Preschool Ready

 

About 4 weeks ago we started practicing writing Charlie's name. She will start her final year of preschool in a few weeks so I thought we should get a jump on letters and writing. She is doing amazing! She did this (picture above) all by herself and I was so excited when she came home from bible school the other night with artwork that she wrote her own name on! I love her eagerness to learn. She says, "Can I do worksheets? I want to pick them out!"

Catching on

 

I have no idea what clicked this spring, but Evy has had an amazing spring and summer soccer session. The past couple of years she was happy to hang on the periphery and let everyone else kick the ball. I don't think she scored a goal before this year. But this year, she is aggressive, she works hard to get the ball and isn't afraid to kick it. She has speed on her side so once she is able to break away from the pack she typically scores. It's pretty fun to watch. Her coach has asked her to hang back and play defense a few times to give the other kids a chance to kick the ball. I hope she keeps up her confidence and enthusiasm!

Summer Traditions and Randomness

Celebrating Grandma Max's birthday. 92 years young!

Selfies with my niece.

Fun at Grandma Joan's and Papa Jake's.

Love playing with cousins!

Off to see Eric Church at the Jones County Fair

 

Watch out funnel cakes!

 

The girls have been wanting to ride these animals at the mall for months. They finally scrounged up $4 from their piggy banks so I chipped in the rest.

It was hilarious and they had fun. Money well spent....I guess?!?!

My early morning workout was interrupted by my light sleeper who wasn't able to sleep through the thunderstorm.

A vacation day for Dad means an adventure. Actually, it just means I finally had some extra hands so we were able to do some of the activities that require a little help! The Natural History Museum is always a favorite.

 

Posing like tourists before lunch downtown.

Then off to the lake where Evy chose to fish and Charlie chose to tube. When Charlie is in the tube all you can see is a little puff of curly blonde hair. Occasionally, she will give us the thumbs up sign which means she wants to go faster. She is brave!

Thumbs up=FASTER!

This Week

I've been trying to find the right balance between relaxation and activities this summer and I might have missed the mark this week!

The girls are attending Vacation Bible School (VBS) from 6 to 8:30 p.m. each night. This is Charlie's first year and they both seem to love it. I am now answering twice as many questions about Jesus and doing my best to remember everything from my many years of VBS. The girls have been getting to bed very late each night. And unfortunately, I scheduled morning swim lessons this week so I have to wake them up each morning!

In the pool by 9:15, but these swimmers don't seem to mind. They love having lessons in the outdoor pool. A big treat since we have only previously done indoor lessons.

Evy is in level 5 and doing a great job with front and back floats and the breast stroke.

Charlie is in level 1 and she is blowing bubbles out of her nose and working on getting comfortable with her face in the water.

And this Dude just screams from the sidelines as he is contained in his stroller. This morning we walked laps around the pool to stay happy.

Chicago Quick Trip

The last time we took kids into Chicago Evy was 6 weeks old. We had the chance to tag along with Scott on a work trip last week so I thought I would give it another try now that I am literally a professional at schlepping kids and their stuff.

 

 

After checking into our hotel, the kids and I hopped a cab to Lincoln Park Zoo while Scott headed off to a reception.

 

When we stepped out of the cab at Lincoln Park Zoo it started raining. We walked around for about 45 minutes (thank goodness we spotted the male lion) and then hopped a cap to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier.

 

As luck would (not) have it it was free night at the Museum. Free is often good, but there is nothing good about 5 million people in a children's museum. The kids had fun and I managed to maneuver the stroller through the crowds well enough. After a debacle at Garrett's popcorn and McDonalds we made it back to our hotel where everyone slept well.

The next morning we hit the Museum of Science and Industry.

Yes, we had to drive from Iowa into Chicago and pay money for all of us to sit in a combine for the first time. Doesn't really make sense, does it?

This combine is fully loaded. Maybe even I could be a farmer???

Very cool German U-boat. The girls didn't think it was that cool as the tour involved darkness and fake explosions.

 

On the way home we swung through the 'Burbs and picked up our cousins who are spending a week with Grandma and Grandpa in Iowa. We were happy to provide the taxi service and the cousins were happy to be goofballs.

Camps

This is the first year we've been introduced to summer camps. The kids have typically been at daycare while I've been at work so these types of activities were not really practical. But now, they are and we could spend every week and $1 million dollars sending the kids to camp! Instead, each girl gets to do two camps this summer. We just completed our first week and the girls had an absolute blast. I think it was an excellent break from our normal no-routine summer days.

 

 

 

Evy went to Wildlife camp with her friend every day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They got to ride school busses out to the woods/wilderness/park (I don't know exactly where they spent their days. Kind of weird.) and spend all day fishing, hiking, looking for animals, tasting mulberries and lord knows what else. She loved it! Each day she came home messy. Legs covered in mud, shoes wet, hair wet, shirt dirty. She came home today and told me she ate fire and scat and the scat was full of berries. I had no clue that scat is animal poop. Guess I'm learning things from camp as well. Turns out she didn't actually eat scat.

 

 

Charlie got to spend the mornings at "Oceans of Fun" camp. She had so much fun! I am so proud of her. The classroom, teachers, and kids were all complete strangers to her. But, she bravely went into the classroom with no hesitations and loved every minute of it. Her teacher sent me this note "I'm so glad Charlie will be here this week-she is so sweet, well behaved, and enthusiastic. She was so comfortable, you would have thought she'd been here for months!" Glad she is well behaved for someone!

13 Months

Will is taking steps, he can put 4 or 5 steps together but is not walking regularly. He has two bottom teeth just starting to push through. He is definitely our slowest teething baby! Now that he can stand on his own he gets to play at the children's museum instead of being confined to the stroller:

 

 

He likes to help mom by standing on the dishwasher.

He thinks his mower is a riding mower. He likes to be pushed around on it while he sits on it.

We are all done with bottles and he loves to eat real food.

Eating spaghetti is soooo much fun!

These are Will's "da's". That is his word for ball. He loves to play with balls. He repeats "da, da, da" and points at his ball until you get it for him. He likes to play catch and is really good at throwing the ball.

 

Will is still taking two naps each day. Normally a morning nap from about 9:30 to 11:30 and another afternoon nap from 2 to 4:00. He hasn't napped well that past two days so I wonder if he will start transitioning to one nap per day. There are several days when he only takes one nap as we are out doing an activity. He has started screaming when he doesn't get what he wants. The girls never screamed like this and it's a little uncomfortable when all the heads in a store turn in your direction!

4th of July

We had a great 3 day weekend celebrating the 4th of July. On Friday we were able to spend time with friends boating and Scott took the girls fishing Friday night.

 

 

Saturday morning the girls and I waited in line for pancakes for 45 minutes and then made it to the parade. We left early so we could hit the pool.

Charlie nearly fell asleep in her chair at the pool but then she caught her 2nd wind and continued to paddle around the pool some more.

We were hoping Will would take a nap in the stroller but no such luck!

After the pool we had a fire pit and sparklers at our house.

Smoke bomb!

Our traditional 4th of July cake. I don't think anyone really likes it, but I make it every year regardless.

Smores

 

Lots of fun packed into 3 days!