Zoku

My mom bought us a popsicle maker for Christmas and we finally got around to using it. You need to keep it in the freezer and we never had enough space.  We do now, thanks to our new fridge in the basement. Anywho.......we've made popsicles the last two days in a row. They are so good!  The kids love them, and you can use any kind of juice you want. So far we've tried orange juice, apple juice, lemonade and grapefruit juice (this one was mine, the kids didn't like it!).  It's a big hit with the kiddos!

Fourth of July

As we do every year, we went to the local Fourth of July parade yesterday (Sunday). The kids had a great time. Griff at one point, turned and said to me, "This is the best parade ever!" Enjoy the pics.

Waiting patiently for the parade to start

Yes, this is what Hannah did when I asked to take her picture

Notice Griff with his fingers in his ears. He hates loud noises.

Half way through the parade, Hannah decided she was done and sat down and had a snack

CANDY!

Another fire truck roaring by, sirens blaring.....he somehow managed to cover his ears AND hold his basket so that none of his candy fell to the ground.

Vacation Pics

I have a ton of pictures, none of them super great....here are a few.  Not many on the beach due to the rainy weather and the tar balls (not many of those, but they were gross when you accidentally stepped on one, ewww, but the Dawn dishsoap works.....takes it right off :-).  The kids loved the pool and couldn't get enough of it.  I didn't have my camera with me when we went bowling and I should have.....it was very funny to watch the kids bowl. No surprise, Hannah won among the the kids!

Enjoy the pictures!

The whole crew.....G&G Meiers, Uncle Jim, Aunt Megan, Cousins Sidney and Avery.  The kids are all the same age so they have a great time together.

Hannah running out of the ocean.  She had enough after one dip; she was our pool girl!

Griff, on the other hand, LOVED the ocean and couldn't get enough of it. The current was so strong and the waves so big (thanks hurricane Alex) we couldn't let them in without holding their hands.

Houses on the beach....they all looked so nice.

Pretty sunset one of our first nights.

Kiddos eating popsicles.

The house we rented.

Love connection between Griff and Avery :-)

Pretty beach

Pretty Abby :-)

Abby being thrown by Mike.

All the kids jumping into the pool at the same time

Hanny trying to get away from Grandma

Griff jumping to Mike......386,294 times in a row...."again, Daddy, again!"  "one, two, three!"

Sweet Hanny

And sweet Griff

Kiddos and G&G

Abby "surfing"

Girls walking on the beach....this was 3 hours before our fun trip to the ER for Hannah

Mike, Abby and Sidney

Before leaving on our last day

Kids on the 2nd floor balcony before leaving for home

A Griswold Like Vacation

We are back from our get-away to the sunny state of Florida.......except........thanks to hurricane Alex, it rained the ENTIRE time we were there. Wait, it rained every day except for Friday......the day Mike, Hannah and I spent in the ER.  THIS is a vacation we will never forget :-)  Here are some highlights....and I'll post lots of pictures soon.

* Rain, and lots of it
* HUGE waves, thanks to Alex.....very fun to play in
* Trip to ER with Hannah......a case of the croup.....all better now :-)
* A little love connection between Griff and his cousin Avery
* Tar balls, thanks to BP
* A trip to the smallest kids' science museum
* Bowling
* Toy Story 3
* Lots of great family time and fun catching up with G&G Meiers, Uncle Jim, Aunt Megan and cousins Sidney and Avery

Pictures soon, promise!

Wednesday Art

Had "art class" today in the garage. We were painting, and it's always easier clean up if you do it outside :-)    It was a very cloudy, rainy and windy day, so our papers kept flying all over and H&G eventually decided "gym class" outside in the rain would be much more fun.  They were soaked from head to toe, but giggling and laughing the whole time, so no harm done.  Below are some pictures before gym class started:

Backgammon

no way a little power outage is going to stop a backgammon tourney between Mike and Abby, oh no....he brings out the head gear flashlight thingys :-)

Bit of Catch Up

Father's Day was great.  The kids gave Mike sports flags for the house....the neighbors are going to love us :-)  We now have all the Chicago teams covered, in addition to our Iowa Hawkeye flag.  There should be a flag flying on any given day now.   They also made him Carmel Banana Nut muffins, which were very good, if not a bit sticky due to the amount of carmel they insisted on using!

Today Abby hosted her very first book club for the neighborhood girls.  Only three other girls were able to make it, but that was probably a good thing. They actually read the book and did talk about it with a little help from me facilitating the conversation.  After the book discussion, they moved onto a few games of HulaBaLou and Flapadoddle.  They all want to continue, so they've already picked the next book.

Lastly, our neighbors gave us their old Barbie Jeep for H&G.  Griff couldn't be more thrilled with it. Yes, it's pink, but we all know he doesn't have any problem riding around on pink bikes....nor does he mind the pink Jeep!