Summer Fun-Week 12

We did our best to enjoy the not-so-summery weather this week. On Tuesday, it felt more like Spring (which is still better than winter) so after the girls hit a morning RAC camp, I surprised them with a McDonald's picnic at a park before going to buy school supplies.

On this school supply shopping trip, we wandered through the toy aisles and I discovered that my exact Strawberry Shortcake doll from childhood is now celebrating her 35th birthday and was in the 'vintage' toy section. Oh dear.

We hit another park (this one at J's school) on the way home. American Ninja Warrior continues to change the way my kids play at parks. It's all about climbing and scaling structures now.

On Wednesday we needed some time at home to knock out some projects. It took me the entire day to clean out and re-organize all the kitchen cabinets. Things were a hot mess up in here. Not pictured: the 10 loads of laundry I also did on this day.

The girls are into trying to repair toys with tape and such. Actually, they think they are playing doctor when they do this. The most recent adventure is to purposely break off a Barbie's legs and then try to tape them on. Adrienne performs a lot of this 'surgery'.

On Thursday, I bit the bullet and we headed to the shoe store to get all the shoe buying out of the way. We emerged 90 minutes later with 2 pairs of shoes for each girl, plus snow boots for Jillian. I have learned over time to pick my battles, and that's why I let Adrienne walk out of the store in these flashy little sneaks. Sigh.

Yep, they light up. Everywhere. Super flashy.

The other big news related to shoes is that Jillian finally learned to tie her shoes!! She picked out some adorable New Balance sneakers that I'd actually like to wear myself and then became determined to learn to tie them. She did it in one night, and we continue to practice each day so that she can tie them quickly and tightly. She plans to debut the shoes publicly at meet the teacher later this week. 

Jillian has been asking to do some more cooking, so on Saturday morning she whipped up some mini blueberry muffins from her princess cookbook. I probably need to back off and let her do more alone because she is getting pretty savvy in the kitchen.

It finally warmed up Saturday afternoon, so we did a little painting and reading outside on the deck while Matt mowed...

...and then tried out some new hairstyles (side ponytails) and lip gloss for a family dinner out.

We drove through Flapdoodles on the way home, and Matt had fun teasing the girls that he was eating their sundaes.

Ah, the Flabbermast at Flapdoodles is a wonderful thing. Sailing our ice cream boats home for a big delicious treat.

Sundae time on the deck. Pretty sure they ended up wearing more than they ate.

And always watching out for Daddy, who loves to sneak bites

Oh, also this week--Matt got a new wedding ring. I find this hilarious. After Jimmy Fallon's degloving injury, men are apparently freaked out, so are ordering these cheap rubber rings that will not injure their fingers. Matt decided to get one, especially to use while weightlifting and traveling. I wish I would have known 14 years ago that I could have skipped 2 years of payments on his platinum band and sprung for the $20 rubber option. Too funny.

Summer Fun--Week 11

After a crazy (and fun!) beginning to August, it was good to slow down a bit this week. The consequence of this fun, however, caused me to finally go pick the garden and find 27 cucumbers....

......and a couple of baseball bats. Not pictured: 200+ cherry tomatoes. Oy.

Also on Monday, we just stayed home. The. Entire. Day. I can't remember the last time this happened. I did 14 literal loads of laundry in addition to garden duties, the kids were happy playing, we got our new dishwasher installed (glory!), I enjoyed a piano lesson, and then had an electrician come out to try and figure out the thermostat on our bathroom floor.  The girls stayed in pajamas all day, and Adrienne just kills me with her Muppet morning hair. She's snuggled with the THREE stuffed princesses Matt bought her at the Disney store during their Dells trip. Dads are way more fun than moms!

The girls went to the RAC Tuesday morning camp (FROZEN theme, so of course they went), but otherwise we kept things pretty light as we all tried to recover from our fun the week before. The girls did a lot of eating trail mix bags from Aunt Mal's shower. Someone, who shall not remain nameless (Adrienne!) was guilty of digging every single navy M&M out of each bag and not eating any craisins or peanuts.

