Swinging Super Heros, Sand, Science Experiments, Swim Party and Silly Friends

Swinging Super Heros

Sand - another river visit...this time they discovered making semi trucks honk (oh that was fun to see their reactions and how they loved the power!!!) and digging deep enough into the sand to find water below. :)

Science Experiments

This was such a hit last summer and the kids were very excited to experiment again. Their favorites are oil/water and vinegar/baking soda but love the food dye especially. Next year I'll probably do a little more prep, but for now they really enjoy just doing their own thing.

Library Swim Party - We loved seeing great friends and checking out the new additions to the pool. They had some great slides and the lazy river was a hit this year. (We made a few visits to the lazy river, different floaties each time. Dawn happened to catch a picture as we went by!)

Silly Friends
We had Dan over for supper while Michelle and Evan were on a mission trip to Canada. He always brings laughs when he plays pretend and the kids had a blast.

Grandma 'Nita

About 40 years ago my dad was welcomed into a new town by a special lady named Juanita. She invited him to church and they were friends ever since. Even though she had plenty of her own family, she treated us like her own. We didn't live close to any grandparents, so we had a couple of adopted ones that were such a blessing to us. I remember walking quietly towards the front of church (which was really only half-way up, but when you are 4 it seems really far from the back pew!) to sit with her and get a treat during the service. She was my godmother and always made me feel special. She even took me to get my first makeup and I chuckled that she ate her tator tots with a fork. Grandma Juanita passed away on Thursday at the age of 95. She lived a full life and I'm glad she is no longer in pain, but she will be dearly missed.

I just so happened to go through my mountain of cards I had saved throughout the years and found quite a few from her. Just another way to remind me how blessed we were to have her in our lives.

Omaha Children's Museum and Zoo

Brad was on a work trip and flying back into Omaha late Friday evening, so we decided that warranted a two-day visit in Omaha. (Michelle graciously got up early and watched the kids while I took Brad to the airport Monday so they didn't have to make another long car ride a few days before.) We had already planned to make a family trip to the zoo with Brad, so this seemed the ideal weekend.

Friday

We met Alea for lunch and then she joined us visiting the Children's Museum.

It has a temporary Lego Exhibit that I was excited for the kids to see.

Makin's favorite was this area with plastic balls. It was fascinating but a little loud for my taste. His very favorite was the one with the targets to shoot the balls into. They also loved the one with the tubes and you could put air into it to make the ball move and shoot out another hole. They also loved the crane, where they spun the crane to pick up the balls, then spun it back to empty them on the other side. Fun stuff. :)

Lorelei had fun in the bakery, some rope/seat pulley thing, and loved doing face painting with Alea.

Saturday

The kids were excited for a couple of things we don't do during out usual "off season" visits.

Sting Ray Beach
They really loved petting the sting rays and Brad got to pet them for the first time.

They loved the budgie birds and since we were there earlier in the day they were very excited for their food on a stick. Lorelei got to watch them argue on hers and she even had one land on her head.

We took a ride on the train.

And were glad we got to hit up most of our favorites, including the rainforest.

Then we took in an Imax movie and learned a lot about hump back whales. It was a great break from the heat that afternoon.

Tball Season

We had an enjoyable tball season. I don't feel like I got a lot of great pictures, but I will include a few. Just a couple of short videos too.

Lorelei is still excited to try many different activities and continues to plan what she will do next...gymnastics, soccer, etc. I do feel like she improved on her skills this season and learned to give a little more effort in playing the game.

Makin really enjoys tball, and we received lots of comments about how well he did. He particularly liked when they were finally able to get kids out at first base (the first couple of games they didn't do outs) and was quite proud that he got a couple of outs while playing first. Brad and I suspect we will be sitting through quite a few baseball games in the future.

My favorite game was when Lorelei got to play pitcher and Makin was first base. They found a good rhythm and played their best and it was really fun to watch. 

They were elated to get medals at their last game.

Mix Of Summer Fun

It has been difficult for me to find the right balance this summer. I like to go full force and have busy and fun plans for every day of the week. We have a lot coming up in August, so I have had to try to work hard at giving myself some time to get some extra things done instead of getting to every fun event, which has been a challenge for me. I'm just telling myself its only one summer and its good for the kids to see the balance anyway. Hoping next summer all my "to dos" are done (am I dreaming?) and I can just have nothing but fun.

