July 4th Part One!

We've been so busy and had so much going on with our weekend getaway on top of sports and remodeling that for the holiday, we really just wanted to chill...and so we did!  We did a little shopping in the morning for yummy things to grill and played outside and then geared up for the pool.

We love our neighbors!! This is Patty, who grew up next door and her parents still liver there, and she is holding Emma closer to Walt so they can talk without the at pesky fence in their way.

Family 4th Picture!

We introduced the kids to bomb pops, I mean they are patriotic after all.

as expected Leo loved his and Sophia was only mildly impressed and didn't like the white layer at all.

We went to a different pool and of course Leo tried the slide.
He could do it but it was a far swim so he didn't do it too often.

Stacy, Mer and the kids joined us at the pool

cannonball of the diving board!

Old Times

Adeline 

Jodie washing the paint off

Emma supervising

Francesca pre-nudity streak :)

Luca

Addie

Isabelle

Jodie, Julie, and I (plus kids, obviously) convened over at Julie's last week to work on a "craft" project.  Julie wanted two walls in her basement room painted with chalkboard paint.  Since Jodie is all around crafty and has actually done this before she was the real star of the show, but Julie and I pitched in to make it all happen too! ;)  The kids played together and ended up having a hose war once we got it out to wash out brushes, etc.  It was nice to be together once again, the three of us.  Of course we still hang out, but with children growing older and more children introduced into the world, lives get busy and we don't all get together as often as we once did.  It was fun to be together and I hope that can do it again before the fall and lives get crazy again!

More Zoo Time

We hit up the zoo again and this time we even made it to one of the talks...this one was something about wings of wonder even though there is an alligator...Hmmm.

Francesca excited to see some animals!

we hiked tirelessly through Africa so Luca could see the Rhinos.  You can see they were captivating.

Julie and the girls

Massimo wearing a tiger shirt on a lion?! :)

Soph and me on the sky safari

Lake Mini-Vacation!

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We were able to get away to have a super fun weekend getaway with some friends of ours, The Millers. Last year we went on a camping trip with them (and actually we are planning a short camping trip for the near future as well) but this year Hilary's aunt offered us the use of her lake cabin. She was planning to sell it (and it has since been sold actually) and so we were lucky to get in one last hurrah! The house was great and perfect for two families. The kids loved swimming each day and had so much fun doing cannonballs and jumps from the dock. We tried to get Sophia to actually dive but she wasn't too much interested, I mean it doesn't really compete with a cannonball on the fun factor. We drove down Thursday night and finally got the overly excited and ready for action kiddos asleep. Friday we dedicated to hanging out and relaxing and I for one really needed it! We played in the lake and on the deck all day long and I loved every minute of it! Then we grilled for dinner and even managed some s'mores before bed. Saturday we swam a bit in the morning, did some crafts, bubbles, etc. and then headed into "town". It was about a 45 minute drive and we hit up Miner Mike's, a play place for kids. Jill gave us this suggestion and I'm so glad she did. The kids had a ball and it was the perfect thing to do before spending the rest of the afternoon at the Big Surf waterpark. I didn't get any pictures from there b/c well, it was just too darn difficult. But the kids liked the wave pool and the various slides. Sunday we took our time but we did have to head back home. Jacob's Cave was on the way (sort of) and last summer when we visited the Mark Twain cave our kids were very interested. This cave was a much smaller, family owned operation. We had a personal tour and the tour guide even let the kids touch the rock formations, which kind of shocked me, but hey whatever, they liked it. They did a great job on the hour long tour and we saw a giant geode that was so big they couldn't even remove it from the cave. Afterwards the girls picked out some geodes (much smaller thankfully :) from the gift shop while Leo was more interested in the magnetic balls. After getting a late lunch together we headed back to our separate houses. We had a great trip and we are thankful that we have some friends that we can just get away with!

Our Sean

So I posted a few weeks ago about Sean, our soccer coach from England.  He was here while the kids were in soccer camp but they called again and asked if we could host him again even though the kids weren't in camp.  Of course I said yes!  He's such a sweet heart and I kind of feel like he's one of my kids even though he's 24 and I can't really be his mother. ;)  He will be in the US until the middle of August and I told him he has an open invitation to come and go from our house.  He even said that he didn't care about the remodel mess, he just enjoyed staying at our house so he'd deal with it.  Love him!  He was supposed to come again last week but they had to send him to Texas instead.  So far he's been to KS, NE, MN, MO, and TX...he's certainly getting a well rounded view of the midwest!  Stay tuned, we hope to at least see him before he departs the country again!