Quiet Week

Drew and Kayley spent last week in Iowa at my parents' farm so Andy, Ryan and I had a quiet week.  We enjoyed the quiet for awhile and started to miss the noise.  Luckily, Ryan kept us entertained with his singing:

It appears we missed the kids more than they missed us!  Grandma and Grandpa spoiled them with slumber parties in the living room,

 a day at Perfect Games when it was raining,

a bonfire with s'mores,

and a trip to Adventureland!

They had a fun week!  Kayley even played with some of my old toys.  When she was playing with my old barbies, she asked if all boys had hair like this mom was little!  I did grow up in the 80s...

Iowa Visit

Even though baseball and t-ball are over and football hasn't started yet, things haven't slowed down much for us.  Andy spent the last week of July in Australia for work.  The kids and I passed the time with a slumber party with friends and a night out for dinner.

Yes, McDonalds.  Hey, it was their choice and it is quick.  When we came home, Ryan sent Daddy a video:

I got a babysitter for Ryan on Sunday evening and took Drew and Kayley to a concert in the park with some co-workers.

While I readily admit a municipal band concert is not our usual entertainment choice, the kids really enjoyed it.  Well, they enjoyed $1 snow cones and $1 popcorn if nothing else!  

Grandma came to visit on Tuesday.  The kids were excited to spend time with her as always.  We got up early on Friday and left for Iowa.  We went to the farm first and dropped Sox off for the weekend.  The kids and I then drove to Andy's hometown of LeMars to see his family.  Andy flew into Omaha so his brother picked him up after work.  We were all very excited to see him after a week away!  

Everyone went golfing on Saturday morning except for me and Ryan.  I didn't think it would be very much fun to have him riding around in a golf cart all morning so he and I spent some time at the park.  He loved it!

He got pretty hot so I had to make him leave and he wasn't happy about it, but don't feel bad for him.  You can't go to the Ice Cream Capital of the World and not have ice cream.  So, after the park, we went to the Wells' Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor where Ryan had a dish of ice cream and ate every last drop.

We celebrated Macie's 7th birthday Saturday night.  I can't believe how fast these kids are growing up!!  Everyone enjoyed the ice cream cake, of course!  And Ryan enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Macie.  He has been singing it ever since!

After cake, we had a bags tournament under the lights.  Before it started, Mitch gave Ryan a few lessons.

We waited a little too long to get the annual cousin picture.  The lighting isn't great and the kids were tired, but they are still cute!

On Sunday, we stopped to see Andy's uncle and then headed back to the farm to exchange Drew and Kayley for Sox.  :-)  Drew and Kayley are spending the week at the farm with my parents.  They were very excited to see Pirate's Bay when we pulled into the driveway.  

And Ryan was exited about the tractor.  This is the same tractor Matt and I had as little kids.  It has had a LOT of use!

It has been weird around here the last two days without Drew and Kayley.  Kind of quiet!  I definitely miss them, but they aren't missing us too much.  They are having a lot of fun at the farm it looks like from the pictures Mom has been sending!

Summer Fun

Drew finished his baseball season last weekend.  We love watching him play, but it is a little nice to have some summer free time before flag football starts up in August.  Drew had a great season and really enjoyed playing.

Drew's coach giving him his trophy

Drew and Kayley are spending the summer in the school age program at their old daycare.  They are loving it, mostly due to all of the fun field trips they take.  The recently took a field trip to the downtown riverfront museum.  The museum is only a block from my building so I walked over to meet them.  They learned about planets and stars in the planetarium and then walked around the Ripley's Believe It or Not exhibit.  Kayley wanted her picture taken everywhere.  Drew was too busy running around with his friends to stop for pictures!

Kayley loved the Albert Einstein picture
made out of toast

Shark mouth

Andy took Drew to Iowa this weekend for his family golf outing.  I stayed home with Kayley and Ryan.  Ryan got a fever on Friday and had to leave early from daycare.  And nobody else in his room has been sick in the last week so I have no idea where he picked it up.  He's been fine today...as long as he has motrin or tylenol.  We took Sox on a walk after dinner and Kayley and Ryan got ice cream.  It was Ryan's first ice cream cone (I know, we are a little late on that)!

