Monster Truck Show

If you know Makin very well, you know he is totally obsessed with all things "that go" and monster trucks are definitely high on that list. When Brad and I heard there was a show coming, we were so excited our little man would have a special night all to himself. The boys had a boys night and went to see The Mega Monster Truck Tour that was putting on a show here in Columbus. I requested the Brad send me at least one phone picture and take five pictures of the evening total. He did even more than that! I must be rubbing off. ;)  Makin talked the most about, "The trucks went up the hill (ramp) and then smashed the cars!" so I would say that was his favorite part. :)

Tail Gator Was His Favorite Truck...green and alligator mouth...why wouldn't it be?!

Our girl's night included pedicures and painting our toe nails in matching patriotic fashion.
Also fresh baked cookies and watching videos of Lorelei when she was little.

Bits Of Summer Fun

Picnic with Michelle 

Petting Zoo At Library

Pool Time In The Yard

Gobbs Of Fun!

Pretty Big Tball Fans

Grandma and Grandpa were on our side of the state for a wedding over the weekend, so they made the trip up 1 1/2 hours north (from the wedding location in Lincoln) to stop for a quick visit and get a chance to cheer Lorelei on for her tball game Monday night.

The kids loved getting some pool time in at the hotel. It was very cold, so the grown ups had to grin-and-bear-it, but we are glad they had a good time.

It meant a lot to Lorelei that they were there to cheer her on at her game. She loved hearing Grandma and Dad cheering in the stands, and Grandpa even went to the dugout and gave her a big thumbs up. Lots of smiles from our girl. :)

Grandpa and Makin played lots of catch

Ice cream treat after the game

Some other highlights of their trip would be wrestling with Grandpa 

and playing catch with Grandma and Grandpa.

Thanks for coming for a visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Mommy Makin Date and Explorit

We had Drue an extra day this week, along with Thursday morning Bible study, so we only had Tuesday morning all to ourselves for a Makin and Mommy date. :) We got coffee and hot chocolate at the church coffee shop (same church as Lor's VBS) and then headed over to the library.

We read some books just the two of us, which is a rare treat for him at the moment!

Then he enjoyed watching the Explorit presentation with lots of science experiments, including bubbles, fog and a fire ball!

Love special time with my little man!

Vacation Bible School

We were very excited for Lorelei to experience her first VBS this week!

A friend from storytime/mops mentioned their church was having a Spy themed Vacation Bible School and that the lead character was "Lorelei the Super Spy"! I was sold. :) Plus, it was actually in the mornings which is hard to come by these days! Perfect! (And a little preview of what life will be like when school starts in August.)

Of course, our social butterfly loved it. She knew one girl in her class (previously mentioned friend's daughter) and came back gushing with all the fun she had.





Her Highlights...
Monday - Water balloons with a big sling shot and soaking two people with it, a game similar to hide and seek, and a cupcake snack! She was very excited about her tattoo as well.
Quote from the day, her first words when I came into her room that morning, "I'm ready for spy class!!!"

Tuesday - Dodge-ball

Wednesday -  Popsicle snack, sun-catcher craft and obstacle course

Thursday - A cookie magnifying glass. The glass part, I'm told, was a baked jolly rancher. Craft was a mask.

Friday - Playing freeze tag

I loved what they did for their closing day - lunch with the family! We were able to see the closing program where they sang all their songs from the week and enjoy a special lunch.

Lorelei got to get her picture taken with the "celebrities" of VBS including Lorelei The Super Spy (Who was very excited when she found out they had the same name. :) ) A couple of the characters asked her what her favorite part of VBS was and she said "the crafts." :)

Tattoo and Craft Fun
I was impressed with a couple of the crafts that are also activities we can continue to use!

L singing some of the songs as well as pictures with the characters.

So glad she had such a fun time this week!

