Father's Day

(I don't know what happened to the exposure with this picture, but I love the expressions!)

Happy Father's Day!

"We love our dad so much! He's fun, dependable, and inspiring!"

We had a fun time playing in the new splash pad on Father's Day.

For his special day, the girls made a fruit pizza.

 At the zoo, the Big Bug exhibit was fun to see. They were animatronic and some even sprayed toxic chemicals from their abdomen (don't worry, it was just water). 

The girls had fun sharing the role of Queen Ant on the Wild Theater stage inside the exhibit. 

 We also caught a glimpse of the camera-shy baby Bonobo.

This guy seemed to be keeping watch.

Between looking for all the babies at the zoo (the baby spotted sea lion wasn't out), it's fun to leap stepping stones.

At the Racine Breakfast on the Farm, I found these cute cows mooing. We had a big farmer's breakfast and nice time petting ducks, lambs and goats.

While in Racine, we decided to check off an item on our Summer Bucket List, the Wind Point Lighthouse.

It's operational and has a little beach park.

Thanks for the cool shades, Breakfast on the Farm!

 Whenever someone steps into the lake,

there's feet to be cleaned off!

At home, we are traveling around the world with Focus on the Family's explorer pack.

Lydia and Abigail have collected the day's worth of water in Ethiopia and played drums with call-and-response vocals in Suriname, to name two.


The activities have been fun and engaging with zero prep. :)

Hope you all are enjoying your summer and fitting in some exploring of your own!

APA Dance-Spring Showcase

Unlike the Winter Showcase, the Spring Showcase has a dress rehearsal, partly so they could take group pictures afterwards. It was nice for me to take some pictures that day and not have to worry about getting them on show day since we came straight from swimming lessons and I was helping backstage.

 Lydia got this doll from Grandma Linda for her birthday. It has three outfits and the white one is just like Lydia's! She loves dressing it.

 Lydia's favorite position, Arabesque.

They danced to "Mr. Sandman" and did a really good job for the big audience. We'll be getting a DVD of the show in about 4 weeks, so we can have special showings at home. 

 The dancers got a t-shirt with everybody's names and a medal. Lydia was proud to have earned her very first medal!

 Abigail was a proud supporting sister of the ballerina.

 Passed the time backstage with coloring.

Supporting the little dancer in our family! <3 p="">

BUSY

I don't know how to tie all these photos together, except with the word, busy. 

We went to 'Toddler Will's' 2nd birthday party. To go with the fun construction theme, the girls made paper tool belts and also had fun on the tire swing with Nathan.  

We got to go on a ride on the Mississippi River and Grandpa Bruce even let them drive the boat!

A big thrill for them!

Abigail liked the first day of T-ball. They played a little catch and ran all the bases two times.

Lydia got to conduct the South Milwaukee Municipal Band for the Flag Day concert. She got the cut off and everything!

Noelle, Grace, Hanna.

 Having friends over for lunch and play.

Circus clowns came to the library to put on a show that had them non-stop laughing out loud!

Swimming and a cold knocks a girl out! So while Abigail sleeps,

Mequon Community Pool

 Violet, Aaliyah and Lydia argue over the chair.

Aah, that's better! Now if I could just fix the sun in their eyes.

It's good to be busy when we're spending time with people we love.

Great Wolf Lodge

Our family getaway encountered a speed bump.

Our car was dropping out of drive, so we pulled over, had our insurance call a tow. While we waited we found a Ford dealership and Enterprise nearby (thankful for our smart phones!). Two civilians and a police officer stopped by. That shows you that 1) people are good and 2) we waited a loong time for that tow! 

But then we got a bumpy ride in the truck (kids think this is fun) and soon enough got to this place:

 Tired and hungry and trying not to think about the logistics of having one car for the next week or two, we got our wolf ears, changed into our swimsuits, got some grub, and got wet!

It was a great day to be outside and inside.

Abigail had the time of her little life on these slides and swimming and rolling in the current over to the wall.

The big slides were fun, too, with Mom or Dad!

The lobby is where they had the clock tower show and story time.

Fun in the room:

'Hairdo' just like Mommy!

Rocking the wolf ears,

and still wearing them doing early morning yoga, in the lobby. With downward dog, we all howled, "Aooowwww!"

Refueling.

Bye, Great Wolf Lodge friends! Thanks for a fun family getaway!

Lydia's favorite attraction:  Family Warming Pool.

Abigail's favorite attraction:  Wave Pool!

Oh, as we started heading back home, we got a call from Ford that our car was fixed and ready to be picked up, and all under warranty! Awesome!

Ferocious Reader

This is going to be the best year yet for participating in the library's summer reading program because Lydia can now read! After hearing about the rules and prizes from the librarian she immediately pulled an easy reader off the shelf and started reading. "Does this count? Does this count?"

Lydia gets credit for reading; Abigail gets credit for listening. They've got 10 books logged just 1.5 days in!

Speaking of ferocious, here's a leopard shark that brushed right up against us at the Milwaukee Zoo.

 We are going to enjoy visiting the zoo whenever we have a free day with our Zoo Pass.

We love the flamingos and ferociously cute giraffes! 

Be Wild, Read On!

And then there's these monkeys...

Miss Independent

 In a way she's so grown up.

She did every step from cutting the oatmeal packet open to carrying the bowl over to the island.

Yet she still calls it "eatmeal." 

#Stillmybaby