Where is Eli?

So…here is a story that now is funny, but earlier I was fuming!

I have blogged several times and mentioned our good friends and neighbors, the Brays.  Well they live at the other end of the street and our kids can walk down to their house with no problems.  Today, Jocelyn went down there to play with Addy for the day.  After we ate lunch, Eli was very bothered that he couldn’t go down there to play too.  He kept saying to me that Savannah and Thomas would want to play with him too!  I would say “Eli, I know they like to play with you, but you were not invited today.  Maybe later this week, we can get together with them.” 

He seemed fine with that.  It was sprinkling outside and he put his jacket on and was standing on the front porch.  He kept coming in and out…talking to me and asking me questions about the rain, worms, bugs, etc.

Then the phone rang and it was Kelly (Bray) asking me a question.  A few minutes goes by of chatting and I wandered over the front door.  I yelled Eli’s name…I wasn’t sure if he was inside or out.  I yelled his name outside too.  No answer.  At this same time, Kelly said “Hold on, someone is at my door.”

At that moment I said…kind of jokingly…”It is probably Eli!”

Kelly says “Yep, it sure is!”

OMG…He did not just do that.

He walked down the steet, in the rain, without asking me!

Needless to say…I don’t think he will ever do that again.

But now I can laugh!!!!!!

What to do on a Saturday??

On Friday, the kids and I worked outside getting the yardwork done so that we could spend all day Saturday together doing something fun.   I think this was the first Saturday all summer that we didn’t have anything going on…traveling, baseball, etc.  Brian was going to be golfing all day Sunday with some friends, so we wanted to have a fun Saturday.  Earlier in the week, Jocelyn and I saw a newsclip about a Titanic Exhibit at the Legends.  She thought it sounded neat and they had studied that in school last year.  So we started our day off visiting this traveling exhibit.  It was very cool. 

We waited in line for about 10 minutes and then before we entered the exhibit, they took our picture in front of the big, elegant staircase.

Then we did a little shoe shopping for Eli and Jocelyn…oh, you should see the shoes that Eli picked out!  I will get a pic on here soon! 

Then we were ready for some lunch.  We went to Dave & Busters.  The food was great (all 5 of us liked what we got!  That rarely happens.  I am picky and so are my kids!!)   and then we played games for a couple of hours.

 

Eli playing a Star Wars game.  Look at that face of concentration!

Audrey playing her game.  She wanted to ride one of these motorcyles so bad!  Jocelyn, Audrey and I went to the bathroom before we sat down to eat and the bathrooms happen to be in the back PAST all the games!  Everytime I would turn around, Audrey would be jumping on one these “riding” games.  So we let her play this game.  She loved it!

 

 

The kids each won a bunch of tickets and were able to “buy” things with them. Eli even won the JACKPOT on one of the games we played!  He won 358 tickets on one game!   It was a really fun place!  I would really recommend it for something fun for families to do! 

After playing games, we stopped and got ice cream and listened to a band that was playing.  It was a beautiful day and the kids were so well behaved!  I love days like that!!!!

 

 

Pictures from my mom!

My mom just sent some pics from the times we have seen her over the past month.  Here are a some of them that I wanted to share.

When my kids are at my moms house, they love to put on mine and Jami’s old dance costumes.  They spend hours doing this!  It is fun to watch and try to remember whose costume it is and what song we danced to! 🙂

More costumes

We didn’t want to leave Ryder out, so we put a hat on him.

Ryder having fun in the pool when we were at my grandparents house last month.

Me holding Ryder watching one of Eli’s TBall games.

Eli was very excited that Ryder (along with my mom and my Aunt Debbie) came to watch him.

Ryder watching Eli.  (I think we caught him blinking in this picture, but it is still cute!)

Audrey watching the ballgame.

She usually doesn’t do a whole lot of watching Eli…she does a whole lot of playing in the dirt to see how filthy dirty she can get!  This child loves to be DIRTY!!

 

 

5 kids for the day…

Last week, my good friend Kelly’s daughter had her tonsils out and I wanted to take 2 of her kids so she could have a quiet house for the day.  I took Addy who is 8 and Thomas who is almost 4.  They came over at 10am and I had a busy day planned for them all!  They played inside and out.  We made some gooey gakky stuff and then we had lunch and then went swimming until about 4.

Around the table mixing their goop!

(cornstarch and water…messy, but fun!)

Audrey with her REALLY blue goop!  I had my head turned helping Thomas and Audrey took it upon herself to color hers blue…with about half a bottle of food coloring!  I think her and I both had blue fingers until we went swimming!

Silly smile!

Thomas and Eli getting theirs mixed up.

Addy and Jocelyn mixing theirs.

Audrey and Thomas playing the fishing game!

 

All the kids were so good!  It kept my kids busy too. 

Kelly said that Savannah took some naps that day since the house was so quiet!

We all hope Savannah feels better soon and is able to play!!  My kids miss playing with her too!

 

 

Science Day

On Tuesday, we decided to have a science day.  Jocelyn had a volcano and crystal making kit that she had gotten for her birthday a couple of years ago (It’s amazing what you find when you clean out closets!!).  Jocelyn had her friend Laiken over, so she got to do it with us too.  As you can tell from the pictures, it was a pretty cool kit.

Jocelyn and Laiken with their goggles!

And Eli with his!  GOOFY ELI!

Mixing up the chemicals for the crystal making.

(And Eli giving Jocelyn bunny ears…he thinks he is so funny!)

 Jocelyn’s turn to make her volcano

Cool…isn’t it!

Eli making his volcano

And Audrey making hers! 

