Week In Review

We've had another fun week of summer vacation.  Summer break is going way too fast!! I want to stop time for a bit and enjoy the kiddos more! Here is just a handful of the fun things we did this week. We did a lot of swimming, but I didn't get any pics of that.

Porter made a "robot" in preschool (can't remember if I posted a pic of him with his buddies and their robots already or not?).  Stella really wanted her own robot after seeing P's, so one morning this week she made 2 robots and Porter made another one using materials found around the home. 

Wednesday night we had Hannah and Haydn over to spend the night.  I took them to Pump It Up (a bounce house place) that afternoon.

After supper that night they took their dolls in a walk around the neighborhood.  Porter opted to stay at home with Mike and play on the swing set! We also made S'mores and we've had the tent up all week in the playroom so they slept in that and had lots of fun!

We finally got rain on Friday. I feel like we haven't seen rain in ages. I opened up the windows to hear it better and Rex loved having the windows open just as much as I did.

Stella has really gotten into playing dolls this summer. She plays in her room all the time with her dolls. So cute! :) We are going to be redoing her room this week, you can see her new bedding in the photo. We redid Porter's a few weeks ago. I'll post pics once we are done with everything.

P got a haircut this week! Here he is enjoying the sucker he got from Great Clips.

They are signed up for the summer reading program again through the Urbandale Library. Their prize this week was a coupon for free pretzels from Auntie Ann's Pretzels! They were thrilled! They LOVE Auntie Ann's!!!!!!!!

Saturday they were invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. They had so much fun! We hadn't been to C.E.C for well over a year.

Stella hit a jackpot on one game and won a TON of tickets! (And yes, she dressed herself in a winter dress, but oh well! She looked cute! :)  )

Porter loved the game where he got to shoot huge spiders. I think he played it like 10 times.

We have Adventureland passes this year for the 1st time and we headed out there today.  I've been wanting to get a caricature of them all summer and finally did today.
                                   

They should sleep well tonight. They started out with P on his bike and Stella running with us this morning (they did 1.5 miles), then almost 5 hours at the water park!! So we are having a movie night tonight. They are watching Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

4th of July Week

We had a fabulous time in Okoboji over the 4th of July with the Davidson crew.  The evening we got there I pulled out my camera to start taking pics only to find my camera battery completely dead! UGH! Of course the charger was at home, 3.5 hours away.  So I didn't get too many pics, but I did learn a good lesson....to keep my charger in my camera bag! :)

Chris and Kim are getting married at the end of September and asked Stella and Porter to be in their wedding. The kids are super excited!! Kim had cute little poems made up asking them to be in the wedding and gifts for them also. The kids found the packages within 3 minutes of being at the lake, no joke. If there is a gift with their names on it, it's safe to say it will be found in record time!! :)

Here is the happy couple with the Wild Ones.

The morning of the 4th of July we headed over to the Sunset Beach neighborhood to partake in the annual foot parade. It's always a great time. :)

Family photo after the parade. Also, you can kind of see the shirts the kids are wearing in this photo. Steve and Chris made shirts that same Team Boji on the front with a photo of all the grandkids from last year on the tube being pulled behind the boat. On the back is a beautiful sunrise view from the lake house looking onto West Okoboji Lake and it also has each individual childs name on their shirt. They are really cool. Of course I had high hopes to get all 5 kids in a group shot wearing their shirts, which didn't happen! :(

The STL Davidson crew arrived in the afternoon on the 4th. The grandkids had SO MUCH fun all playing.  It was great seeing them all together.

Linda and Nora

Chris and Kim

Double Trouble: Scott and Mike

Getting their fishing on

P-Man and Grandpa

The Grantster

Guy aka: Bubba G

The next morning Mike, Steve and the kids went out on a guided fishing trip with a local fishing guru. The girls stayed out the entire time, over 4 hours! Here are Stella and Mike before taking off.

Steve and Linda were kind enough (and Brave enough!) to offer to take all the kids out for dinner one evening so the rest of the adults could go out for dinner alone (read: ordering off a menu that does not include chicken strips and french fries).  We all had a wonderful evening!! :)  Wish I would of gotten a group shot of the 6 of us....maybe next year! :)

June Fun!

Wow!! June is almost over!! Boo! Summer goes by way to fast. We've been super busy this month. The kids have had LOTS of playdates, a week of Vacation Bible School (I also volunteered the entire week, it was really fun), visits to Okoboji and Mt. Ayr, plus trips to Adventureland, etc. The list goes on and on! Here is some of the things we've done the past month.

Loading up on books! And Porter received his library card!! You have to be 5 to get one, he was very proud! :)

Dressing up Rexy! Doesn't he look pleased?!?!

Hosting a sleepover with their good friends!

Why yes, that would be an Angry Bird stuck to his face....why do you ask???!!

Playing at Raccoon River Beach and enjoying Sno Cones the size of their heads!

Taking a trip to Jester Park to play in the playscape and check out the bison with friends.

Headed downtown for some culture. Here they are visiting the Chinese Garden.

Checking out the pedistrian bridge

The girl does flips any chance she gets! Here she is flipping on the bridge.

Relaxing in the Chinese Gardens.

Roaming around the Papajohn Sculpture Park

Mike and I ran the Dam to Dam 20K the first Saturday of June with 8,000+ of our closest friends.

Really.  A trip to the ER will probably be on our list this summer.....  Hope everyone is having a great summer so far! :)

Okoboji Fun

We've been to Okoboji a few time already this sping/summer and look forward to going back up to celebrate teh 4th of July there. Here are a slew of pics that have been taken the last 2 times we were there.

Porter playing at the little park across the street from my inlaws house.

Getting buried in the sand at the beach just down the road from the house.

Steve and Linda were kind enough to watch the kids for us one night and Mike and I were able to go on a date!! Whoo hoo!! We had dinner at Bracco's (yum!) finished up with drinks at Barefoot Bar (fun!).

Mike and Steve fishing.

Kids fishing.

Linda had all the supplies to make S'mores, so we made them! :) Of course the kiddos loved this! :)

First trip of the season to Arnolds Park.

Stella doing a flip on the trampoline.

Another favorite spot for the kids to stop at: Sugar Shack!

A favorite spot for Mike and I: Taco House!! Nom nom nom.

Feeding the ducks.

A mama bird made a nest in the cover that goes above the boat. 5 cute baby birds are ready for some worms!

Ready to go tubing!!!!