VBS

This week was the glorious week of VBS.  The kids love it every year.  All their preschool friends go, so it's like a reunion with old preschool friends (who for us have become our besties, mine included).

The first day was wear Blue and we hit up the park afterwards.  Below are Ben and his pal, Sam.

Hills and Em deep in convo.

My man.

Afterwards, I broke out the sprinkler and we snacked al fresco.  All we do is snack because until tomorrow, we have no sink or oven.  It's been rough.

Monday evening the kids started gymnastics.  I didn't sign Ben up but last minute he asked if he could participate.  Absolutely! Then I got the bill and was like, "Man... I wish he didn't want to participate! ;)"

Tuesday after VBS, I believe we hit up the park again and then the kids had their first experience w tball.  I signed up all 3 of them for the program at our gym.  It was AWESOME.  They broke the kids down to groups of about 5 and went through every aspect of playing the game.  It wasn't intimidating for them- just fun.  Below is Benny up to bat. He was the first to volunteer to try.

Running the bases.  The coaches ran along with him, which was super cute.

Below Hill is fielding a grounder.

And Jack at bat.

We went to the pool next for a few hours and then got dinner to-go at the café to eat on the ride home.  Grilled cheeses all around.

The next day I picked up the kids early from VBS for swim lessons - I didn't want Jack to miss because she just started swimming laps and I want her to get the hang of it.  As you can see, Hill switched nametags with her bestie.   They tricked the teacher completely.  They do this all the time.   It was wear orange day but, true to VBS form, Hilly couldn't bring herself to wear orange.  Rock on, Hill.

Here is Jack mastering her freestyle.  Hilly goes first and she does the backstroke herself and is just starting freestyle.

Here is Benny learning the beginnings of diving into a pool. Hilly is the only one super crazy about these lessons.  You can see Jack taking a rest a few feet down from Ben.   Her teacher def gets on her case about sneaking in rests.  A woman of my own heart!

We dropped Jack off at her friend Abby's for a birthday party, so I took the little kids to Rita's.  But I secretly just wanted Rita's.

Then I looked at this picture below and realized Ben needed a haircut badly.  So off we went.

Here he is an action.

Voila.

A promised him 2 minutes of video games afterwards.

How freaking cute does he look.    The other day Jack asked him why he doesn't wear a swim shirt at the pool like Kyle.  His response: "I'm just not that kind of man."  Jack and I couldn't help but start laughing and he laughed too when he realized it was funny.  But his answer was dead serious.  Love it.

Bikes

I'm trying to get these kids to want to ride without training wheels.  My kids are pretty cautious, so things like swimming and riding without training wheels are quite a feat!

Below is Hilly melting down.  She was SO MAD that the trail at the local park was gravel.  SO MAD.  But she kept on riding.  Way up ahead is Jackie.  I took them 2 mornings in a row- Thurs and Fri I think- bike riding and just walking behind them was so relaxing.  Even when they were screaming their heads off or whining. 

We went off on a trail bc I saw the trail was paved.

More tantrum.

We met up with our friends at the end of the trail where we began- at the playground.  Those are our kids playing in the sandbox.

There was a daycamp, and the kids got to hold tadpoles.

And they also saw some other lake creatures.

We stayed at the playground for hours and hours that day.  We have no kitchen, so I whipped up some macaroni and cheese and fruit at my friend Kelly's house for all the kids so my kids could eat something warm for the first time in awhile and it was glorious! 

The next AM I took them to a diff park.

And then we hit up the pool for 3 hours.  I had to be home for our new appliances to be delivered.

For good bike riding behavior (kind of) I promised them all an ice cream treat after the pool.

So the fridge was delivered but not installed.  What a fiasco.  Jim was at work so I called my dad and he walked me through how to turn off the water to the house.  When it worked I said "I can't believe that actually worked."  He said "Why? You turned off the water to the house." But to me, it felt more like a magical spell. Anyway, this is pretty important and useful stuff to know, so while the delivery ended up a fiasco, I felt a little more self reliant after the fact, which I like.  Then I took this pic to home depot and wanted to figure out how the heck I could connect this to my fridge.

Long story short- I figured it out.  And here is the new fridge.  Praise the Lord.  For real.  The old fridge was moldy and smelled and barely kept stuff cold.  Our milk and spaghetti sauces went bad super quick.  There had been this weird kitchen smell for awhile too.  Once they took that fridge out? It was GONE.  So awesome.

Saturday we went to Kramer party at the hunting lodge.  My kids couldn't wait.  Of course we took a ride through the woods to the camp site on the pickup truck.

This was ride before Ben backed up and fell off the dock into the edge of the pond.  He was so upset.

The kids all got lily pads with very long stems which they loved.

Hills and JR.

Dinner. 

Benny and JR playing.

Uncle B, Jax and Brandon.

Hilly on the car

Party foul.

The kids woke up to make Father's Day cards.

My Hilly.

I broke out the sprinkler for the kids and they LOVED it.