It has been quite the mix of events over the last few weeks...

I am so thankful for our library's summer program. We did miss a few activities this year since that seemed an easy thing to cut from the schedule, but we have loved the ones we attended.

One of the library activities was a visit from the Omaha Children's Museum, which has a dinosaur section. They saw fossils and replicas of different dinosaur claws and teeth. Then there was a dinosaur that looked real (a costume on a person) that came out and did a few activities to help them learn more about dinosaurs as well. The girl in the picture with Makin is a friend from church whose dad is at work during the day. We just wanted her to get to enjoy it too! Lorelei did not want to be in the picture.

The theme this year was heros. Can't get better than a visit from policemen and firemen! The kids sat at the square and listened to both a policeman and fireman speak on a variety of topics, then they walked across the street and got to look into a police car, fire truck and ambulance. We are friends with the firefighter, so the kids even got invited into the firehouse for a popsicle treat afterwards. We knew the newscaster taping the event too, but both kids declined being interviewed to be on T.V.! It was a fun morning.

If we don't get to the library for an activity, we sometimes head there at an off time to get a few books or play legos. Drue especially loves going, so if its ever a gloomy weather day, she is very excited if we can go. This visit they really got into the legos and loved their giant ship creation.

Lorelei has really been into jump roping lately.

Our July dates: Father/Daughter - Aquatic center. These two love swim time!

Mother/Son - Wii date - tennis and bowling are our favs, Makin also played baseball and I watched. We don't usually get much wii time, if any, so this was a nice treat for him and he chose it out of 4 choices I offered. :)

Backyard picnics fit well into a busy schedule on a gorgeous weather day! (And a bit chilly in the shade!)
















We are so thankful for the park down the block! This visit Makin was enjoying shooting a toy airplane very high. (Hard to see, but its just about past the tree tops in the view of the playground.) Lorelei has been enjoying the monkey bars although still gets nervous too high up. :)

The kids can't get enough mom time, especially after a Bible study morning. These are my kitchen counter helpers eating grapes and reading books while we cooked lunch.

One day the kids requested going to the coffee shop. Makin really loved our dates there, and Lorelei had never been, so we decided we should all go one morning. They played checkers, tic tac toe, drew pictures and took turns reading readers to me.

Train track creation fun.

We had a great time going to Elijah's pirate party. The kids loved going on a treasure hunt and hitting the pinata.

They loved helping make home-made chocolate pudding pops! :) Sooo yummy!

We finally broke out the slip n slide from last summer. It is duct taped and barely squirting water but it works and they had fun. Our little pool has become seemingly impossible to keep clean, so we decided to end our backyard pool fun. Will be finding water fun other ways the rest of the summer!

Summer needs to slow down!

Our July 4th

We had a chill 4th this year.

Columbus has their fireworks on July 3rd, and while at first I was a bit bummed they weren't on the 4th, I decided its kinda fun to spread out the festivities and celebrate the eve of the 4th. :) The kids were excited all day and we headed to Ag Park about 2 hours before the fireworks were supposed to start. They had some free activities including bounce houses and kids crafts along with live music playing. We decided a slushie treat would be fun for the kids, even though I was already chilly at that point. (Again asking myself why I always forget Nebraska has chilly evenings!? July 4th + Nebraska = sweatshirts)

We were anxious to see how Makin handled the fireworks since last year I ended up taking him to the car because he was begging to get away from them. This year he did perfectly fine! I think it helped we were a little bit further away, plus he was older, plus hearing some other families shooting them off near us so it wasn't such a shock when the huge ones started. We did come prepared with head phones for him to wear to help block out the sound and a couple of stuffed animals to cuddle, but he took the headphones off and didn't even need to sit on my lap!

I love how much kids just appreciate these kinds of activities and make you enjoy your holiday even more with how excited they are. I just tried to tuck away the memories of their excitement.

Decked Out In Their Red White and Blue

A friend from church told us about a small town parade only 10 min or so from Columbus, so we headed there the morning of the 4th. We enjoyed the smaller crowds and the kids didn't have too much competition for the candy being thrown. (Which I would just rather do without!) It was a great way to spend the morning.

The afternoon was spent in the backyard with the kiddos. They attempted swimming but the water was too cold so they enjoyed the sandbox, and then had some of the usual grilled goodies. Great way to spend our day!