Father's Day and Brad's Birthday

In the midst of all the fun we have been having we celebrated Brad's birthday and Father's Day. Father's Day got a bit spread out because of our trip, but Brad has been having some much-deserved fun to celebrate these days. We are thankful we have him, not only for extra fun he adds to our family time, but also for working so hard so that we can have so many great days with each other, and I can take care of our kids every day. This pic is up on his desk now. :) Hopefully reminding him of how important he is to us! Thank you Brad!

Visit To The Volkers

It had been two years since seeing our friends, the Volkers, so we decided a trip up to Minneapolis was in order.  These guys are such special friends and we are so glad we got to spend a couple of days with them and finally meet Miss Sage for the first time. :)

First Time To Minnesota for all of us.
Can you tell Makin is thrilled?

Our sidewalk welcome drawings and our girls.

Friday - Brad worked out of Caribou Coffee while the rest of us headed to the hugest park I've ever seen called Shoots and Ladders. The pictures cannot do justice how huge this place was. Our kids were a little overwhelmed about climbing some of the biggest parts along with the amount of kids, but they still had a blast. Makin's favorite was the rolling slide. I've never seen one before but what a great idea! We then had a picnic lunch by the lake and the Volker boys started the idea of fishing with sticks and pieces of sandwhiches.

One thing I always admire about Tom and Verna is there ability to balance personal time and fit it in, despite the whole four-kids thing! :)

That afternoon Verna and I headed to Mall Of America, just so I can say I saw it, and got some girl time and coffee.

That evening, they had organized two girls to come and watch the kids and got tickets for the four of us to go to Comedy Sportz. Was such a fun night!

Saturday - We had to make a Plan B. Rain, and plenty of it. We opted to go ride the Metro train so that the kids could experience it. The added bonus was, it was free that day! Are we frugal families or what? :)

Makin was especially thrilled about the train ride and seeing the city sites out the window. :)

They were adding another line to their train system, so they had special events going on as well. Lorelei got to meet the Storm Troopers and Princess Leah, Spot the Target dog, and the Minnesota Twin's Bear. :) What else do you have at a train-opening party? ;) (Just a reminder, Makin is NOT a fan of mascots like his sister. :))

That afternoon the dads took the Volker kids to a special Lego place and Verna and I headed out for another coffee break to one of her favorite coffee shops which also has an awesome playroom for the kids to enjoy. If I ever owned a coffee shop, it would have this...only maybe a little more organized. ;) The owner has many raving reviews on his shop and has people coming in from the suburbs to check it out.

That evening Brad and Tom went to the movies while V and I wrangled the kids to bed. And then got more chat time.

Lego Down Time

Sunday - Headed to church. Lorelei was in shock that she knew the pastor so that was kinda fun. :) A fun little tidbit around this point was that we brought Sage some of Lorelei's old clothes, including a pair of rain-boots. She was so in love with them she wouldn't even take them off to sleep at night. Was pretty fun to see and I love knowing someone is appreciating the clothes I loved to see my girl in back in the day. :)

Our Six

We headed back home after lunch. We had seen a sign on the drive there saying there were "falls" and didn't know really what that would entail, but decided it would probably be a fun memory for the kids of their Minnesota trip. We had quite the adventure and were very excited for the kids to see their first-ever waterfall. :)

Getting to the waterfall involved lots of stairs and climbing over tree roots and rocks.
Didn't phase Makin a bit. :)

It was a great ending to our visit. :)

Splash Park

Visiting a splash park was on our summer bucket list, and since we have limited trips to Omaha, I decided we better fit it in now! They did have a lot of fun, but didn't last nearly as long as I thought. It was in the low 80s so they were pretty chilly after just a short while. Still had fun though. :)

9 Years

Brad and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary by heading to Omaha. We wanted to do something special, and Alea had offered to babysit. Why not when there are WAY more restaurants in Omaha than Columbus! :) The kids and I ran a few errands before heading to a spray park. (More on that later.) Brad was working from Panera etc most of the day while we did that. Then around 4 we met Alea and Tyler at the zoo. Can't get much more fun than babysitting at the zoo right? They had a blast while we went and did a little fun shopping at Gordmans and had supper at Outback Steakhouse. Was great to set aside some special time for our big day.

