Pool Time

Summer weather is here and our backyard pool is open! The kids are FEARLESS of the water and can't get enough of it. Just today, Elaina woke up early, and when we took Vaughn out she kept asking when we came back in to go back out. She got so mad that I said not now that she knocked over the chair (twice) to her little table. But that new attitude is another blog post!

The first few days off for me consisted of us heading outside mid morning and hanging out there until lunchtime, which usually was outside as well. I watched the kids playing in the pool for a couple of days before getting the idea to put their slide in it. BIG HIT! Here are a few pictures.







Video action of the slide (Please ignore my obnoxious voice!)

The big event of the day on Sunday was finding a frog. Jon put it in the water and they watched it swim round and round.


Skylar LOVED it and thought the frog was the best thing ever. He kept scooping it up and watching it jump out. Then he tried to hold it and that was a whole other adventure.




Elaina needed lots of coaching to try and hold the frog even in the cup. When it jumped and touched her, she screamed so loud while Skylar laughed. She loves to get dirty but is still girly at heart.

Outdoors having fun!

When you need to kill an hour or it is rainy and you just want to get out of the house, Lone Elk Park is a place we often go. They have bison, elk, deer, and wild turkeys. You never know what you will see. Off the same road is the World Bird Sanctuary. Jon has taken the kids but I had never been. As we were heading in, a woman was carrying an eagle on her shoulder to take it inside to be fed. Pretty amazing to see one so close! A few pictures from when we visited.

Checking out the eagle up close


She LOVES to run!


Skylar made a mistake and tried to touch the rope. Tough girl Elaina put him in his place!


Huge cage you can climb into...Skylar loved it and didn't want to come out.


So Elaina and I joined him:)


Lone Elk Park. Baby bison that could barely walk. Must have been just born (it is pretty neat that Elaina can look at this picture and tell us it is a bison).


Just an elk walking in front of our car



This weekend was HOT! Like in the 90s with humidity hot. So we decided to do summer like things....Strawberry picking at Lake View Farm in St. Charles! Elaina loves strawberries and was running around the house yelling "I pick strawberries" before we left. She definitely ate more than she picked. She just kept eating and saying "Mmm, it is SOO good!". Skylar enjoyed picking for a little bit but then gave up.



So independent, she wanted to hold it all by herself!


Found a big one


Hanging out in the strawberry field


Messy and loving it

Limping to the finish line....

So I have 9 1/2 days of school left. I feel like the countdown has been stuck at about 10 for a few weeks now but no it is getting less each day. Limping to the finish line is what we are saying around here. Sickness hit our family hard a few weeks ago. We should count ourselves lucky that really our kids have only had colds for the most part. The stomach bug was awful and really knocked us out of commission. Jon was the only one spared of the violent vomiting. Yep, lovely. Nothing like throwing up in the shower and then holding your daughter who is doing the same only moments later. We did lots of loads of laundry that week.

This picture of Skylar was taken about 3 hours before he woke up covered in vomit. And of course it was the first time in forever he ate a ton at dinner. So much that Jon and I high-fived across the table. Luckily he was quick to recover after spending a day in our arms and sharing his germs with his mama.



It hasn't been all sickness around here. We did celebrate Mother's Day Eve by taking the kids to Ted Drew's for the first time. It is so fun to do things with your children that were a part of your childhood and I have lots of memories of our parents and our neighbors packing us into the car to go to Ted Drews. I still get the same thing I got when I was a kid.

So I believe in Nature and Nurture playing an equal role in a child's development. Must be the nurture part that has Elaina such an ice cream lover. She will scream ICE CREAM if she sees it in the store and goes nuts for it.


Ready for the first bite...


"It is SOOO good!" as she went on to eat hers, and bites from everyone else's.



The case for Nature playing a bigger role...seriously?!? Who doesn't like ice cream!?! Oh, yeah, that would be my kid!


Mother's Day treat for me was that my mom and I went out to a movie and dinner alone. So Jon took the kids to our neighbors for a BBQ.

Playing with their dog


Group shot, for me perhaps?


So helpful he was even watering empty pots.






Playing catch with the dog