June Misc.

A few more things we did this month....we went out to my Aunt Marcia's land. It's out past Wahoo, NE. She has a little cabin, tractors, sand and four wheelers. The boys had a great time checking it all out.

Charlie just turned 6 1/2 as well! He asked for me to make him a lemon-blueberry bundt cake. This is his favorite.The above photo is of me, Sherry and Susan. We took our families to the Aksarben Ice Cream Extravaganza in Stinson Park. Beautiful night and lots of fun!

Great Wolf Lodge and Kansas City

In mid June we headed south to one of our favorite places--Great Wolf Lodge. This was our second time there and definitely won't be our last. We always have a great time. This year again we visited T Rex Cafe where the boys picked out, stuffed and dressed a dinosaur...or in Charlie's case, a wooly mammoth! We also ordered pizza from Nick and Willy's again. This time on the trip, the boys played MagiQuest, which is a game at the hotel where you run around trying to find clues and wave your magic wand at them, blah, blah, blah. It was fun, but a lot of work for mom and dad!
Okay, so this blogger is completely baffling me right now. I can't figure out how to move the photos, so the top photos are from Deanna Rose Farm in Overland Park, KS. We stopped there after Great Wolf Lodge and on our way home. We loved it. It was free to get in and then just a few dollars for different activities, such as fishing, goat feeding, and pony rides. We did all of them and had a good time. It was about 95 degrees the day we went, so we didn't get to spend quite as much time at the Farm as we would have liked. We will go back the next time we are down there!

Des Moines and Dam to Dam

At the beginning of June, we went to Des Moines, IA so that I could run Dam to Dam on June 5th. We stayed in a hotel, did some swimming, ordered in pizza and went to Adventureland the next day. We had a good time and the run was great. I hope to do it again next year. The race started at Saylorville Lake and Dam and finished in downtown Des Moines. It rained nearly the entire race this year, but it the end it was a blessing. It wasn't hot and humid!

May 2010

School's out for summer! We are all really looking forward to summer vacation this year. We have a lot of fun things planned. We have tickets to a couple of baseball games. We will be going to Adventureland, Great Wolf Lodge, Denver and Estes Park! I plan on painting the boys' room and doing some running and other projects. Hopefully I get to read a few books as well!
May was a busy month with the end of the school year, graduations, running, Mother's Day, and a trip from Grandpa Denny.
Denny visited at the beginning of the month for a night. He always brings the boys each a set of Hot Wheels cars, which they love.
Mother's Day was the day after I chaperoned AL's prom, so I was a little tired. We didn't do much. We hung out, had a good dinner and the boys gave me some gifts. They got me a new (much littler) camcorder. The last camcorder we had was the one my parents gave me for our wedding in 2001. It seemed small at the time, but seemed huge now! The one we got is awesome and fits in the palm of your hand! I love it. They also got me some new pictures to hang on the walls, once we get them painted!
This weekend has been spent doing mostly fun, unproductive things! Sunday I went to Sherry's house with Susan for dinner and then we went to see Sex and the City 2, which was cute. We had a good time!
Today we went to the Boys Town Memorial Day Run. The boys, Doug and I all ran the one mile race. It was Jack and Charlie's first. We weren't sure how they would do. We were fairly certain Charlie would make it the whole way. We thought Jack might want to be carried, but it all turned out great. I ran with Charlie nearly the whole way and we finished in 12:2something. Doug walked most of the way with Jack and they finished in 17 minutes. I think Jack was almost last. He wasn't super excited about the event, maybe because he's only 4, but Charlie was really excited. About 1/4 mile into the race, Charlie asked if we were done yet. I worried that he might want to quit, but he only stopped to walk a bit and ran the rest of the way. Both Jack and Charlie want to do another race. They were excited to get their t-shirts and their ribbons at the end. They liked having the bibs on their shirts and the timing chip on their shoes. Of course, it all had to come off the moment they were done. I was proud of the both of them for finishing the race and for being so happy along the way. This is a great race to do as a family. There are always a lot of kids and activities and it's so family-friendly.

Some funny things my kids have said:

After playing outside on a hot day, Jack was sweating buckets. Charlie looked at him and then yelled, "Daddy, Jack is leaking!"

Charlie is just finishing up kindergarten and he had seemed to like this little girl, Catie. She also seemed to like him. One day at recess, apparently she tried to hug and kiss him. Charlie came home saying he no longer liked her because she did that and he really didn't want her to do those things. Jack said, "So, just push her down." Charlie replied, "No, I just threw wood chips at her!"

(for some reason, I can't get my photos to move to the appropriate places, so I guess they will all just remain at the top of the post!)

April 2010

April was a long month! Finally, we are on to May. Only one more month before summer break. I am super excited about that. I decided that I would return to school next fall. I am going to attend Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha to get a Masters in Reading with a library media specialist endorsement. I plan on taking two classes this fall, so I will be rather busy! At the school where I teach, because of some staffing reductions, I got moved to teach reading. I am excited to give it a shot and make some changes.

At the beginning of April, my mom's brother, David, passed away. We had a visitation for him at St. John's Lutheran Church.

Emily, Whitney and Jill

Our family at the visitation.

Julie with the boys.

In March, Heather had let me know the Embassy Suites had a special. If you stay a night in April, you get a season family pass to the Omaha zoo included in your stay. So we picked a weekend and stayed at the LaVista Embassy Suites in mid-April. We had a really great time. We hit happy hour and there were enough kids for them to keep each other entertained. We ordered pizza in to our room, ate and then the kids went swimming. We ended the night with a few drinks in our rooms and with the kids watching Star Wars on their little dvd players. The next morning, we went swimming, ate breakfast and packed up and went home! We had a really fun time! The boys enjoyed it too!Heather and me!

The boys loved the hotel pillows. They were perfect for pillow fights.

Ben and Charlie after swimming.

Heather and the boys when we got to the hotel!

Then this month there was Easter. Julie came to visit and stayed a couple of days with us. The boys had fun and she got to experience some of their not-so-fun moments! We spent Easter at our house. Julie, Mom and Bob came over for brunch and then Julie and Nate headed back to Denver that evening.

March 2010

Well, March wasn't a very exciting month. We did quite a bit, but I didn't seem to take many photos. This might be because I started teaching another Metro CC class. This time it's an online class, so it doesn't require me to teach on campus. Some things we did do: we went to a Lancer's hockey game with some friends and the boys, we celebrated Jack's half birthday (he turned 4 1/2) and Barb and Jessie came for a visit. We celebrated St. Patrick's day with a treasure hunt and a leprechaun trap. We also colored some Easter eggs in preparation for Easter. After doing the eggs, we used the vinegar and backing soda to make a volcano erupt. The boys love doing this.

Here are a few of the very few photos I did take:

Jack turns 4 1/2!!

The boys love Star Wars and Scooby Doo.

Our leprechaun trap.

Our finished Easter eggs-Star Wars, of course!



Making a volcano with Aunt Jessie and Grandma Barb.

Funny/Nice Things Charlie Has Said Recently...

The other day Charlie was asking about marriage and wanted to see our wedding pictures. He then told me that his friend in kindergarten had picked out a girl in class to marry. He was saving her for later.

Tonight while I was getting ready to do my exercise video Charlie said, "Mom, do you get Girl Scout cookies so you can do this?" And I said, "No, but that's about right." Just the other way around. I exercise so that I can eat a full box of Thin Mints in a weekend.
Then he said to me, "You don't need to exercise. You are already skinny." Ahhh, just what I wanted to hear. Bonus points for him!