4th of July

We have had another busy week.  We started the week with tee ball and baseball games.  Kayley had her last tee ball game on Wednesday.  She was sad it was over, but very excited for her trophy.  Andy was a very patient coach for her team.  I think it is safe to say he is at least a little glad it is over.  :-)

Drew had baseball games on Tuesday and Thursday.  He has two games this coming week and a tournament next weekend and then we are done with baseball for the summer.

Ryan is a trooper and goes to all of the games.  It is always interesting with him.  If the game is near the playground, all he wants to do is play on the playground.  This is good in that it keeps him off the field, which is where he usually goes when there is no playground around.  However, he has no fear on the playground so there is very little watching of the game for us when he is on the playground!  And we always get home near his bedtime.  So, he is exhausted by the time we eat and we have had more than few nights like this:

Andy and I planned a trip with friends to the Lake of the Ozarks over the 4th so Mom and Dad  graciously agreed to come and watch the kids for the weekend.  We had a great time!  I always miss my kids when I am away from them, but it is nice to get some adult time too.

Our happy hour view

A few of our drinks (over the weekend,
not just at that happy hour!)

Kayley had a milestone while we were gone.  She lost her first tooth!  She lost it while eating breakfast on the 4th.  She ran to tell Grandma and was so excited she didn't realize she didn't know where the tooth was until Grandma asked.  We think she swallowed it with her breakfast.

Thank goodness the Tooth Fairy was on top of things while we were gone!  She got $5 and a teddy bear for her first tooth!  The Tooth Fairy is a little generous for the first tooth in our house.  Things get much less generous for tooth number two here!

The kids had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa.  They swam, went to the park, played baseball, rode bikes, rode the gator and ATV, baked a flag cake, read books, and played with sparklers.  I'd say they had a good weekend.

Missy's Wedding

My only cousin on my Dad's side, Missy, got married this past weekend in Des Moines.  We met my parents at the Hilton Garden Inn on Friday night.  The kids were wound up and excited to be staying at a hotel.  It was like they had never been in an elevator before as excited as they were!

On Saturday morning, one of my best friends from college, Brooke, and her husband, Aaron, brought their kids, Avery and Eli, to the hotel to swim with our kids.  It was SO nice to catch up with Brooke and Aaron!  It had been way too long!  I definitely wish we lived closer to them so we could get together more often.  After we had lunch, Brooke and Aaron left and our youngest two took a nap (Kayley was wiped out from all of that swimming!).  In retrospect, we shouldn't have let Kayley take a nap.  We had to wake her to get ready for the wedding and it wasn't pleasant for anyone.

The wedding was at Happy Apple Celebrations, an apple orchard.  It was a beautiful ceremony and the bride looked beautiful!  Unfortunately, all of my pictures of Missy were blurry or too far away.  I'll wait until she posts some on Facebook!  The wedding was a little warm though as it was in the 90s and an outdoor wedding.  Ryan and Kayley didn't handle the heat very well so Andy took them back to the shade during the ceremony.  Kayley came back halfway through and had a mild (but relatively quiet) freak out about a grasshopper that was near her.

Ryan wasn't too interested in sitting at the table during the reception so he and Andy spent a lot of time outside.

Ryan in the shade during the ceremony

Posing in front of the tractor on the property

They loved the hayrack

I am pretty sure Andy missed his calling
as a professional photographer

Andy forcing Drew to hug him

My selfie with Ryan (first ever by the way)

 

Grandma and happy Kayley!

 
Sunday morning involved more swimming before we headed home.

Really happy after a good night's sleep!

Ryan is excited to get in the water

Andy is a great dad.  He spent hours in the pool
with Ryan on Saturday and Sunday

Andy, Drew and Ryan in the background
and Kayley practicing her backstroke in
the foreground

Still practicing!

"Mommy watch!"

Splash from Drew

It was a fun weekend and great to spend time with our family!