My So Called Life

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Very little work required from me and very little pressure or expectation for the holiday. A holiday that is actually relaxing? Love it!

Red, white, and blue pancakes to kick off the weekend.

Grandma and Papa hung out with us for a few hours on July 2. We had dinner downtown Iowa City and then they took off before the fireworks.

This is the 2nd year we've gone to the Iowa City fireworks. I really enjoy the out of the way location we've discovered!

Take a good look at Will's "Balloon animal". They are stupid expensive and popped before fireworks started. This is the last time we will buy our kids balloon animals!

Little buddy fell asleep during the fireworks.

Our 4th of July tradition includes the parade in the morning and the pool in the afternoon.

Friday, June 30, 2017

This is Evy's third year at Wildlife Camp and Charlie's first. This is Evy's absolute favorite camp and the only camp the girls are doing this summer. They spend all day, every day outside doing things like catching snakes and turtles, canoeing, paddle boarding, hiking and fishing. Evy touched a snake this year and learned how to go to the bathroom in the woods.....that's a funny story!!! The girls come home wet, dirty, and tired every night.

Charlie is in the Merlin camp with friends Jack and Conor. She makes new friends easily and has three new friends that she tells me about each night!

The morning routine includes packing lunches and getting sunscreen and bug spray applied. We are carpooling with two other families and pick up time is 7:50.

With a lot of coordination we were able to sign Evy up with three of her very best friends. This crew is having so much fun. Love hearing their stories at the end of each day.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Summer Bucket List #4 and #9: Picnic and Raptor Center

The kids originally told me that we had to go in order of our list but they let me work #4 and #9 into the same day! We had a great time at the Raptor Center today. They've added a few new things that were fun to explore.

Picnic. Check.

Everyone is getting a little better at hiking so we were able to hike for a bit down a trail.

We discovered a trail that leads to the lake....we've never been down this trail before.

Will ran out of gas so I had to give him a ride. The girls took turns trying to take our picture and they all turned out blurry which does not surprise me since this group is full of wiggles.

Everyone measured their wing span and they thought it was hilarious that my wingspan was that of a turkey vulture. We've all agreed for a long time that the turkey vulture is a disgusting bird.

It took some coaxing to get Will to measure his wing span.

The majority of our time was spent down at the lake. Will loved throwing rocks in and the girls were digging for fossils. I was exhausted by the time we left....it takes A LOT of energy to keep everyone from falling into the lake.

We've never before noticed that you can go into the flight cage. It was cool to see the two bald eagles.

I didn't get a picture, but we had the coolest experience--getting to see two fawns up close. We were in the butterfly garden when the two fawns came out of the woods. They were not with their mother, they were adorable with white spots and got within 10 feet of us. Amazingly all three kids were quiet and still so we got to watch the fawns for awhile. So cool!

Thursday, June 22, 2017

8 Year Old Soccer: ISC

Evy started playing soccer at age 3. When she first started she stayed away from the action. She ran up and down the field with her teammates but did her best to stay away from the ball! By age 6 the girl was scoring multiple goals each game. At age 7 the options for leagues changed and we haven't found a good fit since then and Evy's excitement for the game has waned. The 7 year old league through our Rec Center was a bomb last year so this year we decided to try out a private club. Unfortunately the practices were at 7 p.m. on Friday nights--not exactly how anyone wants to spend their Friday night! This league teaches skill and technique which is important to learn, but when you really just love playing a game it's not exactly the perfect fit. Evy did great, was always enthusiastic, mostly because she was in the same group has her very good friend, Laela. She won the "top dog" award a few times.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Summer Bucket List #3: Bike Ride on Trail

The girls wanted to go for a trail ride and since this is another activity that I cannot yet master with all three kids we enjoyed this activity on a day when Will was otherwise occupied! Our neighborhood is very hilly so it takes a kid with a lot of stamina to make it through much of a ride. Evy rode her bike and Charlie rode the tag along behind me which means I did most of the work :-) We rode to the Coffee Shop where the girls had some juice and a donut and then we rode around the pond and back home where we were met with the most miserable hill of the ride. We managed to walk the bikes up the hill and make it home in once piece. This is an outing that will only continue to get easier as the kids master their bikes and build stamina.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Summer Bucket List #2: Ice Skating

These girls love to go ice skating so this activity landed itself at the #2 spot on our Summer Fun! List. There is no way I can take all three kids ice skating by myself so we had to wait for a morning when Will was otherwise occupied. Luckily he is going to Ms. Lori's house for 5 days this summer so we could sneak a big kid outing in.

The girls are doing great with skating. Both of them can skate around the rink and into the center without holding on to the walls.

We had fun playing follow the leader.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Will: Turning 3

Will celebrated his 3rd birthday with a Bob The Builder party at home on Sunday, June 4. Grandma Joan and Papa Jake, Grammy Sherry and Papa Dick, Mom, Dad, Evy, Charlie, Aunt Cathy and Cousin Kate all joined in the party.