Brave Zach

On Thursday, Zach showed us that he is ready to swim in the deep end without his lifejacket!

He is also perfectly comfortable diving into the deep end....


without his life jacket......
even doing flips!!!


(that mat looks closer than it really was...)

He was SO proud of himself!!!

And I was SO proud of him!

Good job Zach!!

On another note:

You may remember at the beginning of the summer, Lily was not too fond of being in the pool without holding on to someone.

Well, on Thursday, she sat on the stairs, by herself!!!!

This was a BIG step for Lily!

Yeah Lily!!

As for Riley......

there's not a whole lot that scares this one....

Jeff & I may be in trouble as he gets older. ;-)

Fountain and Park Fun

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I have lived in this city my entire life and I do not know everything that is in it.
I did not know that a cool fountain that kids could splash in existed.
I also did not know a playground was located right next to it.
It is in Riverside Park.
I know where Riverside Park is....I just have never been in Riverside park.....
even though I did my student teaching at Riverside.....
The power of observation people, it's a good thing. =)
Anyway......
My sister Dianna took her and our brother's boys to it last week.
They had a ton of fun!
So, she invited my sister Mary, me and our kids to go with her this week.
I wasn't too sure how well Lily would like it.
She is not a fan of sprinklers.
Camden showed her the ropes though, and I think she really enjoyed it after she got used to it.

There was no "getting used to it" for the boys though......

It was all or nothing for them!

The playground is literally right next to the fountains.

Cooper and Carson showed my boys that their wet swim trunks make you go down the slides fast!!
They loved it!

Lily liked climbing up this net.

Then is was back to the fountains....

.....and back to the playground.....

..and back to the fountains....

After several times of running back and forth, we settled the kids down for a picnic.

Thanks Dianna for inviting us!

The kids had SO much fun!

#8: Family Picnic

On Monday night, we were able to check off number 8 on our summer to do list.
I packed a picnic for all of us, and when Jeff got home, we went to QT to get drinks.
The kids think it is a really special treat to pick out their own drinks from the row of choices.
They usually pick slushes, which is OK with me......no caffeine that way.
We headed to a park we knew would be shaded.
It really wasn't too bad, we were in the shade and there was a nice breeze every once in awhile.

After we ate, Zach headed to this big tree stump so he could climb up it.

Then we all played on the equipment.

Lily decided Daddy needed a push. =)

Riley and Zach had fun on the slides and firemen poles.

It really was a nice way to spend our dinnertime.

Checking Things Off Our List

After we came back from Branson, I realized that we had lots of stuff to check off of our Summer List, and not too many more weeks of summer left to do it.
So, for the past week and a half, we have been busy checking things off.

The first thing we did was turn in our Summer Reading Club sheets at the library.
This was number 12 on our list.
The kids had already met their goals, we just hadn't had time to turn them in before we left for Missouri.

As you completed your goal, you could show the librarians how many books you read, and they would give you ducks to put in the Polar Bear's bathtub.
Last week they got their prizes!
Then this week, Zach got his very own library card!
He was SO excited!!

Number 17 on our list was catching fireflies.

We didn't have too much luck the night we did it though. =(

Riley caught one, but it got away before we could put it in a jar.

The picture I have here is one that their cousin Taby caught.

Jeff did catch one as we were getting in our car to go home, so at least they had one in a jar at our house for one night.

Yesterday, we checked off number 18; taking a nature walk.

We went to my parent's house and walked around the creek and woods that are behind their house.

We didn't go too far in here......

there is poison ivy in here somewhere......

This was what they did the most on our "walk".....

Play on the rocks in the creek.

Since I didn't let them actually get in the water, my dad told them to come back another day and he would let them have fun down there.

They usually come back soaking wet after having fun with Granddad. ;-)

This morning, we checked off number 4 on our list.

This is the one I have been dreading.

It was to ride their bikes/scooters to the park.

We go to the park all of the time, but I wasn't too sure how Riley riding his scooter to the park would be.......he tends to be on the whiny side sometimes. =)

It worked out great though!

Zach sped along on his bike

(getting a tad frustrated that we were much slower than him.)

Riley was not too far behind him, and Lily rode in the wagon.

I made Zach stay with us until we got past all of the busy streets, then he was free to speed to the playground.

Then he was WAY ahead of us!

When Riley saw that Zach was that far ahead if him, this happened:

No more scootering, just dragging it behind him. =)

Then we made it to the park!!

The ride back home was also uneventful. (yeah!)

So, we will probably do that more often now!

Four more things checked off our list!!

We have a few more things to do and only a few more weeks before school starts.

So we will be busy getting stuff done!

Sunflowers, Green Beans, and Watermelon!

All of our plants are grown and we have even harvested some!
The first thing we picked was green beans!
These are Zach's favorite.
He gave them a stamp of approval when he ate them for dinner!

Then our sunflowers bloomed!

These things got TALL!!

I love sunflowers!

They are so cheery!

Riley's purple flowers never grew. =(

I have no idea what happened.

We planted carrots too....but the rabbits ate them all!

The plant the kids were most excited about were the watermelons.

I was pleasantly surprised when we started seeing baby watermelons.

We had five big watermelons Friday night and some new baby ones.

By big, I mean about 4 pounds.

The watermelons we grew were Sugar Baby Watermelons.

I wasn't too sure how big they were supposed to be, but one looked ripe,

so we took it off of the vine.

Then we cut it open:

Then we let the kids taste it:

MMMMMM......

It was sweet, juicy, delicious, and tiny. =)

We all got a few little pieces and then it was all gone.

Oh well, good thing we have more outside still growing.

I think next year we will try to grow big watermelons!!