Sweet Friends

We had the opportunity last week to have an end of summer bash with several of my good mommy friends and many of the kids good friends. It was a busy, chaotic but wonderful time spent together. One thing I've noticed over the summer and have mentioned to Brittany is how our twins have started realizing that they "go together". Instead of being four kids the same age that are playing at the same house they have begun to identify as friends. This has been so sweet to watch. I love the little friendships my children have formed. As we talked a bit that day we realize that our seasons of life are in transition. The kids are getting older and school schedules don't always line up. Our days of frequent playdates are on hiatus until next summer which means we will have to be more inentional about finding time to connect with each other and time, for the older kids especially, to hang out together. So grateful for these little friends and their moms.

Tunnels in Town

The fact that I'm even bloggin about this tells you how corny I can be. But hey every small town probably has some tradition that most people hold on to but no one knows why. In Morton it was the tunnels. There is only one set of tunnels which is actually a lot, most towns don't have any. And you can ask almost anyone in town about them and they will tell you....you honk when you drive through. For many of us this is something our parents did for us when we were kids and now we do it for our our children. There was just something special about driving through those tunnels. But last week we said good bye. We had a whole tunnel parade of cars and everything. Our kids are sad to lose the excitement and childlike joy that driving through a tunnel brings. As our way of saying good bye we joined the parade and drove through no less than four time (honking each time) on the last night they were open.

Galactic Voyage VBS

The week after the twin's birthdays we had VBS at church.  The theme was Galactic Voyage and was very Star Warsy which went over well with our kids. There was a lot of learning about how big God is and just how far he would go to save us. This was the first year that all five of us got involved and though it was exhausting I think we pretty much loved every  minute of it. I really love when we get the opportunity to be involved with our church as a family. Paul was able to rush home from work every day to serve as a parking and security guy. I was lucky enough to be a leader in the 4th grade class. They were fun and challenging and I enjoyed engaging with kids that were not the same age as my own children. Jack was in the kindergarten class and though I didn't get to see him much during each evening he was excited every night about the things he got to do. He was especially excited about the nights his class got to go to worship twice and that he was selected to slime our Jr. High Pastor, Kevin. Schaeffer and Logan got to be in the preschool class which was lucky enough to get to participate in pretty much all the same things as the older kids. They really loved it and I'm hoping it's a sign of good things to come in preschool.

VBS exhaustion. VBS got done at 8:30 and by the time we got home it was after 9 every night. Our kids are used to a 7 o'clock bedtime! Needless to say they were exhausted by the end of the week and actually started sleeping in quite a bit. Here Schaeffer is clinging to his jet pack.

Happy Birthday to Schaeffer! Happy Birthday to Logan!

A few weeks ago we had the privelage of celebrating two birthdays in our family. Schaeffer and Logan turned 3 years old which I'm still finding hard to believe. They were so excited for their birthdays this year. Logan especially want to grow up so bad, I think he would have rather turned 5 than 3 but he was still plenty excited. They know at least a little that 3 year olds get to do more stuff, like preschool and tumbling and chewing gum. We told them months ago that they had to be 3 to chew gum. Thankfully, they have only had a few pieces and the novelty has worn off. 

Their birthday this year was sponsored by Monster's University. We took them to see the movie in the theater which they loved and they earned Sully and Mike stuffies for various potty training successes. And they were quite thrilled with my suggestion to make Sully and Mike cakes. Logan talked about eating Mike's eye for weeks before his birthday.

On their actual birthday we were excited to spend the day with the Winkelman cousins. Breakfast at Judy's followed by some swimming at the pool and then more swimming that evening at Grandma and Papa's house. The next day was their party and we had a backyard full of family and friends. There was lots of swimming and jumping. We are so thankful for such a wonderful group of people for our boys to grow up with.

Our Little Athlete

This was the summer of sports for Jack. With Schaeffer and Logan being too young to participate yet, we let Jack try a bunch of sports to see if maybe one or two would emerge as a favorite. As it turns out Jack just loves playing, being with friends and running around (shocking, I know). He's content to do those things via whatever sport is going that day. Early in the summer Jack did a two week, individual skills basketball camp. The high school coach and team run the camp and I thought they did an excellent job. I love that they focused much more on character building than skills. Despite making only one basket in two weeks, Jack had a really great time learning a little about dribbling, shooting and defending. I loved it when he would excitedly tell me how some of his shots didn't go in, but "they hit the net, Mom!". He was thrilled that two of his preschool buddies were there with him and as is usual he made fast friends of the coaches and other kids.

Jack also participated in his final year of the park distric T-Ball/Soccer program. I would have personally prefered to sign him up for MYBA t-ball but I dropped the ball and missed sign ups by a long shot. I know Jack didn't even know the difference. I think one of the funniest things about Jack was on t-ball day. When it was his turn to hit he would step up to the plate, pound home plate with his bat a few times, hit the ball and then carefully set his bat down and gently remove his helmet and set it on the ground before he would take off running. The helmet was just too cumbersome for him to run in.

Jack got to try one other new sport this year (besides basketball). We signed him up for tennis class which he was super excited about. He had a great time with that as they worked on learning forehand and backhand skills.

Grandma and Papa Friend took us for ice cream after Jack's final tennis. Since all of his sports are wrapped up for now, I asked him what his favorite was, what he enjoyed the most. He instantly replied all of them but then gave it some more thought and said basketball and tennis. When I asked him if that was because he got to play those sports with friends he grinned and said yes. So that's my Jack, loves to play, no matter the game and especially with friends. 

Rain, Rain Go Away

Anyone living in the midwest right now knows, we have had A LOT of rain! It makes enjoying the spring and warmer weather a little difficult when it's soggy and storming most of the time. We've been trying to make the best of it though and the kids have enjoyed getting to wear their rain boots and rain coats and being allowed to stomp in puddles. Two weekends ago Jack got to go fishing with Papa in the rain while my mom and I took the twins out for some errands. We ended up at a nursery during the rainiest part of the day. The twins had a blast and got completely drenched. They look so cute in their rain coats! Then this weekend with more rain but slightly higher temperatures Paul gave the boys each an umbrella and sent them out to run in the gutters while we watched from the mostly dry porch. They had an absolute blast.

Radishes!

We have been spending quite a bit of our free time at my parent's house tending to the garden. I should take a picture of the whole thing so you can see just how big it's gotten (and we aren't done planting yet!) and just how many weeds their are. Turns out I am the slowest but most thorough weeder in the family. My perfectionist tendancies are not meant for gardening! I have spent hours upon hours digging up weeds and yet have not even finished more than 2 rows. In an effort to help keep the weeds at bay we put down a bunch of straw. The boys actually were helpful with this, though perhaps a bit too zealous! 

We reaped our first (small) harvest the other week. Our first planting of radishes was ready to be picked. Turns out Jack really likes radishes, Logan says he does but only takes on bite each time and Schaeffer does not like radishes. Also turns out we didn't plant enough the first time. It's fun to have even a little bit of success, though I have perhaps let it go to my head and now think I can grow anything. We shall see if I kill the hostas I purchased this weekend.