It's summer and we've been doing lots of fun things, but I have been way too lazy about posting pics and blogging about them. So, I'm going to play a little bit of catch up. Here goes:
Daddy went to Utah for 4 days in late June and got to have so much fun biking and running in the mountains everyday. We missed him lots, so we decided to pick him up from the airport and have a family "date night". We went to PW for pizza and watched it being made. Then we went to Fountain on Locust for some ice cream. I love that the girls have gotten so good at eating out. They are much easier to keep entertained and have cut the number of trips out of theirs seat in half!
Grandpa Ed retired from the railroad and we celebrated by taking him and Honey to Dewey's Pizza here in town. Again, the girls loved watching their pizzas be made and have the worker throw flour at them behind the window. Congratulations, Grandpa Ed!
Both girls have become absolute fish this summer. Delaney is totally floatie-free and Harper can swim forever underwater without a floatie, but needs to work on her breathing techniques and using her arms more to be totally self-sufficient in the water. Mrs. Erin and the Busch boys have invited us to swim at their Grandma's house several times this summer. This is a video of Harper swimming a few weeks ago. She can go even further now!
L-R
Emma, Sami, Harper, Alayna, Delaney, and Lucas
Luke J. was there, too, but spent most of the time in the car because he doesn't like fireworks.
On the first Saturday in July we took a family bike ride to Home Depot so Daddy and the girls could do project day while I walked over to Target. Then we rode to Steak N Shake for lunch. It was our longest family ride thus far with the girls on their pedal trailers.
We have tried a couple of random experiments with the girls recently. First, I froze some small toys in a container then let the girls act as archaeologists and hammer away the ice to discover them.
Delaney had so much fun riding around the neighborhood at the bike parade, that Allan and she planned to do a 2-mile run/ride one evening (two times around the perimeter of the neighborhood). It turns out that she is way faster than we thought. Her first mile time was 7:15 so Allan was running as fast as he could to keep up with her. He had to stop her at 1.5 miles, because there was no way he could keep up that pace any longer. She has now graduated to being allowed to ride around the block on the sidewalk without us. I think she loves the freedom and independence.
We went back to Paddlers another day so we could swim with Deb, Cate, Ann, Trevor, and Uncle Kenny. Poor Aunt Kathy had to work :( The girls just love it there, in part because of the soft pretzels and blue raspberry slushes we get. SIUE doesn't have a concession stand (thank goodness for me!)
Cutest swimmer ever!
I was so happy when Ken came to the pool. I knew the girls would practice diving and swimming in the deep end with him. The Best.Uncle.Ever ended up treading water for over 15 minutes so they could keep jumping! As you can see in these videos, he barely had to help them at all. I texted Allan the video and said, "yes, that is your 4-year-old swimming in 11 ft deep water without a floatie!" It was probably better that he wasn't there to see it in person :)
On another day, we went to Splash City with Erin, Krista, and the boys. I don't think we went at all last year, so this year I was pleasantly surprised how independent the girls could be there. The majority of the pool was 2.5 feet which meant Harper could touch. They both loved the little water slides and Delaney even went on the big slide several times with Landon and Tyler.
Couldn't resist snapping a picture of Harper taking Brody's hand to lead him to the slide.
This summer, Allan and I have become "those parents" that send their kids to every free VBS we can find! Parents of the Year! At the beginning of the summer, they went with the Rudd boys to one at Center Grove Presbyterian and absolutely loved it. They got a free CD of the songs they learned and we still listen to it. Last week, they went with the Busch boys and Jones kids to an evening VBS at LeClaire Christian church. They had so much fun all week dressing up for the theme nights (big hair, mismatched, costume and PJ Day). Of course, we adults loved having kid-free evenings to exercise and go out to eat. One night, Allan and I had a hiking/running date at SIUE, then Ness and I ran at the Y one night, and on Friday night, we had a real date night with Erin and Josh all while the kids were having a blast!
Mis-matched night. Delaney went all out, but Harper was more understated with two different flip-flops and three headbands.
Big Hair night (not a far cry from my yearbook pictures from 7th-11th grade!) Again, Harper chose not to participate. She is not a fan of crazy hair.
We've also spent countless hours playing outside with our neighbors. Some new friends, a family with 5-year-old quadruplets, have moved in two doors down. We have all loved getting to know them. One of their favorite things to do is drive the new Power Wheels we got. Allan was able to get a great deal on a red Dodge Viper and blue Mini Cooper for the girls. There is just something so cute about watching them drive up and down the street or around the backyard. Of course, with so many kids and only two cars, we have had many lessons in sharing and taking turns!
I love this cute picture of Harper and one of the Bubbies washing and drying the convertible Mini.
**The videos are a little weird because I uploaded them through Blogger instead of Youtube like I normally do. The upside is that you don't have my annoying voice yelling and cheering in the background.
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