Laine's Birthday Party

Laine's birthday party went through several different phases.  The first plan was to go to a local cupcake shop and then play at the park across the street.  But the cupcake shop closed the week of the party!

So then we switched to hosting the party at our house, planning on having a slip and slide, outdoor play time, and a craft.  Here are the kids practicing on the slip and slide a couple days ahead of time.

The day of the party turned out to be wet and cloudy.  So, again, the party changed.  We moved everything inside, though the kids still were able to jump on the trampoline without getting too wet.  I'm sure we broke several trampoline rules with the number of kids here, but they had fun anyway.

The kids had a good time painting over their names taped on canvas - a simple and fun craft that made a great "party favor."

Penny baked a delicious peanut butter, chocolate, and Reese's Pieces cake - so good!

Blowing out the candles and enjoying the first bite.

Finally, time to open the presents.

Laine had a great time, despite all the changes to the original plans.

Here's our kids' final canvas products - Laine chose to spell "love" instead of her name.  They turned out nicely!

Art Camp

Laine loves art.  And she's pretty good at it too!  She's very creative and not scared to try new things in the process.

Last week she went to art camp at a nearby school and had a wonderful time.

They worked on five projects throughout the week and had an art show on the final day.

I was amazed by what she created - different styles and mediums.  So outside of my comfort zone, but she absolutely loved the whole week!

The panda bear box animal and tie dye shirt were the fourth and fifth projects. So cool - she's already looking forward to going again next year.

Happy Birthday Laine!

Short post after a long day... celebrating Laine!

Laine turned 7 today, and she packed the day with fun.  First item on the agenda: presents and cinnamon rolls for breakfast (a birthday tradition)

Next up: take the new bike for a spin.  She loves it, and the bigger size fits her perfectly.  Can't wait to see what she starts carrying around in the basket she's so excited about.

After breakfast she headed out to the last day of art camp.  I'll post pictures about that soon...

Museum of Transportation

Each year we go to the Museum of Transportation at least once, sometimes more than that.  It costs a little bit of money to get in, and it involves a lot of walking, but we always have a good time.

The kids love the train ride and are glad to ride around the museum grounds a couple times.

Climbing on the old trains is a lot of fun.

And this year we got to ride on an old electric trolley car several times.

Sitting in the back of the bus!

Flipping levers, pulling the bell, "driving" the train engine.  Choo choo!

Yogi's Jellystone Park

Back in the spring I bought a Groupon for Yogi's Jellystone Park in St. Louis.  I had never heard of the place before, but it was a day pass that included a number of activities, so I figured we could try it out this summer.

Several months later we finally went, and we had a nice time.  It was nothing fancy, but it was a new experience for us, so the kids came home with lots of adventures to retell.

The kids especially loved the putt putt course - we played 3 or 4 games, though not necessarily by the rules!

They had a lot of fun climbing on all the sculptures too.

 We went on a tram ride around the park, which was really slow and mostly just showed us the cabins and parking spots for RVs, should we decide to come back and stay overnight sometime.

The little kids were excited to meet Yogi Bear.

And even got a nice picture with him.  

More putt putt interspersed throughout our day...

The arcade room was fun - mostly because the kids rarely, if ever, play any of those types of games.

And they had a swimming pool with a deep end that the kids loved swimming in, especially Laine.  She's gotten to be a really good independent swimmer this summer.

Mead and Cole "laid out" for a few brief minutes before getting back in the water.

Summer fun

Each day this summer has been a little different.  We've gone new places and tried new things.  Here's some glimpses:

Mead dressed up in accessories while hanging out at the mall.

The kids played in the water towers at several parks.

Sometimes in their bathing suits, sometimes in their clothes!

And they rode bikes a lot - for one very short season they are all on the same size bike!

Laine is about to outgrow her bike, and Cole can just barely reach the pedals on his.  They love riding up and down our driveway though.

And all along our garden has been booming - here's Laine with the first carrot we harvested.  She's gotten really good at peeling and cutting carrots his summer!

Happy 4th of July!

One week later... here's some shots from our Fourth.

I took the girls to see the fireworks for the first time ever.  They loved it!  We played cards and ate snacks in a field while we waited.  Simple, but very enjoyable.

On the morning of the Fourth we went to a festival near our house to help celebrate the day.

Snow cones, pinwheels, bubbles, and face painting.

Cole got a baseball painted on his face,

Mead got an ice cream cone on her hand,

And Laine got fireworks on her face.

Broken windows

Cole has now managed to break two windows on our house, within two months!  The first one happened when he "gently" tapped the window with his plastic bat.  I didn't get a picture of that one because we were literally on our way out the door to a wedding, and the brand new babysitter was just arriving.  Welcome to our family chaos!

The second one, pictured above, happened when he tried to stop the door from closing by putting his hand on the glass.  Needless to say, it didn't work, and his hand went right through the window pane.

Here's all the band-aids he ended up with.  Lots of crying, a little blood, and lots of hugs.  The band-aids make it look worse than it was.  Thankfully he healed quickly, and hopefully it won't happen again next month!

Life at home

Here are some random glimpses into our time at home...

Cole was looking out Laine's window, with his face smashed up against the screen: black marks all over to prove his whereabouts!

A new sign taped to Laine's bedroom door.  Her written communication is getting much more prevalent.  Now we just need to work on the spelling!

Butterfly observation

And watching (and dancing with) some interactive TV - Bo On the Go, in this instance.

Family time

While we traveled in the Carolinas we were able to meet up with various parts of my family.

We met my brother, Blair, and his family for a picnic in Blacksburg, SC.

The cousins rarely get to see each other but jump right into playing with one another whenever they get the chance.

The oldest is almost 7, and the youngest just turned 2, so they'll hopefully enjoy going through similar seasons of life as time goes on.

Everyone enjoyed time with Nan and Pop.

And good food makes for a great picnic!

Here's the whole gang!

The "little" kids - only 6 months apart.

The "big" kids.

While in Greenville we visited my aunt's house, though only 3 of her 6 kids were there.

Heidi let the kids help groom and feed the horse, which they loved doing.

Todd and Emily also drove down from Virginia to see us.

It was a treat to all be together, even though parts of each of our families were missing.  I hope to do this again before too many years go by.