Photo Friday...Week 41

Now that Ethan is quite proficient in riding his bike without training wheels, we have been going on bike rides all the time. Nora rides in the baby seat on the back of my bike and we take off. We are blessed with lots of sidewalks and bike trails around. Today we went on our longest ride yet. We had to stop to check out the soybeans and the corn {daddy will be proud}.

Riding bikes together. {I need a longer arm ☺}


Ethan and the beans.


Every time we stopped for more than a second, Nora wanted out. Which is why her face looks so pained in all these pictures. She really does enjoy riding along!





Look at him go!! He has started standing up to peddle now...to go faster!


We need to get Jared a bike so we can all go! It has become one of my favorite things to do with the kids in the mornings.

Water Day 2013!

The annual water day at our church was yesterday.  This is an event specifically for the pre-school aged kids {and siblings} in our church.  This is a day Ethan looks forward to all year long!  It was supposed to be in July, but got rained out and rescheduled for yesterday.  We have gone the last couple years {check out 2012 and 2011}.  Both kids had a blast!  Ethan is old enough, that I didn't have to follow him everywhere he went, but Nora sure kept me on my toes... but that's nothing new :).

This is an instagram collage from my phone.  I thought the corn dog picture was priceless :)!

Ethan had such a great time!!  And now, he's almost one of the 'big kids' {*tear*}

He was so proud of this upside down, head first slide.

Nora was everywhere!  She so badly wanted to go down the big slides all by herself, maybe next year.

There she goes...

Ethan is such a helpful big brother

Loving the big slide

The tongue out is cracking me up.  She was spinning circles in the pool.

Here are some of my sweet kids together on the slide.  Ethan really was such a good helper with Nora.  I'm a lucky mama!

Randomness

So, I looked on my camera's memory card, and I have a lot I haven't shared.  Here is the catch-up post!

First up...bounce house birthday!  We went to our friends, Soren {4} and Kelton's {2} super hero, bounce house birthday party.

   The kids had a blast!  Nora was a little apprehensive about the bounce house at first.  I got in with her and held her while I jumped and after that, she was jumping with the big kids! Ethan is in orange in the top, left picture with an Iron Man mask on.
They also have some pretty cool hammocks in the back yard.  The kids thought they were swings...

Up next...bubble baths!
It's always a treat for the kids to take a bath in our big bathtub.  {It's takes too much water to fill up, to do it often!}

I know...we have cute kids :)!

Last up, playing outside.  We've been doing a lot of this lately.  A couple days ago, Ethan asked me if we could "open up a small circle in the rocks to see rollie pollies and bugs".  {How do I say no to such a cute request from a cute boy?!?}

See his tiny circle of dirt! How cute?!?

Oh, how I love this boy!

And this girl!!

Sweet, genuine smile :)

And, a real smile from Ethan too!

Nora at No. 9

My favorite kids...EVER!  {Just picture Ethan with the 'real' smile from above}

There you have it...now we are caught up!

Zoo Fun

We love to visit the zoo.  A couple weeks ago, we met some friends there.  I only took pictures in the petting zoo, but we saw the whole place.  Penguins are coming soon to our zoo, so I'll be sure to take some pictures of that!

Brennan and Ethan petting the goats

Excited about seeing some bunnies!

Nora loves the petting zoo! 

Museum Camp

A few weeks ago, Ethan went to a day camp at the Children's Museum.  It was Monday- Friday, 9am- noon.  He loved it!  It was called "In the Drivers Seat," so they learned about all kinds of transportation.  There were many guests that came to speak to them, including police officers, firemen and pilots.  They talked about water safety, bike safety and stranger danger.  And, came home with a billion pounds of paper and crafts!  But, again, he loved it all!  I didn't stay with him, so I don't have very many pictures (a couple are taken from the museum's facebook page).  We will definitely look into signing him up again next summer.  He was sad when camp was over.
He went with a friend, Brennan.

Brennan and Ethan ready for the first day!

Getting started

These next two photos are from the museum's Facebook page.

Silly faces...Ethan is in the right corner {not looking at the camera}

With the Firemen and firetruck {Ethan, in green on the left}

With his mounds of crafts and papers :)

Fireman hat and swimmer goggles!

MIA

Sorry for the blogging hiatus. I've been pretty lazy lately...and we haven't been doing too much out of the ordinary. Here is a bit of what we've been up to. (Sorry if you follow me on Instagram, you've seen all these before).

Cooking with some delicious, garden fresh veggies (compliments of my wonderful in-laws)!


Bean snapping helpers.


Climbing on houses...


Enjoying some beautiful pool time!


Going to the zoo with friends!





Playing in the park.


Riding bikes.


Getting some quality daddy time in.


Making cookies.


Hopefully I will snap out of my blog laziness soon. Have a great {almost} weekend!!

Visit from the Newly Weds

This weekend, Dustin and Amanda came up for a visit. Amanda coaches a softball team and they had an all weekend tournament in Mattoon. She made several trips back and forth, and I felt bad about how early she had to leave, but it was still a great weekend. The only pictures I took were on my phone.
They brought Ethan a pretty cool sticker Lego book. He loves it and has done most of the pages already. But he will still love looking at it. (Just looking in the Lego isle, is his highlight of any trip to Walmart or Target).


Nora loves her Aunt "Meana".




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone