Vacation Day 3

After breakfast this morning we headed to the Potawatomi Zoo. It was only about a ten minute drive from where we are staying. We haven't been to the zoo in forever, so the girls were excited about going. They loved looking at all of the animals, although they got tired of walking toward the end. The boys were great and took turns riding in their strollers and being carried some. Chloe loved seeing the alligators - one of her favorite shows to watch at home with Calvin is Swamp People where they hunt alligators. Aubrey's favorite animal was the white tiger. Gabe's favorite animals were the koi fish. (The girls thought it was funny that the fish were named after Coye. Chloe wanted to know if there were any "Gabe fish" since Coye had "koi fish".) Coye liked looking at everything. They had a petting area where the kids could go in and pet some pygmy goats. The girls weren't scared at all and went right up to them and petted them. Gabe liked petting them as long as Hannah was holding him. Coye liked watching them but wanted nothing to do with petting them. The zoo was a great size - a good variety of animals and we could see everything in about two hours. After we got home, we ate a late lunch and then put the boys to bed. Jenna, mom, and I took the girls to see a movie. The girls have never been to a movie before and have been wanting to go to one for a long time. Brave was playing, so we went to that. We got popcorn to eat during the movie. I was a little worried about them having to sit for an hour and forty minutes, but they did pretty good. Chloe spent the whole time on my lap, while Aubrey sat on Jenna's. There were a few scary parts, but both girls said they liked it after it was over. It was cute and definitely didn't feel like it was that long. The girls were definitely exhausted by the time supper time came around though, so it was eating, baths, and then to bed again for all the children. Hopefully they all sleep well because tomorrow we are 

headed to Shipshewana.

Headed to the zoo

Checking out the snakes and some monkeys

Looking at the koi fish

Coye loved watching them

There were tons of them!

Gabe enjoyed them as well

Petting the goats at the petting part

Coye wasn't sure about petting the goats

Aubrey liked them

So did Chloe

My 3 in front of a sign at the zoo

Coye pointing to an animal

Coye and Gabe

Snack time

Snack time for everyone else too

Gabe and Hannah on a giant tortoise statue

Me and my kiddos on the same tortoise

Jenna, mom, and dad

Gabe loved this thing and kept trying to kiss it

Aunt Jenna and the nieces and nephews

Coye loved the freedom from his stroller

At the movies

Vacation Day 1 & 2

This year the kids and I decided to go on vacation with my parents and sisters. It's been three years since we last went anywhere with them (and we didn't go anywhere last summer), so I was excited to get away and take a break. We decided to go to South Bend, Indiana - mostly because it was close and neither us nor Hannah had to drive far. We left after our big 140th celebration dinner at church on Sunday. It was around 3:00 p.m. We only had to drive about 2 1/2 hours, which was so nice. Coye slept for part of the time and the girls were excellent. After we arrived at our timeshare, we unpacked the vehicles, put things away, and ate pizza for supper. By this time, Coye was exhausted and ready for bed. I was a little nervous about how he would sleep because he's never really slept in a pack and play before. He did great though - only woke up once and put himself right back to sleep. The girls get to sleep together in their own room, so it took them a while to settle down enough to go to sleep (they are back sharing a bed for the week). All the kids slept in - Coye and Chloe were up around 8:45 a.m. and Aubrey around 9:15 a.m. We didn't do much except relax and play - it had been such a busy day the day before I just wanted to take it easy and get Coye to take a good nap. I put him down before lunch and he ended up sleeping for 3 hours and 20 minutes. Obviously the poor kid was exhausted! While he slept, we went to the store and picked up a few things we needed. After we got back, Coye was awake so we went swimming. The girls loved the fact that they could both touch the bottom of the pool. Chloe loved walking around while Aubrey worked on doing handstands. She was pretty good at it and is getting very close to being able to do them on her own. Gabe loved the water and is such a little fish. Coye did pretty good and even floated in his floatie for awhile. The water was cold though, considering the fact that our pool at home has been 90 degrees all week. :) After swimming we ate supper and then bathed and put the kids to bed. They were all in bed by 8:30 p.m., which was awesome! I got some quiet time to blog and read. 

Coye and Aunt Jenna

Aubrey

Chloe

Gabe and Coye in their floaties

Coye and Grandma

Me with my three kids

Gabe and Hannah

Chloe and Aunt Jenna

Swimming!

Coye checking out the noise below from our balcony

Back inside to see what's going on

Riding the horse at Meijer

Gabe wan't sure about it at first

Aubrey loved it

Busy

June was an incredibly busy month for us - t-ball, church picnic, VBS, babysitting, cleaning, getting ready for vacation. I'm not exactly sure where the time went and am not excited by the fact that it's almost the middle of July. I'm not ready for the girls to go back to school yet. I love having them home with me and want to be able to enjoy having them home without having to rush all the time. So hopefully once we get back from vacation and get through the fair, we'll have a little down time to enjoy being together. 

