Last weekend, the boys of the neighborhood had a man-cave day of daddy activities. This has been an event in the making for quite some time: lunch at a local brewery, a little gambling at the local boats, grilling, back yard games, poker, rock band etc. The moms got together, took the kids to a bounce-town-type place (airtastic) in the afternoon and then joined together at our house for movies and Jimmy John’s that evening.

The next day, we all felt kinda lazy. It had rained something fierce the night before so daddy suggested we go check out the river to see how high it was. We ended up having quite a little adventure…camera in tow in front of Brian’s face so…lots of picures!

 

Here’s the kid crew enjoying several different movies, popcorn, candy, piles of blankets and lounging in PJs.

The first stop on our Sunday tour was a little park that’s more of a path by a tributary that feeds into the Fox River. We saw lots of cool nature stuff…including a monarch butterfly, lots of spiders, cool plants and lots of different trees. I ended up throwing away several samples of wildlife (branches, leaves etc) that were in my van most of this past week.

The boys exploring nature

Next, we went to their favorite local park. They call it “the Fox River park”. We stood on a bridge and threw lots of stuff over the edge into the water to see it all swept away by the current

1. sticks

 

2. some weird fruit/nut thing from some trees hanging over the bridge (Brian said hickory….)

…and a couple damp logs that Aiden managed to scavenge. Mom helped throw those in. It was actually really cool. I would throw them over one side of the bridge where they would break into lots of pieces. We would watch them wash under our feet, then run and peek over the other side as they sped away. Note Brady’s lack of shoes…what’s new.

After we threw stuff in the water, we went to the park. This spinning thing is clearly only for children because it makes me sick every time I try it! Probably not meant for three riders at a time, but so cute!

Brian wants to know why our kids have lame tee-ter-tot-ers….what about the old school ones that let you go like UP and DOWN as opposed to just bounce a little? Dumb law suits!

Look close…Logan is glowing like Edward Cullen in the sun (thank you Twilight Fans). His hair, face, lashes, everything, looked so cool after he stood under the park’s water mister a couple times.

Blurry, but adorable shot of Aiden on the swings

Boy oh boy…they were certainly due for hair cuts that day (we just got them on Tuesday so check out the major shag!)

After the park, we headed south to check out a small local dam farther down the river. It was a really cool area. The building in the distance is a kayak shop. The kayakers would start up near that building, go down the river and then climb out to do it all again.

kayaker

 

cool shot of bird

excited boy.

We ended our little adventure with a walk across the street from the river and the dam where we checked out a little local Mexican place. Name not to be mentioned because it wasn’t so great and Brian had to um…take a small personal break…before we even left to drive home. The day ended later that evening in PJs with a movie and pizza. All in all….a very fun, do-nothing day.

Just took and posted this from my phone: Aiden and Brady playing some crazy game they just invented called tickle team. The torrential downpours last night have reduced our 90-degree temps down to something more reasonable, but I hardly think winter hats, gloves and boots are called for!

Guess Drago isn't the only one who likes crazy sleeping arrangements

Wow…I can’t believe it’s July 21st and I’m finally able to post about Aiden’s 5th birthday party, which we hosted on the 3rd! The problem has been finding the time to go through all the pictures Brian took. There are so many, I’m just going to post them in an album, but I’ll summarize the party details first.

This year, we had plans during Aiden’s actual birthday weekend (the 10th). Those plans (camping) were to include a party, but the price to get our “guests” to the campground was astronomical. Aiden decided he wouldn’t mind having his party a week earlier and combine it with a sort of 4th of July theme. He’s always LOVED red, white and blue “America” stuff. So…he requested that his party have the theme “The Great American Lizard”. Um…ok….tough theme, but I knew just what to do with his invite:

 

Activities were a different story (what kinds of games to lizards play??). We planned it as a “get wet” party so I came up with a sponge relay race, water balloon baseball, a lizard craft I found on oriental.com and the giant water slide we co-own with a couple other neighbors. Water balloon baseball was my favorite…hysterical! The kids used a tennis racket to bust a water balloon that I threw for them and then ran the “bases” which were three kiddie pools set up in a little mini diamond. After clearing 3rd base, they got to “slide into home” on a slip-n-slide. I think everyone had a good time with that one. The sponge relay was: two teams lined up on one side of the yard with a large tub of water between them. The first kid in each line had a giant sponge. Across the yard, Anne and I had small buckets balanced between our feet…one for each team. The first child dunked the sponge, ran across the yard, squeezed as much water as possible into the bucket, ran back and handed the sponge to the next person waiting. The first team to fill up their bucket won. I had something else planned (kid wash limbo), but everyone was ready to grab the personalized squirt bottles I made and just play in the water. Speaking of these squirt bottles. I TOTALLY lucked out and found these super cool red, white and silver spray bottles at the dollar store. I personalized them with paint markers and they made for a really fun party activity / favor.

This was also one of the only parties where I decided to make the desert. Memaw helped me by contributing adorable dipped strawberries and mini ice-cream sandwiches. I tried my hand for the first time on “fancy” frosted cupcakes. I used red velvet cake and white cake, layered together in cup cake tins. They ended up looking like red/white swirl although my idea was to make stripes inside like the flag and then top with blue icing. I guess the only other important thing to note about the party is that Aiden had been begging for a real lizard for weeks…it was the only thing he said he wanted. So, all our neighborhood friends bought stuff for the lizard and his tank. As Aiden started opening everything, Brian brought out the huge tank. It sort of took Aiden a few minutes to put it all together. You’ll see some pictures of me talking to him during the presents and I’m saying, “Aiden…do you understand why you’re getting all of this lizard stuff”. I think he said something along the lines of, “yes…um…why?” Then I told him that we were going to be going to the petstore the next day to get him a lizard. There’s a picture of that realization too. I think he’s hugging me. Oh…and one more thing: after the party, a few people hung around to make s’mores (with star shaped marshmallows in blue, pink and white!) Brian set off some small fireworks and Brady went to put on his “santa jammies”…funny kid!