Quick visit to Nana's

The girls and I took a quick trip to Nana's house. Almost all of the cousins were going to be there so we ran down there to spend some time with them. The kids were going nonstop all day on Saturday. All the kids got along so well all day. It is hard to believe that with all the different ages that they have so much fun together. All the kids were absolutely exhausted but had a great time all day. When the day was over Uncle Ryan started a fire so we could have some smores.
The kids had a great time and were sad when it was time to go home. They can't wait till the next time they get to see their cousins.

Saturday was also Grandma Struchen's 87th birthday. The girls made her some cards and we got her some flowers. I am so glad that the girls and I were able to be down there and spend this day with Grandma. She has been such a big part of the our lives. Grandma Struchen is such an amazing special person. We are all blessed to have her in our lives.

Discovery Center

Summer is flying by so fast and I feel like we have done nothing with our time. For a little fun before time it is really gone, we went to the Discovery Center. Madison is the only one that has gone so we were in for treat. We met our friends the Moellers at Julia Davis Park played and then had lunch before we headed over the Discovery Center. It was nice to just have fun today and not have a to do list for the girls and I. We had such a great time. I can not believe all the cool stuff that they had in there. This exhibit was cool. They had two of these at the either sides of a large room and you could talk in your normal voice and hear the other on the other side. This would be nice to have in the house for when the kids think they can't hear me. This one you had to petal to produce electricity to light up the lights. Between Ashley, Allison and me, I was the only one that was able to light up the lights. I only lit 2 of the 3. It was hard. I had to petal pretty fast. This was pretty cool too. You get the bicycle tire spinning and then sit on the chair. The force of the spinning wheel will make you turn in the chair.

I could go on and on with all the cool exhibits in there. We were there for over 4 hours and I feel like we needed twice as much time. It was a great day. I am so glad that we could spend this day away from our to do lists and have some fun.

Fun in the sun.

Today we went to Roaring Springs. Kevin had to work and Madison wasn't feeling well so just three of us went. I felt bad that Madison couldn't go but our tickets were only good for today so we didn't have a choice. Our orthodontist has a day at Roaring Spring with discounted tickets. Since we don't get to go that much we decided that we were going to go for the whole day. I am pooped. We had a great time but being at a water park all day makes for a long day. I don't know how we lucked out that the lines weren't that long. We were able to ride all the rides we wanted 2-3 times. We really had a lot of fun.

Swim lessons

Ashley and Allison finished swim lessons today. They did such a great job. Allison is a completely different swimmer from last year. She is more confident in the water and her strokes are looking great. I was trying to pinpoint what has changed that would make such a difference in her. In January the doctor gave us an inhaler for her to use before exercise or sports. She used it during basketball season and then at school for PE. She has made leaps and bounds physically since she started using the inhaler. She was never a runner before and would take 15-16 minutes to run the mile in PE. She took it down to 11 minutes this year. We also saw improvements in basketball. I guess it helped with swimming too. I am so proud of her and how devoted she is at doing her best. For Allison this is the year that they start focusing on diving. The first time Allison got up to dive she had the perfect form and it looked like she would do a dive. She tried her hardest but ended up actually doing a jump in and not a dive. By the end of the week she was going in head first instead of feet first. It isn't perfect but she improved and is getting better. What more could ask for?

Ashley was awesome too. She is a fish out of water. She would be happy if she could swim her way through life. She is also our social butterfly. She really has a great time at swim lessons. She always makes friends with all the girls in her class. Last year she didn't listen the best but this year she did much better. She was attentive when her instructors were talking to her but then would be talking to her friends in between. I hope this is just a swim lesson thing and she doesn't talk when she starts school next month. In preschool they never said that it was a problem so I hope it stays that way. She did end up learning a lot and doing a great job. She wants to be a diver. Anytime she gets on the diving board to jump off her hands are up and she is ready. They aren't diving at this stage so she is a little frustrated. She is also in her diving position when it is time to go to the bottom of the pool to get rings. She loved getting rings. She always had to wear her goggles so she could get the most rings. I always love the second year of swim lessons because by the end they can swim on their own for the most part. Ashley jumped off the diving board today and then swam to the shallow end all by herself today. I am so proud of Ashley and her enthusiasm for life.

A Spectacular 4th of July.

