2015 Week Twenty-Nine | July 13 - July 19

This was THE most busy week of the summer. My family was ehre visiting and we took them to Splash Station, the Children's Museum, and spent time just hanging out around our house. Then there was the field trip with our library to the Strategic Air Museum (I could have filled this post with 30 pictures of that alone, actually, pretty much 30 pictures of any of the events from this week). Black Day launch party, birthday party, and Cub Scout Rain Gutter Ragatta and swim rounded out the weekend. 

Cousin fun at Splash Station. 

And then more cousin fun at the Children's Museum operating the crane in the ball room.

Most of the time, though, was spent hanging out in our pool. The weather was perfect.

The kids were willing guinea pigs for some PT students at Creighton. We've been doing this since Ian was 6 months old. 

On Friday we joined others from our library summer reading program at the Strategic Air Museum, where we had a picnic lunch under the wing of a huge plane. The kids had fun scanning QR codes from planes to collect parts, and then, using those parts, they tried to create an ideal airplane. 

Friday night there was a launch party for Black Day. Ian read the book for the first time, sharing it with Owen. 

The party was at a restaurant, where there was a DJ playing. Annaliese had fun rocking out. 

Saturday was Walter's 5th birthday. He had lots of curious fans during present time. 

While his brother got lots of love and squeezes. 

Ian's favorite spot at Walter's. We're pretty much guaranteed to find him there, especially when he's feeling too old to do the activities the other kids are doing. 

Saturday night was Ian's Rain Gutter Ragatta. He blew his sailboat to a third place finish. 

After the contest, there was swimming. Ian hung out with this friend the whole time. 

Luckily one of the scouts had a sister Annaliese's age that she spent the night hanging out with. 

They both spent lots of time jumping in the water as well. It didn't take much convincing to have Ian go off the diving board, but he only wanted to do it once, and then get back to his friend. Annalises and her friend would take turns jumping in . That is her standard form when jumping in. 

2015 Week Twenty-Eight | July 6 - July 12

Picnic lunches must be followed by walks in the park. 

Tuesday the public library had an event at the PD horse barn. 

We got to get up close and pet the horses and hear all about the training they go through. 

Then after we headed to Jones Bros. Cupcakes where they were hosting the minions for what was then the upcoming movie. 

And of course we had to buy some to eat... with more frosting on them than cupcake. 

Which is the way they taste the best. 

She slept pretty much every night of the summer in Ian's room, on a mattress on the floor. And then brother went to cub scout camp and she had to sleep in her own bed. Found her sleeping with all her friends in bed. Guess she didn't want to get lonely. 

Ian went to cub scout camp for the weekend. Darrin was able to go along (it was strongly encouraged for a parent to go) and a plus side of that for me was Darrin was able to snap lots of pictures so I can document his first camp experience. Here is was in the robotics portion of camp. 

Swimming at camp. 

And fishing.

And spending time with friends.

And boating.

And his favorite, archery.

While the boys were at camp, Annaliese and I attended a book reading of "Black Day" the book our friend Noah illustrated. 

And then we helped out at the monster cookie table (the book has Halloween costumes that come to life... they could be considered monsters).

Unknown to Ian and Annaliese, Grandma, Grandpa, Cara, and Oliver were coming to visit. They got in Saturday afternoon and surprised Annaliese, who I had strategically out in the drive waiting. Ian was surprised to see them on Sunday when he came home. It wasn't long after all were home that everyone was in the pool. 

2015 Week Ten | March 2 - March 8

This week brought the last of the birthday celebrations.  The first was February 7 when Ian had friends over for a party. That following weekend was Ian's actual birthday and parties for both kids (the art party) with Darrin's family and our friends.  Then there was Annaliese's actual birthday a few weeks later, which then leads to this weekend and my family's opportunity to come out to celebrate with both kids.  Tis the season for birthdays :)

As soon as Ian and I got home from school on Friday (Darrin and Grandpa had picked up Annaliese earlier), the kids were allowed to break into their presents.  

One present didn't need to be opened, though, and that was his air hockey table.  I think his expression says it all. It has gotten lots of playtime already. 

Great Billie gave the kids bat and ball sets, which they put into action immediately. They both connected with the ball immediately, and shouts of, "HOME RUN!" rang out with each hit.  

Noah, Marlena, and the boy came up Friday night to celebrate again.  Ian had been playing checkers with Grandpa and next it was on to teaching Marlena how to play chess. 