I picked up a box of beautiful organic Colorado peaches from a fundraiser, and I think they are the loveliest and most delicious peaches I've ever had.

So it was time to make some peach jam. Peach jam is the fan favorite around these parts.

Also this week: a trip to the library, Jillian discovering she LOVES catalogs (and subsequently wants to buy everything out the Garnet Hill Kids catalog...apples don't fall far. Sigh), A spontaneous lunch picnic on the deck with Daddy (who was working an evening shift on Thurs, so was home during the day), and a lot of hair salon play. Jillian is always the stylist, Adrienne always the customer. No exceptions, people. No exceptions.

I suppose the hair salon pictures also require some clothing explanation. Another "Daddy In The Dells" purchase. You can bet Mom would have gently persuaded Adrienne to look on a different rack for a shirt.

This hairstyle is exciting because it was Jillian's first time to successfully put in hairbands! She was SO excited ("Aren't you so proud of me, Mom!?!?) and she made Adrienne some pigtails.

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon/evening with Jenni and the kids catching up and playing. After playing at our house, we hit a park, then out to dinner.

And what were the daddies doing while we were playing at the park? Well, they were reaping the benefits of Michael's birthday gift from Jenni--A trip to Extreme Playground in Hastings. The boys got to drive excavators and move some junked out cars. The below picture makes me just smile and laugh to no end. 

They continued their 'Wild At Heart' man date by going to the BMW dealership and driving some crazy fast cars. They came home that night and talked about nothing else for the rest of the weekend!

On Sunday, the girls and I went to church while Matt finished a paper that was due for work, then I had a nice quiet afternoon at home to do laundry (or read and nap...) while Matt and the girls went to see The Minion Movie at last. 

Summer is fading....just two weeks left!

Working Out

I'm still laughing about this. Today I was in the kitchen and the girls were in the living room playing with princess Barbies. I overhead Adrienne, "It's time for naked pushups! These girls are in a line, naked and doing pushups". Ummm....what?? I walked over to check out what was going on, and found 3 of the princesses face down in push up position sans clothing.

So I of course asked Adrienne why "the girls" were doing pushups naked. She looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead, and then said, "So they don't get their shirts all sweaty!"

Why didn't I think of that?

Dad and Daughters Dells Trip

I admit that I was a little shocked when Matt told me he wanted to take the girls to the Wisconsin Dells while I was away on my moms weekend. I have lots of times alone with the girls at home while he travels, and it never ever occurs to me to take them on a vacation like that. But, he was stuck on the idea and the girls were SO excited to go to the Dells for the first time--but most of all, they were stoked for some quality time with their best guy. I felt a little teary as I snapped a pic of them the morning they left. There went my whole heart driving away down the road....

They made it to the Dells without incident and promptly stopped at Paul Bunyans for lunch upon arrival. The sugar rush began with some homemade donuts.

And then my pancake lover was nearly beside herself with glee over this stack of hot ones placed in front of her. I love this picture so much. 

They went to check in at Great Wolf Lodge, and then spent the afternoon at the waterparks. Later that evening, they waited for dinner proudly displaying their wolf ears. 

The highlight of this place was the train that brought food out. 

And then....Matt took them to the outlet malls and let them select some treasures from the Disney stores. 

After more water parking on Friday, they went to lunch at Subway, then took a Duck Boat Tour and walked around downtown.

Playing in the waterpark on Saturday morning before heading home. 

They arrived home Saturday evening, and then on Sunday, Matt decided to load them up for a hike at Whitewater State Park and a picnic. 

I am so thankful for this special time with Matt and the girls. They are old enough that they will always remember this little trip with him. He works so hard and has so much on his plate--he could have easily phoned this weekend in with some TV and play at home. Instead, he put in the effort to take them and make memories doing something special he knew they would love. And they did!