Summer Fun--Week 11

Summer may be winding down, but the activities do not seem to be. I just couldn't handle our little weekly schedule this week so we skipped it. But, the girls did spend 4 mornings at JETS gymnastics camp which they both loved. The theme was Olympics, and they handed out a different award to each kid at the end of camp in a ceremony. Adrienne received the "best flipper" award, and Jillian received...wait for it...the "polite award". Almost moved me to tears. In addition to JETS, we continued ice skating, had a swimming lesson, another soccer practice, and then..the craziest weekend of our summer that required some serious scheduling magic to make it all happen. Matt had to work both days, and it just so happened to be the USTA sectionals tournament in St Louis Park. This was only important because my tennis team made the tournament. I really wanted to be able to play, so thanks to the Tauntons (who kept Jillian after Will's birthday party Saturday morning, took her to her first soccer game, cheered for her, photographed her, and brought her home) and Eleyna (who watched A on Saturday and both girls all day Sunday), we made it all happen. Jillian's team, the Falcons (or "velkins" if you are Jillian) won 7-2 on Saturday and my team placed second in our tournament. Highlights for me included lots of girl time gabbing to and from MSP and some post tennis shopping and dinner with teammates, and winning my first ever singles match (I prefer doubles). I played nearly 2 1/2 hours in a battle and won. Yay me! I am especially happy because it means I am learning some patience in my play, which is for sure my biggest barrier in the game of tennis. What a week!

Lining up for the awards ceremony at JETS. Adrienne spotted me and pointed me out!

Receiving her award for "best flipper"

High-fiving the teacher

Adrienne's class giving a salute

Thumbs up to Mom

Look at my medal!

Jillian waiting for her turn. I just so happened to dress the girls alike this day, she is on the far left in the navy shirt

Checking out her medal

Salute!

This was an interesting incident...Jillian allowed Adrienne to color all over her with markers and then told me she just couldn't get away from her while she was doing it. Right.

Saturday morning we hit Quarry Hill for Will's birthday party. We got a nature hike and a tour in the caves, donuts, and lemonade...best party ever! Adrienne attended wearing her shoes on the wrong feet as usual. 

Heading towards the cave entrance

Colored flashlights made this experience extra fun

Jillian checking out some wall markings

Dumbest picture ever, but the only one I have to mark my win. A crazy, almost cross-eyed selfie I sent Matt after I won and was headed out of the locker room.  The old lady still has it....sometimes.

My little soccer player. Thank you, Jenni, for this pic!

In ready position!

Summer Fun--Week 9

The summer just keeps whizzing on by. We took another week off of our "schedule", since Matt was off Mon-Wed and we had some fun stuff planned. Monday we enjoyed being together after nearly a week apart. We hit a couple of parks in the afternoon, the local food co-op, and then drove home with all the windows down like Matt said he always did with his dad growing up. Jillian loved this more than I can say.

Adrienne tried to love it. But her enthusiasm turned to tears as we neared home.

Long suds-baths in mom and dad's tub are all the rage these days

Matt calls this the self-cleaning option because they get so covered with soap that he just makes them run through our shower to rinse off... no parental scrubbing required.

Tuesday was busy with a RAC Dr. Seuss Camp and ice skating. Both girls demonstrated major improvements (and enjoyment) from week one.

On Wednesday, we declared a family fun day. We headed up to the Twin Cities to try some new stuff and revisit one of our favorites.
First stop--Hyland Park Play Area, aka 'chutes and ladders park'. This was a mere 10 minutes from the MOA and probably the most awesome park in the entire world. Seriously. Our kids were in absolute heaven.

Oh the options are endless

Can you see Jillian sitting up top?

The bonus was the "car wash" mister

Adrienne discovered she could slide down the fireman pole alone, so she did it over and over and over and over.

After a fun morning of play, we headed over to St Paul to try out The Nook, a famous place for cheeseburgers that was featured on 'Diners Drive-Ins and Dives'. They even have a burger named after the host, Guy Fieri. Matt ordered the Nookie Supreme, which was a hot mess and needed a knife and fork, but my cheeeburger with grilled onions, pickles, mustard, and ketchup was culinary heaven. Jillian concurred, devouring her entire burger as well.

Snuggled in our nook inside The Nook

After a kids-gone-wild stop at some board game store Matt wanted to check out, we hit the Como Zoo for the rest of the afternoon.

Just an ordinary day hanging out next to a massive gorilla

Matt let the girls put $2 in the machine to get the plastic molds of animals. Here we were waiting on Jillian's lion. The suspense was just killing her, so she had to cover her eyes.

Other highlights of the week included.....

Picking and eating our first (and maybe our only) two ears of corn from the garden.

Getting new ballet shoes for ballet camp next week and doing "balleray" in the living room. Here Jillian tries to teach Adrienne what 'first position' is.

Getting some pretty sweet Olaf shirts in the the mail from Grandpa Bennie. They make some comfy night shirts!

Discovering "witch finger" grapes at Hy-Vee. This was a produce first for this foodie. The girls think these are hilarious and very tasty.

