This and That

As promised, action shots of Jamison at tennis practice.

I think he likes it, but I think he spends more time walking around picking up balls or chasing balls than actually practicing the skills.

Peter at his first game....the stance is good and he got a decent hit! Watch out for this lefty!

Saturday I came outside and saw this! watch out! So Jamison would not drive the pink barbie jeep because "it was too hard" but give him a garden tractor and he feels right at home?

Pat had some time to work on the zip line and ALMOST has it done. Done "enough" to give it some test runs. This is Jamison right before his first run. I told him on his first run that I would hold onto the rope and walk him down. At first he was upset that I would not let go...but as he was going he was screaming "dont let go, dont let go!" at the bottom he then yelled at me saying "mom, why didnt you let go? I wanted to go fast, can I go again?!" So he went again, and again and again. He thought we were being mean because we would not let him go full speed but as he was going down he had this look of terror on his face. I think we are going to have an adrenaline junky on our hands. We promised that we would let him go full speed when we have a kid-sized harness and have the break/platform figured out. Which leads us to the video below...enjoy. This is Pat's first run....i stopped the video a little short for you to see that he ran into the platform, knocking it over completely upside down leaving him hanging with no way to get down.

I had to drag him to a lower point so he could get off.

We invited the neighbors for a couple trials (teresa crashed into the tree) and I took a couple runs (caught my legs on the bungy cord). No one was seriously injured....but we have a little testing before we call it "open for business".

Isaac even gave it a try (with Joe walking him down). His brothers are going to be jealous that he got to ride it first.

Sunday we took to the tennis courts for some practice and fun. Great reach Peter, still a little too high.

Jamison asked to take his shirt off because he was hot. He was surprise we said yes, and spent some time admiring his muscles and "six pack abs." I was a little distracted by his glaring white skin, maybe he should spend more time with out his shirt on.

Whitewater camping with the ladies

First camping trip of the season! Whitewater State Park with the ladies!

Tradition dictates that Peter makes a tent for his cuddle friends...and this year is no different!

First thing on the list of things to do....S'MORES! and boy were they tasty!

Another camping tradition - glow sticks. One broke in Jamison's hand and fortunately i learned from the Hansen family that they are not toxic, even if your daughter broke it in their mouth. Knowing that, and being super interested in his glowing hand we took a picture but would not leave it that way as Jamison hoped.

Saturday morning we were all up for a hike to Chimney Rock and Inspiration Point.

Chimney Rock is always a favorite!

Why is it the kids have to climb on the one big rock that is super close to a HUGE drop off? But for a cute picture i would risk it.

Peter made it out a little farther than he did in years previous, but still not out all the way.

The kids are going to hate us soon for making them pose together but this is a good one!

See, i did it again, and this time I am even going to compare it to the first get-together.

I cant wait to embarrass them when they are older! Here they were ages 3 and 2.

In the afternoon we had some fun beach time! They can run like the energizer bunny...and when the lips turn blue, they are done!

Presents!all kid crack- squinkies for the girls and beyblades for the boys!

Storms held out until after we ate dinner and had birthday treats. We ran for the shelter to play some card games and color.

The storms didn't last long so we got another short hike in before bed.....and then bigger storms came later. Fortunately we all stayed relatively dry.

Sunday....another hike! don't the kids look excited! I think we have succeeded in tiring them out!

Earlier in the week we watched the original Karate Kid. Jamison was inspired by Daniel-san. Wipe on, wipe off!

On this hike we went through some meadows that were great to catch critters. Lucy won my heart...her love for all things creepy crawly is awesome! but is sure made for a slow hike.

Thanks Stacey, Shelby, Lily and Lucy for a great weekend!

Summertime fun!

Summer time madness begins!

It started with the celebratory ice cream treat on the last day of school.Then a day at Stewart Lake Beach! The weather was not super warm but the sand and sand toys were a lot of fun! There was some algae growth but there was a nice county worker doing his best to move it out of the way. The kids were able to get in the water and get nice and sandy! Some swing time fun that led to............crazy tricks that scared me as well as Peter. Some rain was predicted so we met up with some class mate for some free bowling. Things got a little out of hand and even with the bumpers up Jamison managed to get a real gutterball....the ball rolled on top of the bumpers. Peter got his highest score ever! 107! including three spares and a strike! So if three strikes in a row you earn a turkey...would three spares earn you a chicken?? Peter signed up for basketball camp...we was happy to get some hoop time. Future Vikings Basketball team! Jamison signed up for tennis. I will get some more action shots...wed we had a rain day. We also signed up for the library's book club. We cant forget how to read over the summer.Peter also signed up for coach pitch baseball. He has a good arm but we have to work on getting under some high balls and catching it. The floppy hair might be getting in the way but I think I thought of a way to get around that. headbands and hats! Concentration and force will get you that facial expression. Bummer that he just missed the ball. Uncle Sam wants you! ok, Jamison wants me to stop taking pictures.

Faux Fathers Day

So I thought Fathers Day was on the 12th. Not sure why I thought that. But we had a weekend free so once we learned it was not until next weekend we pretended that it was!

We took a hike through Natural Bridge State Park, not a big park but it has a cool natural feature.The boys and I have been here before but it was fun to do more exploring on the trails. Fun, until we saw how much poison ivy was along the trails, we were not dresses appropriately for that. So when we got home we scrubbed up and washed all of our clothes just in case.

On Sunday we took the boys to Wisconsin Dells to ride the Ducks. The boys thought is was pretty cool but Pat reported that Peter had a death grip on his leg the whole time.

The tour guide was nice and had some really bad cheesy jokes. I was a little bummed that the boys did not get a chance to drive it. I remember getting a certificate. My, how times have changed.

They had to get up close to see how it worked. Happy Fathers Day!

And then there were none......

no more days of school. The boys are super excited to start their summer vacation and although I am a little sad that I do not have any more peace and quiet I am very excited to have loads of fun with my now 2nd graders. This is Peter's class, Ms B. She was a great teacher and had a great sense of humor. Thanks Ms B. I did not get a picture of Jamison with his class but I will have another chance as he is in a looping class and will have Mrs. Seymour one more year! Give Peter a challenge and he will break the record! This is his number scroll. Last year the record was 3200, Peter smoked that with 3520! and he says that he is going to work on it more over the summer! That boy loves his numbers! Now that summer has begun the boys need to find things to do. They have this great idea of "brick crawling" Hopfully they will not get the idea to go up! Maybe after the zip line and tree house we need to build a rock climbing wall. Now, 83 days until school starts!