Weekend Fun

When we are home on the weekends we try to use the boat at least one day. The kids really like it this year and the girls are able to swim and play pretty independently. Mr. William is too brave for his own good and wants to spend all of his time jumping off something into the water. This requires a lot of attention from Scott and me!

We also managed to fit one bike ride in this summer!

Summer in the City

We pretty much only take the kids downtown in the summer. And even then we don't go often. But when we do go, they love it! Music and dancing in the Ped Mall. Fun on the downtown playground. People watching and strolling around. On the way home they begged us to roll down the windows and turn up the music. Even Will yelled "Louder!"

Camp Week

I kept our schedule pretty simple this summer. Evy got to participate in two camps and Charlie got to do one.

Evy participated in Wildlife Camp again this year after having a blast last year. We signed up with one friend but found out she was in a group with several friends. What a great surprise!

Charlie participated in "Inside Out Camp" where they did dance and crafts each morning.

While the girls were at camp Will and I got to take a little adventure ourselves by touring one of our local fire stations. Will was very nervous when the firefighter put his full gear on. He definitely wanted to keep his distance!

Bye Bye Binky

Will is our first child to be addicted to the pacifier. He called it his binky and he loved it! He slept with it and typically carried 3 or 4 around with him. We loved it too. He has always slept like a champ with it and it worked wonders at keeping him happy as he was schlepped around to all of his sisters activities. I was dreading taking it away from him. We decided to go cold turkey over the 4th of July weekend as we had three full days at home. On Friday night, I cut the ends off of all of his pacifiers. When we went to his room to start our good night routine he found them all and noticed right away that they were "broken." I said, "Since they are broken do you want to throw them away?" He said, "Binky broken. Trash." and threw them all in the trash can. He woke up a few times crying that night and asked for the binky for the next few days when he got hurt or upset. He didn't go down for naps as easily as before. As luck would have it two days into the process he got a horrible cough and cold that combined with his missing binky kept him awake for several nights. If he hadn't come down with the cold I think it would have been a piece of cake. Here we are 3 weeks post binky and he doesn't ask for it at all. When he is hurt or sad now he asks for his nigh-nigh (Blanket).  He has finally started falling asleep easily again. Seems that his love of the binky has been replaced with his love of his stuffed animals and blankets. 

Cousin Weekend

These kids LOVE playing with their cousins. We were able to get the Chicago kids to Iowa so you can bet we spent 4 days having lots of summer fun. 

Water balloon fight! I could not fill and tie the balloons fast enough. 

Come on Papa! I want the green one! Fill it faster!

Action shot!

Sometimes they actually ate during meal time.

We celebrated Grandma Maxine's 93rd birthday and had all of the 2nd cousins together. This is the first time that many of them met. 

Cousin Snuggles.

Not the safest way to ride on a golf cart, but I guess it's how you make it work when you have 6 kids who want a ride. 

Those cousins are exhausting!!

At the Car Wash

I

Will does not like the car wash. His lower lip starts trembling the second we pull in. Evy has gotten very good at comforting him. In fact, she asks if we can go to the car wash so that Will will snuggle her. 

Omaha

I don't think I have ever been to Omaha. So, as we were looking for a weekend trip for the summer we thought, why not? 

Our kids do not pack lightly for a road trip.

"Buppy" (puppy)

All of Evy's best stuffed friends.

In downtown Omaha there is a cool old candy store. The kids were able to ride this pony for a nickel. 

He kept saying "Bumpy!"

The main objective of our trip was the Omaha Zoo. Here, Scott and the girls take the world's shortest camel ride. 

Will liked brushing the goats.

It was sooooo hot and these girls were running out of steam.

I think the tram ride was our favorite. We got to sit down and there was a nice breeze way up in the sky!

This guy was awake from Midnight to 4 a.m. in the hotel room the night before. Looks like it caught up to him. 

The next day we thought we should see more animals so we checked out a drive-through wildlife park just outside of Omaha. 

Elk

More goats!

Bison

The girls said they really liked sitting in the car and relaxing while looking for animals.