last few years we've traveled for July 4th, but since we were just out of town all of last week we stayed home this year.  We ended up having a good day-- good mix of busy and low-key for us.

The night before we were looking at some activity options and found info for the Plano Independence Day Parade and decided to check it out.  We grabbed Cooper's wagon and found a spot.

There is a local donut place close to where we sat for the parade so while we waited for it to start I went got us some patriotic donuts to start the day.

Cooper really got into the parade!  We weren't sure what he would think, but he seemed to love it.

It didn't hurt that it started with a firetruck which he loves.

He got a flag about halfway through from one of the groups so then he could wave that around too.

The parade lasted about 30-45 minutes which was perfect for his attention span.  Then we loaded up and headed home.

After Cooper's nap we decided to go for a walk on the trails near our apartment.  He took an opportunity to sit near the bridge for a picture.

Partway through the walk it started raining, so we hung out under an overpass for a little while

And Cooper enjoyed running up and down the sides.

After our walk we enjoyed some popsicles on our back porch.  I had made some popsicles with strawberries and coconut milk the day before and they were finally ready.  Cooper really loved them! 

We decided to stay in for the night but let Cooper stay up and watch fireworks on TV.  I pulled out a few glow sticks while we waited.  We watched the Macy's fireworks in New York City and Cooper loved all of the music leading up to it.

Of course it all seems fun until someone gets hurt.  Right before the fireworks started Cooper fell off the couch headfirst onto the floor.  He had a pretty sizeable goose-egg, but seemed fine and has since healed just fine.

And that was our fun fourth!  It was perfect for our little guy and we had a good day just being together as a family.