Wednesday, July 31, 2013

July Pics

A few other pics I took in July.

 Grammy Tammy got the girls this fun pool and slide for Eva's birthday.






 They love it!


 We have this pretty rose bush outside our fence.




 A strange mist rising up from the church parking lot.




 We spent a lovely day at the beach.  Eva is taking a little rest after all the swimming in the lake.


 I love this picture.


 I read a book while Jim played with the girls in the lake.


 Another first for the girls: going to a drive-in movie.


 They say it may be the last summer for the Keno Drive-In so we thought we'd better go.  We saw Despicable Me 2.


 The girls thought it was great fun being out in public in their jammies.


 We did a tour of three of the Kenosha museums one day with Brenda and the girls.  Lena made a friend outside the dinosaur museum.  


Eva zonked out on the floor after a particularly exhausting day.  Still not used to get getting up early and refusing to take a real nap.


Monday, July 29, 2013

Connie and Chuck Visit

We had some very special visitors this month.  My Aunt Connie and Uncle Chuck came to visit from Washington, Iowa.  We hadn't seen them since September 2010 when we all met up in Indiana.  Eva was only three months old.  Scott, Hilary, Noah, Kara, and Mom came up from Indiana to see them too.

We didn't do anything too exciting when they were here.  Connie and Chuck took the four of us out to eat the first night they were here, but mostly we just hung out at home and talked.  We had a lot to catch up on!


 Of course, we had to get some Kringle because no first-time trip to Kenosha/Racine is compete without it.  We noticed after some had been eaten that the Kringles spelled out two "C"s.  So here are the other two "C"s with them.


 Uncle Chuck reading to the girls.


 Hilary and I exchanged Sister's Day gifts.  






 It was a special weekend for the girls for another reason as well: Grandpa Brian bought the girls bikes when we were there in June, but we didn't have enough room in our car to bring them home.  Grandma Sheryl graciously offered to bring them up here when she came.  The girls were so excited to have their bikes here.  The church parking lot is a great place for them to ride.  Noah rode their tricycle.










 It was a beautiful day for riding bikes.




 Jim being goofy at the school playground.




 Chuck pushing Eva on the swing.






 Oh geez!


 Noah loved playing with the trucks, of course.


 After all that activity, it was time to veg on the couch and watch a movie while Mom, Hil, Connie, and I played games in the dining room.  


 The kiddos all dolled up for church on Sunday.  Noah wasn't too keen on having his pic taken at first.


 Connie and Chuck with the girls.


 Connie and Chuck celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary earlier this year.


 Noah's happier now!


 What a great pic!


 Sisters.




Thanks so much for visiting, Connie and Chuck!  Come back and see us anytime!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

4th of July and the Girls' First Fireworks

We had a fun 4th of July.  It was our first day back from our vacation in Indiana, so we spent most of the day being lazy at home, getting things back in order and doing laundry.  Then in the evening, we were invited to the home of some church members for a cookout.  These members live on 3rd Avenue, across the street from a park that is right on the lake.  After the cookout we were invited to walk across the street with them and watch the fireworks which are set off from the lake.

The girls had never seen fireworks before.  When we lived in Michigan, on the very western edge of the timezone, it got dark so late that it wasn't really feasible with little kids.  It didn't get totally dark until like 10:30 there.  But now that we're on the eastern edge of a timezone, it gets dark about an hour earlier.  And since the fireworks were on a Thursday night and we had no plans on Friday, we thought it was the perfect time for them to see their first fireworks display.


 The girls all decked out in their red, white, and blue.


 Eva had fireworks in her hair.


 The main source of entertainment for the girls was this doggy, Nelly.


 Lena pretending to ward off kisses from Daddy.


 Tried to get a smile out of Eva, but she was clearly not in the mood!


 Anita got out the bean bag game and the girls played for a while, getting progressively closer and close to it.  




 The girls enthralled as the dog's owner (the Brothers' son) shows them a trick Nelly can do.  He put a treat on her nose and she snatched it up.


 Good doggy!


 Then we tried the trick with Eva and a potato chip.  


 When it got dark, we took blankets and chairs across the road to wait for the fireworks.  The girls were so excited!


 Even though it was after 9 (and Lena had been up since 5:50 that morning), they were totally pumped, running around and playing.


 Hard to believe how different the weather was this year in comparison to last year.  Last year it was over 100 degrees, and this year I wore jeans to the cookout and we all needed jackets as soon as the sun went down.  


 Lena cuddled with the doggy while waiting for the fireworks to start.


 My camera doesn't really do night shots, but this is kind of what it looked like from where we were.  The spot was just perfect.  It was so much fun hearing the girls' reaction to the fireworks.  They were so surprised when they saw the first one.  They had seen them on tv before, but were totally amazed by the real thing.  They were totally enthralled the whole time.  Jim and I enjoyed it too, as we couldn't even remember the last time we saw fireworks.  (After thinking about it for a while, I think it was when we were in Texas, which would have been 2006.)


 The fireworks were done by 10:00.  We walked back over to the Brothers' house.  Traffic was insane, so we hung out there for a while waiting for it to thin out a bit.  Anita made strawberry shortcake, so we all enjoyed that while we waited.  


 Then she busted out the sparklers!


 At first, Eva was too scared to hold one.


 But then I showed her there was nothing to be afraid of and she got over it.




 Jim accidentally lit 5 or 6 at once.




 We thought it was fun to light them in the middle and make two spark thingies.



We left the Brothers' about an hour after the fireworks ended and got home around 11:20.  Eva fell asleep within 5 minutes of getting in the car, and Lena followed soon after.  We took them straight to bed when we got home and they both slept late the next morning.  Lena didn't get up until 8:30 and Eva got up after 10, I think.

I'm so glad the girls got to see fireworks, and I kind of like how they were older because their reactions were priceless and something Jim and I will always remember.  Thanks so much, Chuck and Anita!