Lego Contest...

The Public Library was hosting a lego contest for kids ages 3-14 years old. Oliver was excited and worked on his building/castle for almost a week. Lucius made several things, but soon after they were complete he would take them apart and build something else. Lucius was racing to get his finished before Daddy and Oliver left to turn them in one Friday morning. They did both enter, though neither of them won anything they had extremely good attitudes about not winning. For that I am really proud of them

They've already started planning and building lego creations for next years lego contest.

Evening activities...

After dinner, before bedtime, we usually have an hour or two to fill. We've gone on family walks, drawn chalk on the driveway, played soccer and lots of other things. Recently I hung my hammock in the front yard and I sat outside reading. Oliver came out to join me and brought one of his new chapter books. We were swinging and reading for an hour and I think he read almost 50 pages.

We also love cardboard boxes to play in, but sooner or later they start to fall apart. We managed to save a big piece to make a nice sized art piece. The boys colored it for some time the other night. 

The police...

The boys and I went out riding Monday morning. We weren't too far from home when we saw a police man. He stopped, got out of his car and came over to us. He said "some days I give out bad tickets, but today I'm going to write you a good ticket". He gave the Little Misters each a coupon for a free Dairy Queen ice cream cone because they were wearing their bike helmets.

That determined which direction we'd take, we headed north on Victoria to go to a playground. We ran into Lucius' ECFE teacher who told us of another playground we'd never been to. So after playing for a while we headed south toward a second playground to play and eat lunch.

On our way towards DQ we stopped at a third playground to play even more. It never gets old. (we also happened to pass two little free libraries that we stopped to check out too). Finally we got our ice cream.

The boys discussed where we needed to go next. Since the lake was right across the street they talked about going swimming. They didn't have swimsuits, but that didn't stop them. We figured out a way to go swimming and still be appropriately dressed in public.

Then dressed in the dry clothes we had taken off and rode home. I think we were gone from 10am till about 3pm. A good long day out.

one on one time...

Lucius was at an over nighter at his cousin Casen's house. From what Auntie Mick and Uncle Hung told me he had a great time playing with Casen.

photo taken by uncle hung or auntie mick

Oliver and I were invited to take a ride with the neighbor and her two boys to visit a new playground near the como zoo. First we had a picnic breakfast of fresh baked muffins. yummy. It was a pretty fun playground and the boys all played on it for a while, even climbing to the top of this climbing structure.

Eventually my awesome neighbor said she brought some of their points with for ComoTown rides. She let Oliver use some points to go on two rides. So much fun!

Then we spend a few more minutes at the playground before heading home again for lunch. 

After lunch Oliver and I headed to the library to see the Zoo mobile show. Oliver got to pet an armadillo and I volunteered to touch a tarantula. 

Oliver got a little bored looking at owls, reptiles and chinchillas. So we went back out to read books and check out a huge stack of more books to take home with us. We arrived home before dinner and Lucius arrived home in time as well. 

minnehaha falls...

Saturday we woke up and wanted to go for an adventure. I was bringing my big camera, leaving my point and shoot camera at home until Oliver yelled "Marmee, I need to bring your camera so I can take pictures!". I like to encourage his interest and told him he'd be in charge of the small camera, so he brought it along. During the car ride he was planning what photos he'd take, including wanting to take "a photo of myself"- as he called it.

We arrived at Minnehaha Falls and walked over to see the water fall. We got a family photo:

Then continued our walk, stopping to take a few more photos.

Then Oliver started directing his photographs.

which resulted in these two photos of his brother (actually smiling!- Lucius barely wants to be in photos I take- let alone smiling. crazy guy):

photo taken by Oliver

photo taken by Oliver

And he got his "selfie" photo.

photo taken by Oliver

I took this photo of them posing for the camera:

Then we just hiked the trail, threw rocks into the river, explored a cave and walked back to the waterfall.

photo taken by Oliver

photo taken by Daddy

 

We did stop to play in the river for a little while before making it all the way back. But that's what adventure day is all about, exploring our surroundings!

photo taken by Daddy

 It was another fantastic adventure and a good hike through the woods.

a little ME time...

Last week a friend and I did a kid swap. She watched my Little Misters on Wednesday in exchange for me watching her littles on Friday. I tried hard to think of something really fun to do on my own. I asked around and found a couple of kayaks for Jerimy and I to use. Of course, Wednesday Jerimy woke up sick and couldn't join me. But I wanted to still go out on the lake. Off I went on a free day.

I spent about an hour on the lake trying to figure out the kayak. I'm used to canoes and have never been in  a kayak before. I made it around the lake once and got out to take a lunch break to stretch my legs. I wasn't quite ready to go home after only an hour, so after lunch I went back out on the lake. I circled the shore in the opposite direction and enjoyed the peaceful quiet.

It was quite a different day than I'm used to but I had a lovely bit of "me time".

pool and pizza party

Some of my cousins were in town from the east coast and we gathered at my sister house for some fun. Swimming in the pool, a little pizza, a few family pictures and a really great time.