Best thing about birthday parties to me is the cake. All baked out from the other parties, Ian and I stopped by Dairy Queen and picked up the best type of cake- ice cream cake.  Being the awesome brother he is, he picked a pink and purple cake because he knew Annaliese would love it. 

Cousin fun- Oliver taught Annaliese how to flip off the couch.  

Normally Ian and Oliver are joined at the hip and Annaliese is outside looking in.  Ian was obsessed with reading his Percy Jackson series book this weekend, though, ignoring pretty much all to finish all 500+ pages that weekend.  That left Annaliese and Oliver as playmates, and it was much fun watching the Barbies and princesses play with the firefighters and construction workers.  

Monday she celebrated her birthday at preschool, where she got her birthday crown... 

And posed for pictures in her crown and favorite dress.  

2015 Week Seven | February 9-15

It has been a bit since I've posted.  Life got really busy for us at the end of week seven, and has stayed pretty busy until now.  When you get to the bottom of this post, you'll see why.  Aside from that, technology failed me and I had to get a new computer.  Adjusting to a new operating system and programs has been a slight learning curve. But hopefully this is the first of many posts to come in the near future, as I'm on spring break right now with big goals of getting caught up.

Forget Valentine's day. Around here, when it gets close to the 14th, we celebrate birthdays (Ian's birthday is in February and Annaliese's in March).  Family and friends came over on the 14th to celebrate, and thanks to Grandma Diane, we had cupcakes (my attempt at the cake I was planning was a fail... knew I should have gone with parchment paper). 

Before everyone traveling in from out of town got here, though, we headed to Red Robin, our traditional place to celebrate birthdays because they have the best birthday dessert.  Ian was willing to share his with his sister. 

Saturday was the day of the party. We went with a rainbow art theme for the party.  Starving artist sandwiches were the main thing, and I tell you what, I want to buy special bread, lots of meat, and have bacon for my everyday sandwiches I take to work. These tasted so much better. 

So I mentioned the cake snafu.  I made a tie-dye cake since it was a rainbow art themed party, but the cake didn't come out of the pan cleanly so I could create the tiers.  I turned the cake in to cake balls instead.  

Tie Dye cake does not look very neat when it's all crumbled together, and we ended up calling them carpet padding balls.

After lunch it was present time. Ian got Minecraft Legos and the book "Beanboy" from Marlena and Noah.   

Annaliese got a skirt and shirt that had to be changed into and twirled in immediately after opening. 

And a Barbie book which Noah was lucky enough to read her.  (No idea why she has that expression, but I'd love to know).

Ian got a skateboard from Grandma and Grandpa, so while I was setting up the art activities, he tried it out in our basement. 

Annaliese tried out her birthday roller skates from them as well down there.  

Then it was time to get creative. The kids painted with colored shaving cream, and also did shaving cream marble paintings.  We made our own star shaped crayons from the big fat crayons my kids don't use anymore, and also painted canvases to be hung. 

I wish I would have thought of a drying rack, but our floor worked just as well.  

After that, things wound down and people went home. We ate supper and the kids asked to go play with their presents in the basement again, so we all headed down.  Darrin and I, having never had skateboards when we were young, tried out Ian's.  The kids who ride them always make them look so easy, but they are definitely not.  Not sure how it happened, but Darrin fell while riding Ian's skateboard and broke his femur in three places.

Needless to say, things were about to get crazy Saturday night.  First time I've ever called 911 in my life. Hopefully the last time, too.  Luckily family was in town, so the kids were in good hands and able to stay home. 

They ended up taking him to the hospital in our small town, but all they could do for him there was give him pain meds.  Two hours after the fall, he was on his way to the big city, with me following in my car.  Around 1:00 am Sunday, we knew the plan was to have surgery at 8:00 am that day, which was a relief because both the nurse and surgeon seemed to think Monday was more of a possibility.

Apparently not a lot of surgeries are scheduled on Sundays. I was the only person in the waiting room for three out of the four hours I was there.  They have boards that show the status of where they are at in the surgery, and he was also the only one listed as in surgery for most of my time there.  

He wasn't allowed to wear his wedding ring during surgery, so I did.  Found myself twirling it around my finger a lot to pass
the time.  

The story doesn't end there, but I didn't want to share the pictures.  And more will be coming during week eight.  His parents got to see him after surgery before they headed home, and the kids spent the night with my best friend (teacher inservice on Monday), so I dropped them off there.  I called my boss to let him know I wouldn't be at said inservice, checked on Darrin, who just wanted to sleep, and drove myself home to get a good night's sleep and pick up some things to take him on Monday.  That was the longest 24 hours of my life.