Family pizza night on Saturday. I went to a cooking class in June where I learned some Neapolitan pizza making techniques and we just finally tried them out. I made 5 pizzas over the course of the evening (including one dessert pizza, which the girls had no clue was even an option), while we chatted and the girls played a game at the table (their current favorite--Obstacle). We just ate a piece here and there as the pizzas came out of the oven and had the most relaxed and enjoyable dinner together that we have ever had.

Summer Fun--Week 8

Oh, what a fun week this was! We took the week off from our little schedule, and packed it full of good stuff. Matt was working a night shift and on call most of the week, so the girls and I headed to Des Moines on Tuesday evening, but not before a fun day of RAC Pirate Camp, and their first ice skating lesson.

Yes, really. Bike helmets. They look a little nervous, don't they?

Posing with Rachel pre-class

Jillian clinging to the side of the rink for dear life while she waited for her teacher to skate over and get her.

Trying to stay upright. Jillian is in the purple jacket with pink leggings and white helmet in the background of the pic. She did pretty well overall.

Adrienne is up! Far back of picture in red leggings and aqua jacket.

After ice skating we rushed home to change and load the car, kiss Matt farewell as he headed off to work for the night, and we cruised on down to Des Moines. I had purchased some kid audio books for us all to listen to, and I am proud to say we made both legs of this road trip without any screen time! A first for us--yipee! The girls were so excited to be at Grammy and Grandad's. I was, too.

Bedtime story with Grams

My mom knows how make this girl happy--my very favorite, Macadamia Nut Cream Pie

Fell asleep watching Happy Feet on Wednesday at rest time. I cannot remember the last time this kid napped!!

The beauty of it all was that Adrienne napped at the same time, too! We haven't seen a double nap in this family for 3 years! Poor Grams was stuck under a sweaty princess.

Learning to snap beans before dinner

Pre-bedtime fun on Wednesday. Trying on lots of my Grammy (their great grandmother) jewelry. This was big, big fun for all of us and the girls came home with a few new treasures.

Clip on earrings are all the rage, right?

Out of order pics here...Adrienne diving right into the baby pool Wednesday afternoon

Jillian's turn--look at those long legs!!

Wiggle Girl woke up from her nap and for a few fleeting moments decided to snuggle with her mama.

On Thursday, I got to go out shopping alone for the morning. Yipee! After enjoying myself thoroughly, I went back to pick up mom and the girls and we headed out to lunch. We tried a local Des Moines place--Tasty Tacos--and LOVED it. Homemade flour tortillas that are flash fried to produce soft delicious shells? Yes, please. 

Tasty Tacos gets the thumbs up from my taco-loving girl

And then there is this goofball. Hates tacos, but loves cheese quesadillas, and just being silly with her straw.

We hit Target after lunch and while Grammy finished checking out, we ordered the lattes to go and had a cake pop.

Lovin' on Grandad

All lovely in their new fancy jammies I found at Carter's on my shopping spree

And yes. This is homemade dark chocolate cream pie from the kitchen of my mother. She is amazing, and this was amazing. The girls helped make the pudding and Jillian had a few words to say after tasting it "Grammy, there are three kinds of chocolate--some is not chocolate enough, some is too much chocolate, and some is just right". After mom asked which one this pudding fit into, she got a big smile and a thumbs up.

Whipping up the bierrocks for Friday night dinner. A family favorite--homemade dough wrapped around seasoned beef and cabbage. Think Runza if you are from the Midwest, except a billion times better. Not pictured: Homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yep. She's like a nicer Martha Stewart without the prison record.

The big surprise of the week for the girls was that the Widmers decided to make the trek to Des Moines so the cousins could spend some time together. They hadn't been together since Christmas, and it was so precious to watch them interact. Jack rang the doorbell and yelled "surprise!" when the girls answered.

You wanna talk noise? Think 4 kids under 6 in one tub. Madness!

Jack and Jillian.  Love these grins.

Hooray for cousin hugs!

Uncle D gettin' a lot of love. What you can't see from the picture is that he was holding his iphone that was playing a video clip for the kids

The tradition continues...Grandad had Krispy Kremes (and hats!) waiting for the kids Saturday morning.

some more pool time

A lesson in corn growing process and shucking from Grandad

Adrienne insisted on wearing this toy hard hat most of the day.

I didn't realize shucking corn was so dangerous

Tough work

Fun on the deck with punching balloons

Bryce was really good at multitasking--binky sucking and balloon punching

The three big kids run down to the park after dinner

My little stinker blowing bubbles

Snuggled in for a rest time--Despicable Me 2 was the featured film this day.

Lunch on the patio

Morning cartoon

Bryce being goofy

And trying to get all 4 kids to lay still in the hammock at the same time.

Pretty darn impossible

Yep. Feet in faces.

Jillian gave up.

What a wonderful time with family, full of memories and special moments. My heart is full. The only bummer is that I forgot my good camera, so all memories are recorded on my phone. So it goes. Love getting to watch my kids experience fun summer traditions I enjoyed as a kid. This is the good stuff, people.