Weeks 29-31: Playing catch-up

Before our trip:
the last swim meet, including teaching Gabe algebra because he was bored!
spin art/play doh/etc at home
riding bikes at the park
Frank and Zach's 3-night cub scout camping trip

During our trip to Kansas City and St. Louis:
eating BBQ
Kansas City Zoo
Fritz's train restaurant (video at the end)
Legoland Discovery Center
specialty donuts
Purina Farms
Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate factory tour
Cardinals baseball game (they won!)
Charlotte and Nathan birthday pool party
seeing all their cousins, including 6-month-old Jaden

We also spent our last days with Chloe. We all miss her a lot.

Week 28: Bikes and movie nights

Summer is still in full swing, but we managed to have a pretty low-key week.

Zach makes his own popcorn now, though he's still a bit short without the bathroom step stool.

Both boys make their own cinnamon bread/toast. They'll even make it for Charlotte if I'm not awake yet.

Relaxing with a movie

Cutting and drawing in her Lego magazine. I told her she could work on it but didn't realize she was planning to take over my desk.

Still enjoying swim practice and swim meets.

We finally got a chance to take the bikes to the park. Gabe is just starting to try without training wheels, and we think Zach has gotten the hang of it for the first time. Everyone needs to move up to the next size.

There was also skateboarding. The boys agree that it's pretty difficult.

Friday night movie and pizza. This might be their favorite thing to do with us. We watched Finding Dory.

Still building and sleeping in tents most of the time.

Week 27: July 4th and gardening

Third swim meet down. Well, cut short after multiple rounds of thunder, but we'd been there for almost three hours. It was very sunny and humid. Zach completed his first backstroke race. And though it didn't rain on us, it was storming nearby and we saw the biggest rainbow.

Tired girl waiting to cheer on Zach

On July 4th I went to a Zumba class, worked in the yard for a bit, then we went to Chili's for a late lunch. This is the second time in a row that we've gotten their favorite big corner booth (somehow we always seem to hit the non-busy times at our local Chili's).

A very detailed drawing of Charlotte dreaming that she could fly (I think. Maybe I should ask her again.)

And always a stop at the bookstore. He really just drops wherever he is to start reading.

In the evening we did sparklers with the kids for the first time, and they did some of those little poppers (white things you throw on the ground) before we did the main fireworks. We enjoy the little fountains.

And miscellaneous photos from around the house. They are again obsessed with the duplos that I dug out of storage. They helped me get more mulch from Lowe's. Photos of Zach and Charlotte with their loveys/babies/animals/friends. Frank took the kids to a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the swim team.

The front yard project is complete!

It's been 10 years (and Gabe is almost swimming)

Ten years ago today I was writing about our first flight to Brussels. I sort of can't believe it. Time is so funny, both long and short at the same time. Frank and I still love to re-read posts to remember what we were up to at any given time. (And I do have everything backed up to Word documents. There's no way I would trust the internet to preserve all these words + photos.)

Here's a video from yesterday. Gabe is really almost swimming. For weeks he's been able to do all the different parts, even putting his head in the water, but not being able to "take the leap" and move everything at once. I was not prepared to see this, and he was so excited to show me!