Eli’s last T-Ball game

Today was Eli’s last T-Ball game of the season.  He loves baseball and I think he could play it year round, but this fall he will playing soccer again and he is also trying football this fall.  Flag football that is!  Yeah…good luck getting 5 & 6 year olds to just pull a flag instead of tackling!! 🙂

Eli got to play catcher for the last inning of the game.  Here he is after he got the grounder.

Eli (13) getting ready to give 5’s to the coaches and then the other team.

The team waiting to get their trophies.

Eli getting his trophy from Coach Josh.

Eli with his trophy

Eli’s team with their trophies.  Eli is the 3rd from the left in the back row.

HE had a great season of baseball.  He will play coach pitch next spring.  We are very proud of him and so glad that he has a blast playing ball!

 

Lake Okoboji

We try to get up to Lake Okoboji with Brian’s family once every few years.  We spent a few days there this past week.  Although the weather was unseasonably cool, we found plenty to do!

Grandpa and the kids looking to see if they see any fish

They spent a lot of time playing beanbags and washers.

Brian and Audrey fishing…don’t you love her shades!

Eli and Jocelyn fishing with Brian’s dad there to help.

Jocelyn is such a great big sister.  Audrey wanted Jocelyn to help her.  Audrey has started something new when she gets hurt (or in trouble!), she says “My Jocelyn”.  I guess she thinks Jocelyn can rescue her from anything!

Eli caught this bass.  It was the biggest fish they caught all week.  He was so excited, but he would not go near it.  This picture was taken as Brian tried to have Eli hold the line above the fish for a picture.  He jumped back so far that he about fell off the dock and into the water.  Jocelyn was cracking up at how much of a fit he was throwing!

He finally held Jocelyn’s hand while she held the line.  Gotta love Eli’s face!

Out on the dock looking at another fish that the kids caught.

We also went to Treasure Village for a play.  We go every year so the kids (and us too) can see a play.  It is a great morning activity to do with the kids.  This year we saw Robin Hood.

Before the play, the characters walk around and are “in character” for the kids to see.  The kids were all cracking up and this loudness scared Audrey.  Anytime things are loud and she is scared, she covers her ears.

And this time with a ring sucker in her mouth! 

Eli and Jocelyn watching the actors before the show.  Eli had a permanent grin on his face!

Jocelyn and Eli standing next to Robin Hood!

They got to go up on stage during intermission because they had their faces painted before the show.

Us with the characters from the play.  I had to get in the picture because Audrey wouldn’t go up there on her own!

Brian’s cousins (and their kids) were also at the lake.  Here are 8 of the kiddos!  I can’t believe we got them all to look at the cameras!

Jocelyn, Eadie

Jeremy, Eli

Audrey, Julian, Brenden, Lydia

Fun times!  The kids had a blast playing together!

We went to Lakeside Lab and they had a “visiting” attraction called bugs.  These big bugs made out of wood.  We walked around the park and saw the different critters!  Here are the kids standing in front of the spider and web.  We told them to make faces like they were scared!

Look at those faces!!

Eli with the preying mantis

And jocelyn too.

We had a fun time, but also glad to be home in our own beds!!

 

 

Our weekend in Omaha

 We spent a couple days in Omaha before heading to the lake.  We spent an entire day at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.  If you have never been there with your kids, I would HIGHLY recommend it!  It is the best zoo.  We were there from 8:45am til 5:45pm.  There aren’t many zoos that you can spend 9 hours at and not get bored!

Baby Orangutan with her mommy.

Brian wanted them to pose like the flamingos behind them.  Brian and I just sat there and laughed them while Brian took the picture.  The things we make our kids do!!

The kids and I in the Rainforest.

Brian and the kids

 

And here is my favorite picture that we took of the kids at the zoo.

I can’t believe the tiger sat there for us to take the picture.  As soon as I took it, he got up and walked away.

 

And here a few from the hotel.  We stayed at a new Holiday Inn downtown.  It also had an indoor water park that the kids loved!

Good morning!

The waterslide started inside the building then went around outside and then ended inside the building.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing.  And it was also very dark inside the tunnel when it went outside in the dark.

Jocelyn at the bottom watching for Eli

Eli trying to spray me while I was taking his picture!  Luckily I got it taken before he got the water going!

Jocelyn

And then we were off to the lake!

 

Oh, Audrey!

Couldn’t resist posting this picture of Audrey.  After we got home from the pool a couple of weeks ago, she did this with her swimsuit bottoms!

She smiled great when I told her to smile for the camera!

 

Where did that idea come from??

I am always sharing stories of what our kids say and do, but they are USUALLY about Eli and Audrey.  Well, this is about Jocelyn and wondering just how a 8 year olds mind works!

My friend, Kelly, gave me this great idea of how to assign chores around the house.  I took craft sticks and wrote various chores on them with a J, E, or A on the end of them.  Each day, each child picks a stick or 2.  So Sunday night all 5 of us were in the kitchen thinking of what the chores should be.  Jocelyn didn’t think it was fair that her chores were much harder than Audreys.  We explained that she will be out of the house 6 years before Audrey, so Audrey will be stuck doing many of the chores by herself.  She was very excited until I told her that when she is 18 she will be living on her own and will have to do all those chores all by herself.  Then she says to me 

“Not if I live with my boyfriend!”  With a smurk on her face!

Brian and I looked at each other with shear panic…where on earth did she get such an idea???

I looked at her calmly and said “YOU ARE NOT LIVING WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND when you are 18!”

She smiled at me and we decided to end that conversation!

Where does an 8 year old come up with something like that?

BTW, this way of doing chores is working great!  Thanks kelly for the great idea!