SUMMER, kites

School's finishing up, temperatures are rising, picnics, graduation parties, outdoor festivals...it's all starting to sound like SUMMER to me! :)

You've heard of "Burritos as Big as Your Head!" Well, how about "Slushies as Big as Your Torso!"

We had a picnic with the South Milw. Municipal Band at a nice park (Fox Brook). We took the walking trail around the little lake. Here are my kids stopping along the trail to climb a tree...

Lydia, Abigail

my 3rd kid, Ben!

The Kite Festival at Veterans Park was really neat.

Veterans Park has naturally excellent kite flying conditions. It was great to have the kite stay up in the air for 10 minutes or more!

Abigail loves manning the kite!

The lakefront is a great setting!

Now that I bragged about the flying conditions, you'll see that we had some trouble flying at the time of the Grand Launch. Everyone with a kite was on the field and was supposed to launch their kite at the end of the countdown. I loved that they played, "Let's Go Fly a Kite," because it's such a fitting and happy song!

Then the experts took the field for what they call, kite ballet.

This next video isn't that great, but it shows you how they launch and you can see the octopus that's two school buses back to back in length. They also had a huge teddy bear kite that looked like a Macy's parade float.

Just take in that blue sky, those puffy clouds, all the people gathered, and kites soaring.     SUMMER!

Zoo Field Trips

Abigail's ready for the Racine Zoo field trip, and sadly, the last day of 3 yr old preschool!

Apparently the children decorated 'lookers' at school and the teachers brought them,

 Too Cute!

 Perfect time for the indoor orangutan exhibit while it stormed briefly outside. It was fun to see him swing around. It inspired Abigail to do some swinging too.

 Spent a good amount of time on the PlayZoo.

I wonder what Lydia's seeing now. She's at the Milwaukee Zoo for a Kindergarten field trip!

 The penguins were also fun to watch. It was as if they were putting on a swim show for us!

 We all brushed and pet the goats, and the goats loved it!

 He'd make a good pet, Mom!

 Those lookers were cute,

almost as cute as those eyebrows. ;)

Thanks to our fantastic teachers for a great first school year, full of growth and learning,

Teacher Monica

Teacher Liz

Spread your wings and fly off to 4K, Abigail!

Kindergarten Concert

Welcome to Our Kindergarten Concert!

"Pete the Cat:  Rocking in My School Shoes"

Mrs. Benz' class waves hello.

And now, in somewhat Musical Theater style, enjoy the program!

And in ending, the song that Lydia said we all will love:

Grandma Linda came to the concert!

 Two of her wonderful teachers at Deerfield,

Ms Cybela, Music Teacher

Mrs. Benz, Kindergarten

Awesome job! You rocked it, Lydia! :)

Me & My Guy Dance, and other outings

Mocha Lisa  

 It sure is fun exploring new places with my gal, Abigail. Just an ordinary day, wearing the crown she cut from a craft kit from Aunt Kaitlyn, and drinking a kiddie smoothie.

We love going to the new Oak Creek library, going to story time, and checking out books. Well they were finally getting their big train installed at the entrance to the children's dept. and encouraged us to take pics and post to social media.
#LibraryCHOOCHOO, #OCLRR

We also like to go to parties.

Raelynn's 4th birthday party

Abigail was very very excited to be invited to her first friend birthday party! At this age, I get to chaperone Abigail. She is a bit shy about playing with her preschool friends, but is warming up to them more and more.

When it's a beautiful day, but "cooler by the lake," it's smart to drive just a few miles west.

Today we drove over to beautiful Whitnall Park and Wehr Nature Center. We walked along a trail and found a lovely and relaxing sounding waterfall.

 What a great time to take selfies, no?

 Me and my gal...I'm going to miss our outings when she's  at 4K everyday in the fall!

What you see here is what Lydia can do when her little sister pushes her to climb places she's never climbed before.

I hope they never stop encouraging each other!

After a little cleaning up, Lydia is excited and ready for a very special night with her dad.

 The elementary school PTO put on
Me & My Guy Dance, A Night in Wonderland.
She came home with these cool pictures.

Daddy & Daughter

Natalia, Bella, Lydia

They did an awesome job executing the Alice in Wonderland theme. Go here if you want to see picture of their decorations-I wish I could have gone! ;): https://www.facebook.com/754935271226949/photos/pcb.1019924921394648/1019924038061403/?type=3&theater

To keep Abigail from getting too jealous that Lydia got to go to a second father/daughter dance with Daddy, I took her to special playground at the Traveling Beer Garden where, surprise!, she got to play with Aunt Sarah and dance with Uncle Matt!

Everyone's Happy. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Abigal showing her punched train ticket, and waving to everyone as she rode around the mall.

 Abigail was all in giggles as she signed her name.

I looked and saw smiley faces in each letter! :)

 We got to observe Lydia's ballet class this week. You can see teacher Amy's heels kissing as she calls position number two, and Abigail mimicking in the back. Lydia has learned a lot this year, even though the class is only 30 minutes a week. Next year she'll do tap&ballet together for an hour.

Who's the King of the Jungle?

 Abigail's preschool sang 5 songs for the moms at Mother's Tea. Each song had a prop.

Here's that little red box ;)

On Sunday morning I had a sweet time with my girls having breakfast in bed. I am blessed beyond words.

Celebrations

 We got to attend Ben's high school friend's wedding. It's our only wedding this year. After the ceremony we left the girls with Grandpa Pulley while we continued the celebration at Jumer's.

The Lovely Couple!

On Sunday we had lunch at Grandma Jan's to celebrate my and Uncle Dan's birthday. The cousins were there and had fun playing in the sand together while the guys put in the shore station.

Grandma & Her Two Sisters

We were blessed to have Grandma Jan & her two sisters, Lisa and Diane, stop by for a visit.

Abigail enjoyed the extra attention and Lydia got picked up from school by the whole parade of us.

Then they got spoiled with gifts that turned them into picture-painting and necklace-making machines!

Thanks for paying us a visit. We look forward to seeing you again soon!