the last five months-august

august was packed full of fun. we had to make sure we did all the last 'summer-ish' things before school started for flether and our days weren't so open. 

one day in early august, adam's dad was up doing some things to the house (we were still moving at this point) and he heard some music in the distance. when he caught sight of what it was, he came inside to see if the kids could have ice cream. this is a very rare occasion so all three of us joined him outside to get a treat. 

in the middle of the month, my parents had my niece and nephew (brother's kids) for a few weeks. they decided to make a trip to the omaha zoo and the kids and i were asked if we wanted to tag along. since adam was out of town (big surprise), we did. we were only gone for one 30 hours, but we were on the go. we headed to the air and space museum to check out all the old planes...four kids and two adult females were bored out of our minds, but my dad sure enjoyed it. 

when we left the museum, we drove next door to mahoney state park where we were staying at the lodge, checked in and then thought we would go to the water park for a bit. this was a major hit. 

checking out the map of the grounds. there is so much to do that they want to come back. 

the following morning, we got the crew ready for a day at the zoo. 

the iowa state fair starts the second thursday and goes for the next 10 days. it's kind of tradition for us to go and do certain things every year. the kids are getting older and having more fun seeing the animals and doing  some of the activities 

camping at camp pops and nana's

my grandpa's 89th birthday. we had a family party for him and all of his kids, grandkids and greats were in attendance. 

grandma and grandpa with the greats. seven kids, nine and under...oh, the joys. 

the last five months-july

in july, we did stuff. some memorable, some not so much. 

july 3rd at prairie meadows waiting for the firework display. someone also discovered her nostrils. 

introducing the littles to 'snakes'. 

we celebrated adam's niece's wedding, two days after we celebrated our 4th anniversary. 

the daughters of four of the original neighbor girls. these four are all within four months of each other. 

ellie, nov. mckenna, dec.  brynlee, feb. zoey, march

the kids took swim lessons. they loved it. the bottom picture is distorted if i make it bigger, but im sure you get it. 

we met some friends at the pool one afternoon and then headed to have froyo afterwards. 

we attended camryn's first annual christmas in july toy drive. 

practicing for saturday night live. an old tradition that my parents and their neighbors did when i was young. now when all the 'kids' are in town, we all partake as our littles run and play like we used to. 

the past five months-may

i've blogged a bit since may, but not nearly enough to keep updated with all that we did or happened. i will {attempt} to get caught up. no promises this time, but i already have two scheduled, so i'm already making progress. i'll start with May and work my way to the current happenings in our lives.

MAY

fletcher had his last speech session of the 2011-2012 school year. we also found out that ms. diane2 would be leaving us and that we would be getting a new SLP. i did not do well with this info, and actually shed a few tears over the news. 

happy mother's day from the hubby and the kids. adam made me this garden box that i've been wanting for the last three years. 

my sister and i decided to take an eight hour (one way) trip to minnesota for our cousins graduation party, with five kids, 5 years and younger. we got some strange looks, but we had fun and the kids were pretty good, most of the time. 

the kids did a lot of playing. 

and one final thing to note, daycare boy had his last day here on may 17th. it was nice having him, but it's nice to just have my kids to worry about and be able to go and do what i want, when i want. 

a trip to CGO

Just a few short miles south of town, there is an orchard/pumpkin patch called Center Grove Orchard. This year, they had a season pass offer, which was 19.95 per person, 3yrs and older. I decided that since I'm not doing daycare anymore, that I needed to do more fun stuff with the kids and get out of the house more. This was a perfect opportunity for me to do just that, so I got a pass for Fletcher and myself.
Every time we go, the first thing we have to do when we arrive, head over to rope some cattle. Fletcher is all about cowboys and farms these days, so this is one of his favorite things to do. We come back to it at least three times while we are there.

They have tons of different activities in the farmyard. There are pigs, goats, chickens, horses and sheep to watch. The kids really love feeding the goats. Brynlee is such a fan. No fear at all.

They have the houses from the Three Little Pigs. Fletcher and Brynlee run from house to house pretending to get away from the Big Bad Wolf, a.k.a. ME.

The jumping pillow and corn pool are the two must-do things when we go. Some of the best smiles and laughs come from the adults as they jump or watch the faces of the littles they are with.

Adam and I have races on these tractors. More like timed laps, to see who can go faster around the track. The kids like to ride with us.

On the hayride heading to the pumpkin patch. After this ride, little boy always talks about 'going to the punkin patch.' it's usually brought up on a daily basis.

And no fall trip to the pumpkin patch would be complete without pumpkins. I just wanted the photos. I'm too cheap to pay for them there. I went the 3 for $11 route at Earl May.

Since our first trip to the patch, we've been at least five more times. The season passes really came in handy. I will definitely do the same again next year since we had so much fun on our little adventures. We still have a trip or two planned before they close for winter.

great wolf lodge

in june, we went on a little family vacation. adam and i had been planning this for a few months and last minute, i decided that with things going on so close to the travel date, we would scratch st. louis and head to kansas city. there were tons of things on my list, but with adam just having a few days off work, we really just wanted to relax and have fun. i decided that we would go to great wolf lodge for a few days and drive into kansas city one afternoon. 

we arrived around 3:30 that afternoon, just in time for check-in. however, i went in to do a quick task of getting our room keys and i waited in line for over an hour. since we didn't want to go to the water park before eating dinner, we just walked over to cabela's and roamed for a while, before heading to chik-fil-a (judging may begin now, please keep your comments to yourself). after we ate, we went to wal-mart to get some breakfast food for the next morning and then went back to our room to get a good night's sleep so we were ready for the waterpark the next day. 

brynlee is our water baby. she loves water and pretty much has NO FEAR. fletcher, on the other hand, took a bit to convince him he was fine, once he realized he wasn't going to sink to the bottom. we had to do a little bit of tough love to make him realize that, but once he did, we all had a much more enjoyable time in the water. 

he was just tall enough to go on one of the water slides with an adult. the first time with adam, he was holding on pretty tight. once they came down, he was all about going again. adam finally had to hand him over to me so i could take him. brynlee enjoyed the lazy river and the fountains the most. she also wanted to be in the deeper water, where she couldn't touch. 

when we were leaving the waterpark that first morning, little boy wasn't happy. he wanted to stay. he made it very obvious to all those around, what he wanted to do. so against his will, we went to the room and and got ready to drive downtown for some lunch and a little exploring.

our first stop was to get a bite to eat. we went to fritz's railroad restaurant at crown center. little boy is into trains, so i figured this would be a fun place for him. we call and order our food from the booth and then a train comes around the track at the top and delivers what we ordered. such a fun place...and loud! after lunch, we went to the free dinosaur exhibit and the kids played with the hands-on activities. we went to the crayola store and we colored and i enjoyed browsing the shelves. 

after naps, the kids and i went to cub club and fletcher got to color a pillowcase and brynlee got a violet color sheet. we were just coloring away, when a visitor came in the room. we got to meet violet. little boy wasn't sure about her and brynlee just stared, but no tears and we got a decent picture with her. 

when we got back to the room, we decided to go back to the waterpark. we ended up checking out the outside pool, where there were fewer people and brynlee could go on the baby slide. we spend about two hours in the water before going in and getting ready for supper. we wanted to see the great clock tower show and to meet oliver, so we were kind of in a hurry. 

after we met oliver, we went to the northern lights arcade. we all played a few games, before calling it a night. the following morning, we suited up again for a quick dip and then packed our stuff to head for home. it was such a fun time. i wish we would have stayed another day so we could have made it to the zoo or did some other activity. 

thanks for the memories great wolf lodge. until next time...