Summertime Play

Most of our day is spent just playing!! The boys just seem to play and play and play ALL DAY!! It's the best! Lots of stuffed animal play, board games, Legos, Imaginext, Squinkies/Hatchimals/Littlest Pet Shop, Little People, cars. If it was in the playroom, they played with it this summer! My boys are SO good at playing. Thats their #1 favorite thing to do and I am SO thankful!! They have built the best relationship with each other because they truly just enjoy being around each other!!

We even had a little Christmas in July playtime for a few days!

One thing is for sure- I never heard "I'm bored!" this summer!!!!!!!

A Trip to the Zoo

We got invited to the zoo by some of our favorite friends, the Gregory's! We don't usually see them unless its summer time because with my two busy boys and her four busy boys, there is NEVER time!! So we try to make the most of our summer freedom and hang out with them when we can! We hadn't been to the zoo in 2 years, when we went with them last! It was fun to see all the sights again, plus some new exhibits! With 6 boys, we kinda felt like we brought some of the zoo to the zoo ;-)

 Grant brought a little monkey friend because, well...its the zoo!! And we saw his little monkey twin right off the bat!

 It had rained like 7" the night before, so there were a few things that were closed until the rain dried out, the Sky Tram being one of them. We were so excited when we heard it opened up, so we headed on over to take a trip! Grant noticed the "Grant's Zebra" sign on the pole.

 We visited to Chimpanzee Playhouse for quite sometime. They were pretty active and there were a lot of them to watch. But the cutest was this little girl. She was one 3 months old I think. I could've sat and watched her all day! Grant could've too!

 But there was more monkeying around we needed to do...

 It started to get really hot and humid, so it was time for a train ride! Becca treated all the boys to an Icee to help cool down! Loved this sweet pic I grabbed!

 Time to a train ride before heading home so these wild animals could rest! Not pictured- the tiniest animal sitting between me and Becca, so he wouldn't get loose :)

The trip to the zoo was awesome but even better was time spent with the Gregory's!! 

They realized while eating lunch, that between our families we had a 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 4 year old! They said one of our families just needs a 5 year old! ;-)

A Night at the K

We'd been wanting to hit up a game all summer but we just couldn't justify the ticket prices! So we did the only logical thing- snagged a pair of season tickets from my dad's office! Woohoo! Time to head to the K! The boys had just got back from a week at the lake a few days prior AND it was hot, but it didn't stop us for enjoying a great game!!! We got there a little early to walk around and check things out, which we hadn't done in a long time!  Once we were good and sweaty, it was time to grab some food and head to our seats so we could see the first pitch! Midway through the 2nd inning, Wyatt lost his tooth!! Hooray!! After that, it was a combo of cheering on the Boys in Blue and getting up for more food and snacks and popcorn refills!! It turned out to be a great game, with a win in the 9th! We were leading the whole game, until top of the 9th, but we held strong and came back in the end!! A night at K is fun it itself, but its always more fun when we win!!!! 

 The last picture of Wyatt with only one lost tooth!

The first picture of Wyatt was two lost teeth!

 And don't forget the craziness this kid brought to the game! He loved his ice cream bowl hat, he had to model it quite often for me :)

Rube Goldberg

We saw these Rube Goldberg toy sets at Target and the boys were asking and asking to get one. I knew we didn't need to buy some fancy set to make a Rube Goldberg machine, so we set off to make our own. The boys gathered some toys from around the playroom that they thought we could use and then started to make their plan. I had to do a little bit in the execution but they pretty much figured it out on their own! Pretty cool to watch!

Mini-Golfing

Blackbob Park has a little hidden gem in the back of the park and its Mini-Golf! My mom took the boys a few times last summer, towards the end of the season. Fast forward to this summer when they remembered it. So my mom took them back. When they were there, they found out you can buy a pass for the WHOLE summer for $25 for the entire family! How could you say no to that? We've gone quite a bit this summer! We went as a family one evening and it started raining about 9 holes in, so we wrapped up the game and then came back the next night to finish. I love that! Can't beat cheap summer fun!!

Sweet Summertime!

We started our summer off with some of our favorite things!!! 

We went to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul at the Fork and Screen!

 We played and played and played and played!!! (and made messes too!)

We did our first research project of the summer. Grant chose the Bermuda Triangle and Wyatt chose the Moon.

 We had a cousin sleepover and went to the arcade!

 We played wiffle ball with cousins and Mimi!

 We played in mud puddles with our little friends! (Some little buddies from my preschool class)

 We got ice cream- CHEERS!

And this was only in the first 6 days of summer!! Can't wait for the rest of our summer fun!!!!

Slip Sliding Fun!!

Some of our best friends moved right next door to some of our other best friends, who happen to live across the street from us! So many friends within walking distance is just AWESOME!! Our kiddos started kindergarten together-Grant, Jalen, and Luca- and now the second-go-around of kindergarteners are starting together too- Wyatt, Rex, and Marietta! Makes for lots of fun friend-filled summer afternoons!!!

Angela bought a slip n slide to enjoy when they had some friends stay with them for the 4th of July, but all the kids thought they should test it out beforehand, ya know- just to make sure it works! I'd say they broke it in pretty darn well!!!

Its so awesome to have best friends as neighbors!!!!!

Moon Marble Company

Moon Marble has been on my list of places to venture to the past two summers, but we never made it! So this year, I made sure it happened. We asked the Holthaus' to tag along and of course, that made it more fun. But its hard to not have fun when you walk into the coolest toy store EVER!!! This place was amazing! Grant and I both were wishing our wallets were a little bit thicker at that time!! But we still managed to enjoy it to the fullest!!! We walked around the store for about 30 minutes before the marble-making tour started. Lots of "oh look at this!" and "Oh I so want that!" It was hard to not get overwhelmed with all the treasures!!!

 We watched a guy make a marble! What a process! It took about 30 minutes to make one marble. Granted, he talked a lot and stopped to show how it was looking, but wow!! What patience it would take! And such an amazing art form!!

 After the show, it was time to fill a tube of marbles. There had to have been over 100 types of marble to choose from! We probably could've spent quite a few hours at that place just oohing and aahing over all the cool toys!!

 We will definitely be making another trip there soon!!!

Zona Rosa Fountains

Last year, my mom took the boys to play in the fountains at Zona Rosa. They've remembered it clearly and knew that had to be one of our items on our Summer Bucket list. I love a free and fun outing!! So I found a great day to head out there late morning and then planned to meet up with my mom for lunch, since she works close by! Doesn't get much better than that for a fun summer day!