We traveled back to Peoria to participate in Richwood’s picnic. It was a wonderful day. We were able to re-connect with so many people and had a lot of great conversations. We really miss our church family there and were so glad they didn’t mind us crashing their picnic.
Jared was a little leery of going at first. "Mom, it’s juuuust a picnic." But then we arrived and there was a bounce castle thing and all was well. I think he spent most of the afternoon in there. Beka was all about the face painting. I felt so sorry for the ladies in charge of the activity…Beka basically stalked them until they painted her face. There were so many other activities: pinwheel making, beaded bug making, and balloon animals. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.
Andrew decided he was going to be a cool dad and bought the kids some pop its. You know the little white packages that you throw on the ground and they make a loud bang. The kids loved them…I hate them. It made for a nice evening of fun though.
For Father’s Day, the kids gave Andrew a ripstik. Andrew had "borrowed" some of the neighborhood kids’ ripstiks to try out and really liked it. Apparently, they are really fun to ride. On days that he works from home, he takes an afternoon ride just to get out of the house.
I do not really enjoy taking the kids swimming. They love it and we go and I am sure there will be pictures of that sometime this summer. But I just do not like packing up all the stuff to go, fighting the crowd in the pool and various other things. So for me, splash parks are great. Beka and Jared get wet and stay cool. Fun things abound to play with. In most cases, playgrounds are nearby for when they get tired of the water. And best of all, I don’t have to get in the water so I can sit and read. I know that is a selfish reason, but I have to keep my sanity somehow.
Every summer at least once, I let the kids wash the cars, bikes, and whatever else they drag out and then I blog about it. So here it is.
Attached to the zoo is a Butterfly Garden. As I have mentioned, Beka is totally in love and enthralled with butterflies. So the Komodo dragon was for Jared and the butterflies were for Beka. I think she would have stayed there all day if we had let her. It is a beautiful and very peaceful place to visit. Plants are growing everywhere. Butterflies are fluttering by. You just feel dazzled by the natural beauty all around you.
The Zoo here has Komodo dragons on display for a limited time. Jared loves Komodo dragons. I don’t know how many TV specials he has sat though about them. When he heard they were going to be at the zoo, he just had to go. So Andrew and I packed them up and took them to the zoo.
The baby elephant and bear were especially cute and had some funny antics. The kids really enjoy the rhino exhibit, but you will have to ask them about that. We were able to pet sharks and watch penguins dive into the water. There is one really huge walrus there. We had a great afternoon just hanging out as a family.
Confession time. About six months after Jared was born, I decided I was going to be Supermom. The house was going to be clean all the time, I was going to lose all the baby weight, the kids were never going to have the TV babysitter, and we were all going to eat healthier. I will wait while all the moms finish laughing at my hormonal delusions. Anyway, during that time I bought this book. As you can imagine, I didn’t have the patience or concentration to do many of those Supermom things much less learn new recipes. So the book got shoved in a drawer and survived the packing of two moves.
Awhile ago, Natalie was talking about her family eat healthier and it got me thinking and I dug out the book. I must say things are going much more smoothly this time around. The kids are able to entertain themselves and I have a little more time to plan menus and such. The grocery budget isn’t thanking me, yet, but Andrew and Beka are loving the nights we have fish. Jared is actually trying a few new foods like the BBQ beef kabobs we had tonight. Only one night so far has been bad enough for mom to throw in the towel and take everyone to Burger King. Maybe if I can keep this going, I can do all those other Supermom things.
Tuesday night a storm with strong winds rolled through our town. The wind actually blew rain in to the house. It also knocked over several trees. A huge tree by our playground lost two limbs to the storm. But apparently, all the blown down branches make the best playground of all. The kids are climbing all over it, building at least two forts, and using their imaginations like never before. And it isn’t just my kids. All the neighborhood kids want to play at the tree and play, for the most part, nicely. I have had a great time just watching the kids climb and play.
We took a quick visit to Quincy last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Wiewel finally got to meet Kahla. Overall, the trip went really well. We were able to just hang out and relax without rushing around. We took the kids to South Park and stomped through the creek. We saw Uncle Joe’s house. We enjoy the good cheesy breadsticks. From some reason Indiana cannot make good cheesy breadsticks. Beka and Jared’s favorite part was visiting Dewey School. The playground there is awesome with all the climbing equipment and the old time merry-go-rounds. Hopefully, we will get to visit again this summer.
Oh, and no pictures because everytime we left the house, I forgot it.
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