Summer - Visiting Grandma & Grandpa (birthday party)

Grandma planned a very fun birthday party for Megan and Amelia with all kinds of fun games to play, including an obstacle course.  First the kids had to crawl under the picnic table benches, then push a train car along a curving track, then jump in hula hoops, then walk on a balance beam, then climb a ladder to reach their pinwheel prize.  For some reason, I don't have many photos of the kids doing the obstacle course, but I do have photos of the adults!

Here is Noah very patiently waiting for his turn on the obstacle course while making monster faces:

Then Grandpa got out the wheelbarrow and gave everyone wheelbarrow rides.  That was a big hit with everyone except for Megan.

 

 

 

Then Mom filled up the metal washtub with water and had the kids fish out prizes using tongs.  There were necklaces and plastic animals and little fairies.  This was a huge hit!  They ended up putting all the prizes back in and then fishing them out a few more times before the day was over.  They were all pretty good at using tongs, too, even Megan!

Next up was a water balloon toss, which was hilarious!  The goal was to try to toss a water balloon as many times as possible without breaking it.  Amelia took the game very seriously, and she and I got over 20 tosses, although we were standing fairly close to each other.  I think Natalie tried for a while and got maybe 7, and Megan attempted it, too, although she's not very good at either throwing or catching yet.

But Noah, oh funny Noah!  He pretty much just threw the water balloons at Grace.  Good thing Grace is a good sport!

Then we had a sack race and a strange hula hoop race:

 

 Grandpa created clues for a treasure hunt, which all the kids loved.  Amelia read all the clues out loud, then the kids went charging through the house to find the next clue.  At one clue, both Grandma and Grandpa had put Andes mints on Amelia's pillow.  What a treat! 

Amelia and Megan both wanted cat cakes, but we managed to convince Megan that hers could be a three layer chocolate cake with cats on the top.  Mom found cat shaped animal crackers at Trader Joe's and Megan used them to help decorate the cake.

 

And we had a pinwheel cake for Mom and a cherry pie for Grace.  They were kind enough to let the kids help blow out their candles.

 

Dad told Megan to "show him how the piggy eats" and so she did:

Amelia and Megan got some very nice presents, including this cool road puzzle and some Matchbox cars to drive on it. 

Amelia had mentioned that she wished she had a fancy doll bed, so Grandpa built this lovely bed and Grandma made a quilt, bed curtains and some fancy pillows.  So far, it has been used mostly by Barbies and stuffed cats, but maybe someday a doll will sleep in it!

Thanks to Mom and Dad for planning such a fun birthday party for the girls, and to Natalie and Noah for coming and playing with us!

Summer - Visiting Grandma and Grandpa (Lincoln Park Zoo & Butterfly Exhibit)

I'm going to try to catch up on all the fun things we did this summer, even though the summer is almost over.  (I can't believe the girls are still wearing sundresses in Wisconsin in October!)

The girls and I visited Mom and Dad the week of the 4th of July, which was the perfect time to help pick and eat raspberries!  This year, a few raspberries actually ended up in the bowl, but most of them got eaten during picking.  Grandpa wanted Amelia to feed him raspberries like she did in previous years, but this year she thought it was funnier to pretend to feed Grandpa a berry and then eat it herself.

One day we took the L and a bus to the Lincoln Park Zoo with Natalie, Noah, Becky and Brian.  As always, the kids had a great time riding public transportation.  I think getting to ride the bus (twice!) was probably the highlight of the day for my girls!

This was the first time my kids had been to the Lincoln Park Zoo, and they really enjoyed it.  They liked pretending to be ants in an anthill and climbing up this random display of sticks:

We got to see a lot of animals, including polar bears, zebras and gorillas, although I don't think I took any pictures of the animals.  Unfortunately, what I remember most was that Megan was going through a temper tantrum stage at the time, and was pretty stubborn and difficult at the zoo.  I am so thankful that she has (mostly) grown out of that stage now.  Becky and Brian took charge of the three older kids most of the time (thanks, guys!) while I dealt with Megan.

The kids had fun trying to step on Aunt Becky's shadow and then running away when she tried to step on their shadows.  This was a great way to distract Megan during her grumpy times.  The girls still love to play the "don't catch my shadow" game.

Another day, the girls and I went with Mom and Dad to the Botanic Garden to see the butterfly exhibit.  The girls discovered that they could play under the bike racks at the entrance.

We walked around a little to see the fountains and the water lilies in the circle garden, but we didn't explore too far.

Then Dad helped Amelia walk up the railing of the stairs, which she thought was hilarious. 

The butterfly exhibit was just amazing!  Amelia and Megan loved to use the guide to try to identify the different types of butterflies, but unfortunately, the guide was out of date.  Regardless, they had fun trying to find all the different kinds of butterflies, and counting how many were hiding on one of the trees.  Their favorite butterfly was the blue morpho.

A butterfly even landed on Grandma's shoulder, and stayed for quite a while!  Amelia tried standing very still for a while to see if a butterfly would land on her, but I guess she was wearing the wrong color.  Megan was glad that a butterfly didn't land on her.

The girls enjoyed playing with Grandma's fairy garden on the side of the house.  In addition to hiding the little animals and fairies under the plants, the girls picked flowers from Grandma's garden and used the flowers to decorate the houses, paths and ponds in the garden.  They loved it!

We spent some time coloring with chalk on the driveway, but the best artwork was Megan herself.  This time, she and Amelia used the chalk to intentionally color on Megan's face.  What goofy girls!