I love the 4th of July. I love celebrating the freedom I have because I live in this great country. I love the tradition that we have each of year spending our fourth with some great friends. Our girls look forward to going to the Ewings every year. I think it would break their hearts if it didn't happen for some reason one year. Oh well we don't need to think about that because everyone involved loves it and we will be doing it for a long time. Our evening started it out with some yummy food. A few of us even got a little patriotic in our cooking. After dinner there were lots of activities for everyone. The kids had a blast playing volleyball. And then they added a twist and played with water balloons. They were having a good time but didn't feel like they were getting wet enough so the ditched the towels and decided to toss them over at people. It was organized chaos but the kids were having a blast. Pretty soon all organization was gone and it was a complete water fight. They all got wet and had a great time. The dads found some more water balloons to fill up and the kids waited patiently for them. Then when the balloons were ready the dad's had a different idea then the kids. . . They threw them at the kids. It was so funny because the kids were just shocked. Everyone really had fun with the water. I think we will have to do that next year too. Once the water was over everyone played different things while we waited for the sun to go down. Madison and Kevin played some one on one. Kevin was surprised by some of her moves. He hasn't played with her since she has been getting some tips from someone at church. She is really becoming a great player.
It was finally time for fireworks. We did things different this year and I really like how things ran so smoothly. Fireworks really scare me and chaos during fireworks make a few of us moms be on edge. Well there was no chaos this year. We started out by doing the little kids stuff first in the back yard contained. They did pops and sparklers.
Ashley still wasn't sure about sparklers. This first one that Kevin helped her with, when he took his hand away so she could do it on her own she dropped it. He explained that the fire couldn't get to her and wouldn't go past a certain point on the stick. Then she was. . .
holding them by herself while it was being lit and dancing around with the rest of them. After the sparklers it was time for the tank wars. Before the tank wars there had to be tank war boot camp. Mr. David had to give everyone instructions before the war could start so everyone stayed safe. Kevin was in charge of helping any of our girls so he was more generous then I would have been. He let Madison and Allison light their own. Once the tanks were all gone it was time to move to front yard for the bigger fireworks. This is where I think everything went so much smoother then in years past. All the kids found a seat and sat and watched. There was no worry's of anyone getting hurt. There was only two people lighting fireworks and we had a great evening. This was one of the most memorable 4ths. We are so blessed to have such great friends that we have such a great time with.

Weekend at Nana and Grandpa's house

We just got back from a fun weekend at Kevin's parents house. The girls went non-stop the whole time we were there. We started out by helping with a little yard work. The girls jumped right in and we got it done quickly.

The girls also had fun playing. Ashley had a party with Grandpa. The girls spent many hours outside playing.
The girls were so excited when Nana went and got Kylie. They love anytime they get to spend with their cousins. On Saturday night we roasted some smores. We found these huge marshmallow's. . .
and they were a mess. I thought they would be fun to roast with but they weren't. We dropped more then we got to roast. Did I mention how much of a mess they were? The kids did have a fun time eating their monster smore though.

This was Kylie's first time eating smores. I think she really liked it. We even made our chocolate hater happy by trying something new that Kevin learned. We roasted Starbursts and put them between Nilla Wafers. Madison normally only has marshmallow's when we do smores. We will have to keep Starburst's on hand for her so she can enjoy herself too. After smores we were off to the Drive-In. The girls always ask if we can go while we are in Twin. We hadn't seen Kung Fu Panda so it was a perfect night to go.

We all found our seats and enjoyed the movie. Ashley and Kylie were a little distracted by the fireworks that were going off randomly but for the most part did a good job sitting. This was another first for Kylie. She was cute on our ride home. She said, "Well that was fun." Saturday was a long late day but a lot of fun.
Sunday was more relaxing but the girls still had fun. We went to church and then came home for a yummy dutch oven dinner that Kevin made. The girls had a wonderful performance for us.
Allison had a great time directing Kylie and Ashley. They really had fun putting on this little show for all of us. Ashley also showed grandpa her new skill of riding a bike while we were there. She even learned how to start herself so she is now a complete independent rider. I can't believe how quickly she picked this up. I am so proud of her and she is so excited that we can now go on family bike rides.
We had a great time with Kevin's parents. It has been along time since we have been able to go down and spend so much time with them.