Fishing

The library was crazy enough to have fishing as one of their summer activities. I was crazy enough to take three kids. I thought it would be a piece of cake but boy was I in for a work out. The parks and recreations workers were a HUGE help and total lifesaver helping cast and putting extra worms on hooks...but it sure would have been easier if I was any good at casting! :) We actually were there early and Mr. H called us over to start, so the kids lasted close to an hour and a half fishing! Drue caught two fish and my kids didn't catch any! :) Drue's brothers are going to take her the next time the go fishing thats for sure. :) Makin said, "I love fishing!" so its definitely something their dad may take them to enjoy if we ever get around to buying fishing poles! :)

Showing them how to cast. They actually got the hang of it decently...at least as good as me!

Can't you just picture whats going on in these librarians heads???
Putting worms on hooks was not what we signed up for in librarian school!

This was hands down the best part of their day. They loved it.

Quotable Moments

Lorelei

"Makin is being a little over-dramatic."

The kids constantly ask me to read everything they see, including signs in the restroom. After reading the Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning To Work sign she said in complete disbelief, "Cuz some people don't know that!?!?" Amen sister.

Brad: Who went to California and got stuck on Route 66? (looking for the answer Lightening McQueen of course)
Lorelei: Ummmmm Jesus!!!


(Dying eggs...) "Its like all rainbowed! It was my idea!"

(Jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it...) "This is the best day ever!!!"

Me: Don't you want to draw some petals on your flowers?
L: No. Those are dandelions and the petals blew off.

She asks lots of questions about Heaven. One example as of late...
Me: I would like Heaven to have an ocean. What do you think?
Lorelei: I would like Heaven to have a carnival.

(Filling her water cup with the frig water dispenser...) "I can do this with my eyes closed because I'm that talented."

"When I grow up I am going to have three dogs, three cats and three goldfish."

There is a Steve Songs Song she loves that she uses almost daily. "I'll be happier than a happy monkey." and a few other examples would be: madder than a mad monkey, sillier than a silly monkey, grumpier than a grumpy monkey. :) The rest of us are catching onto this trend too. :)

"Model pose!"

(Talking to her stuffed animals before heading to grandma and grandpas house...)"Okay now whoever wants to go with me raise your hand." (animals pretending to raise their hands)  "Me! Me!"

Makin

"I wuv Raisin Canes food. It feels good in my tummy."

(Praying) "Thank you for God and the Holy Spiriment"

He LOVES to rhyme everything. Sometimes they are common sayings and sometimes they are totally him "ad libbing" so to speak. A few examples heard often, "Nice try sly." and "Your Welcome Shmelcome."

"Chickens make eggs, then we eat the eggs. That's good sharing."

"I don't know why Drue likes me so much. Maybe because I'm so funny."


(With toy/old cell phone) "I'm gonna look up how many cars are on facebook."

Me: We need to get something for Robin for being your teacher. What do you want to give her?
Makin: Hmmmm...FRUIT SNACKS!!!
Me: Hmmm we may need to think of something grown ups like...
Makin: Ummmm...salad?

"Andele Chica!" (Can you guess who taught him that one?)

"Mommy. I have an idea you're going to like...NOT!!!"
(He adds "NOT!" to the end of my sentences appropriately often which I find hilarious because normally 3 year olds do not get sarcasm! :) )

He knows how to be super-sweet to butter me up. One example is when he was supposed to be asleep and was going potty or something to put off . He gave me a little kiss and said, "Are you a wittle happy now?" Me: No. You should be asleep. M: But I kissed you...

A saying he has had quite a while when any of us give him an answer he says, "How do you even know?"