We finally flipped Coye around and put him in a big boy carseat. He loves being able to see and likes watching movies too.

The girls have spent a lot of time outside drawing on scraps of wood from the pool deck that Calvin has been working on for the past month. It's almost finished and looks great!

I went blueberry picking this week and brought back a  lot of berries. Coye loves them! He ate two whole blueberry pancakes one morning!

Riding on the lawn mower with Daddy

He loved it!

Fourth of July

We started off our fourth of July celebration by going to the parade we always go to on the fourth. The girls love parades, mostly because they love collecting the candy that gets thrown to them. It was extremely hot that day, but we braved the weather and sat outside anyway. It actually wasn't too bad in the shade. The girls loved watching the floats go by and of course collecting lots of candy in their buckets. Coye didn't like the fire trucks (some of them were incredibly loud) but loved watching everything go by. After the parade we went home and had dinner with mom, dad, Danielle, and my in-laws. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the pool. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the holiday. After eating supper and spending a little time cooling down inside, we headed to see the fireworks. Last year we just watched them from our house, but this year the girls wanted to go closer and actually watch them, so I promised them we would. I figured that they would shoot them off at dusk, so we got there around 8:30, way too early. We got a good seat and then proceeded to wait for almost an hour until they set them off around 9:20. Aubrey said they were loud and covered her ears the entire time, although she did like them. Chloe was scared at first but didn't cover her ears at all. Coye jumped when the first one went off and cried for the first couple of minutes before Calvin got him to finally settle down and then he watched mesmerized for most of them. They were really pretty and it was fun to be close to them again and see them. I asked Calvin if it brought back good memories for him - he asked me to marry him 12 years ago to the day. He made some snide comment of course. :) It was late by the time we got home but we did quick baths and then put the kids to bed. They were exhausted!

Chloe waiting for the parade to start

Aubrey's ready

Coye is too - he didn't last long in here

Getting ready to pick up candy

Their very full buckets

At the fireworks

Waiting for them to start - doesn't Cal look so excited?!

Catching lightning bugs to pass the time

Catching Lightning Bugs

One of my wants for this summer was to keep the girls up late one night and take them outside to hunt for lightning bugs. I remember doing that as a kid with my siblings and having so much fun trying to catch them and put them in a jar. I wanted to experience that with them now that they are old enough to enjoy it. This week was perfect seeing as how it didn't cool down much at night - the girls were warm enough in their jammies. Before we could head outside we had to prepare a jar by poking holes in the lid with a nail. Each girl got to help me make a hole. We then went outside to find some bugs. We went out at sunset, which was perfect because the bugs were just coming out. I caught one right away and put it in the jar. I then caught some others for the girls to try and hold. Chloe was a little scared, but Aubrey just thought they tickled (not really the reaction I expected from each of them). A couple got away from the girls, but we found enough to fill our jar. The girls wanted to take them inside and put them in their room to be their nightlight for the night, so we added some grass and sticks to the jar. (Sadly enough the bugs were dead the next morning.) Calvin even joined us for a little bit and demonstrated how he used to hit lightning bugs with a bat so that they would light up as they flew across the yard. He wasn't too successful though - he only got two. The girls had fun though and can't wait to do it again. 

Checking out the first bug caught

Holding a lightning bug between her hands - she was scared

Aubrey thought it tickled

On the hunt

Here's some in our jar

Ready to head inside

Pool Time

This past week we've spent a lot of time in the pool, especially with how hot it's been outside. It's really been too hot to be outside unless we were going to be in the pool. The girls love to swim without their life jackets and have become quite good at it. I'm pretty confident in Aubrey's ability to swim and keep her head above the water, while Chloe hasn't learned quite yet how to tread water so she mostly stays by the ladder or on a noodle. She has really improved though in her ability to go underwater - she loves doing it now and even touched the bottom of the pool on her flat feet the other day. Coye enjoys being out in the pool, although I recently made the mistake of letting him play on the deck so now he would rather be on the deck throwing everything he can into the water. He'll float in his floatie but he cries at first and has to get over the idea of being held the whole time. I'm so thankful for the pool and for mom and dad giving it to us. It's been so great to just be able to go outside for a couple of hours and cool off, especially since Calvin built our deck (pictures to come soon of it).

T-ball

Most of June was spent going to either Aubrey's t-ball games or practices. She would usually have two games a week with one to two days of practice as well. She absolutely loved it, and she really improved as the season went on. It was fun to see her out on the field playing a base (they all took turns throughout the season playing different positions) and then up at bat. We finally got her to hit the ball and then run fast to first (during the first game she liked to watch to see where the ball went first and then run to first base). Her coaches were awesome and really encouraged the kids and helped teach them. It's crazy to think that this is her last year of t-ball - next year she'll be in baseball. Chloe's excited though to get to play t-ball next year. :)

Riding on the float in the parade (she's the second girl from the right - waving her hand)

The poster she made for the parade

Fielding

Hitting

Running the bases