Family Night at the Zoo

Every year Brian's company does a big party - it used to be a fancy dinner party without kids - the past two years it has been a family night at the zoo.  I'll admit I miss the fancy party :)  That being said we really had  a great time - until everyone got cranky the last 20 minutes.  Or maybe I was the only one that got cranky, I'm really not sure. 

 All week long Jack talked about wanting to see the penguins.  They didn't disappoint!  They were swimming fools and the boys loved that there weren't' too many people around to block their view.

 Feeling the feathers on a real penguin skin was prettty cool too.  William tried to tell the docents all about thier maps - after all he had maps in his room. 

 Of course we had to ride the train!

 The big boys rode the carousal while Jack met some of Brian's coworkers.
 Before we knew it the time had come for the sealion show!  Max is just getting so old! 

 I swear he was too cool for some of the things we saw - or at least he acted like he was too cool. But he loved the show and had a huge grin on his face the entire time. 

The little boys loved it too.  I mean come on - look at that sealion jump through a hoop after going down a water slide. 

That's pretty cool no matter how old you are!  He was huge!  I really wasn't sure he would fit.  All in all it was a pretty great evening. 

Happy Father's Day!

 What a weekend!  Yesterday Brian and the little boys celebrated the Father's Day with Grandpa Jack over lunch. Mom and Max were at golf and Dad didn't get any pictures.  Today Brian took the big boys to Six Flags with a friend and his daughters. They all had a great time!  Tonight we headed to Nonna and Nonno's house to continue the celebrating.

  Unfortunately I really need to learn to use my new camera and these were the best pictures I got.  For the record we said make a funny face on the last picture.  Jack says this is his surprised face - I think he might have a future in acting.  Love these men so much!  Happy Father's Day!

Max the Golfer

This winter Brian noticed that there is a golf league through our church.  We talked to Max and he was very interested - I think he just wants to learn to drive the cart.  He has been playing for the last six week and he has really enjoyed it.  The program included lessons from a pro for several weeks and then three weeks of 'real golf' on their par three course.  Yesterday was the first time I took Max.  I was super impressed!  He had a par and two bogey's which compared to everyone else was pretty awesome. 

I think this new sport may be a good fit for Max.  It is so much fun to see him take a risk and try something new!

Look Mom!

Brian and the big boys are at the baseball game with scouts tonight, so Jack and I were on our own as we walked Duke tonight.  Jack was so excited about this little friend that he found!  We spent about 15 minutes watching the caterpillar.  Poor Duke just wanted to walk.  Jack tried feeding it lots of grass and told the caterpillar that it needed to go over to the tree and build a cocoon.  It was adorable!

A Week in Pictures

Wow.  That was a crazy one.  The big boys started summer school this week - they are loving it!  That means every morning I dropped them off at 8:00.  Then Jack and I tried to get some things accomplished before we walked the dog,  had an early lunch, packed a lunch for the big boys to eat in the car and picked them up at noon.  Then we were off to chess camp for Max.  It was a bit of a drive from home, so the little boys and I spent three hours exploring before picking Max up again at 4:00 and battling traffic back home.  I don't think I have cooked dinner all week.  Thank goodness for rotisserie chickens at Costco.

So here are a few pictures to document the craziness. . .

Taking turns paying the parking meter.  It is pretty sad when you put $0.50 on your credit card - but I loved that I wasn't always worried about having coins.

Meeting the head of the chess camp the first day.

Jack and Mommy killing time at a park while the van got an oil change - this was the morning after we were at the dr for him for three hours.  My poor baby has walking pneumonia.  Hopefully the current antibiotic - our third -  will do the trick.

He has had this awful cough for a really long time now, but luckily he has no other symptoms and is acting totally normal.  If the cough isn't gone by Tuesday we are off to a pulmenologist.  He told me in the car "Mommy, my really bad cough won't leave my body" :(

Wednesday we explored the Kids Clubhouse at the history museum.  It was empty!  The kids must have played with these magnetic blocks for at least an hour.  

 They also spent about 5 minutes fishing. . .

 And the remainder of our time honking the ships horn - or fighting over whose turn it was to honk the horn.

 A little snack and we were off to the jewel box.

 They loved looking at the ponds outside.  There were tons of tadpoles - I explained that they would grow into frogs and now they want to come back and see 'their tadpoles' when they are frogs.

They weren't as excited about the inside.  

Thursday afternoon we helped do some yard work at nonna's house.  We met dad at Max's baseball game.  Before I took the little boys home Brian snapped this little gem.

Today we ended up at another new park and the boys were able to entertain themselves for a bit.  I think this was the third new park we explored this week.  We also explored a new to us library - but there are no pics and that one got a big thumbs down from everyone.

For the next two weeks the big boys continue summer school and Jack is attending a local day camp in the mornings.  That means I will have a couple hours to myself each day.  It feels like the best birthday present ever :)

I love by boys so much, and we have really had two fabulous weeks of summer vacation together - but I'm ready for just a little bit of mommy time.

Memorial Day Weekend

 We had a very busy Memorial Day weekend.  On Saturday morning we headed to the garden bright and early - we have a membership this year, so Brian wants to make sure we get our moneys worth.  

We started out walking the grounds for a bit before heading to the tram station.  The boys were cute as could be :)

 The kids had a great time riding the tram through the garden.  Brian and the big boys were in the front -he let them take all the pictures they wanted.  I have about 100 that look something like this. . .

We wrapped up our visit in the children's garden.  As always these locks/damns were a huge hit with the boys.  They must have played here for 40 miutes before we had them move on - and no one fell in trying to retrieve a boat.  Huge win.  Before we left everyone cooled off at the splash pad and I was reminded why I had them wear swimsuits last time. 

Sunday was pretty calm - cleaning out gutters - but we were just saving our energy for Six Flags on Monday.  I don't think we planned our first ride very well.  We went on the mine train.  Last summer all three boys rode Fire in the Hole in Branson and loved it.  Jack has changed his mind.  He hated it!  In fact he pretty much refused every ride for the next two hours.  We finally got him on hte carolsel long enough for a picture, but he wanted off before it started. 

He did agree to a carousel chariot ride iwth mom and it helped to ease him back into rides.

 Then there is this man.   He rode the Screamin Eagle and LOVED it.  I think he is crazy.  We ended our day with Thunder River and the Log Flume.  Both here huge hits with everyone.  Brian and Max have season passes and Will has a ticket from school he can convert to a pass, so I see more trips in the future for the big boys.  Jack and I will stick to the bring a friend for free days and we will skip the roller coasters :)

The Zoo

I had a challenge for the boys on their very first day of summer vacation - prove to me that you can listen well enough for me to take all three of you on an adventure by myself.  Don't get me wrong, we don't sit at home.  I'll take all three boys to the library, park, store etc by myself - I just avoid the big adventures when I'm alone. 

I have to admit that it went really well!  We explored the children's zoo, rode the train, checked out the snake house and even saw the big cats.  Our visit lasted about three hours and everyone - including me - left with a smile on their face.  These are the times when I appreciate that everyone is getting just a little bit older. 

Brian had a lot for work to do today and William wanted to go to the pool.  I told him I couldn't take everyone by myself and he quickly reminded me that they passed the test when we went to the zoo so I can't take them everywhere on my own.  Unfortunately for William a storm rolled through this afternoon so no pool time.