June

Ethan loved his sno-cone!

The girls are hard at work making sidewalk chalk squirt paint.

Daniel and I are each taking each of the kids on a date this summer.  Hannah and I went to a fairy house class at a beautiful nature reserve.

 

She loved crossing this little lake even though some parts were a little scary.

Andrew had an awesome week at a scout day camp.  This is the only picture I got before my camera died on the day I volunteered.

Cute brothers.

Ethan and I went to the magic house for our date.  I took Andrew to kokomo joes and he had fun driving go carts and playing laser tag.  I think I forgot my camera but took pictures on my phone maybe so I'll have to look for those.  Anyway, Ethan made a trap with these and was telling me all about it.  It was very cute.  He is a good story teller.

 

The kids have some summer goals that they work on during quiet time. 

They have had a lot of fun with these water guns.  I think this was in the morning after a rain storm.

I love watching my kids play with toys.

 

Eliza at Hannah's birthday party.

Eliza sitting in a bucket of water after getting drenched.

One of the best purchases I've made is this pool, the kids have had a lot of fun in it.

Running to the pool.

Water balloons...they have tried to stay cool with a lot of water play.

 

Eliza is holding a firefly in her hands.  She really wanted to catch one after watching Hannah and Ethan catch a bunch.  For some reason this one isn't flying away...or really moving much...

Ethan was in love with the new polar bear at the zoo.  His name is Kali (pronounced cully).  He wanted to hear all about the story of how he was orphaned in the wild and talked about it all day.

We found a cool wading pool/waterfall/fountain to play in.  There were other people swimming in it but when we were about to leave we saw the sign that said we weren't supposed to go in the water...oops.

Hannah's bucket of fireflies.

Hannah's Birthday

Hannah wanted an art/nature party so she painted her own invitations, they turned out really cute.

 

We celebrated the day before since her birthday fell on father's day.

I wish I got a better picture of all the girls.  We are missing one here and there are flowers blocking Hannah but it is the best one we got.  She had a couple friends from school, a couple from church, and a few from the neighborhood.

 

Andrew was a big help during her party.  We had a bunch of cool fairy items that we showed them at the beginning  and then he would take one and hide it at different times.  When one went missing they would have to figure out which one was gone and then go find it.  They all seemed to like it.

We did a bunch of art projects.  We did water color paintings, made flower wands, beaded necklaces, and decorated pots that we planted flower seeds in.

Hannah is showing us the martin tradition of not talking after candles are blown out until you eat the first piece of cake.

She got a lot of fun art supplies and has been very busy with her art box since then.

On her actual birthday we had an indoor picnic lunch.

We were going to go to the zoo on her birthday celebration day but we decided it would be way too crowded on a Saturday with a new polar bear, so we went on Monday.  I love this picture that Daniel took of Hannah on the carousel.  I don't know why she looks so serious, but I think it is beautiful.

The new polar bear is a 2 year old playful cub and he was so cute and fun to watch.

 

Here is my six year old Hannah.  We love this girl very much and are so glad she is part of our family.  She is brave, strong, good, fun, beautiful, and sweet.  She loves art, nature, fairies, reading, writing, riding her bike, playing with friends and family, and playing with her bunny.  She can often be found cutting up fruit or playing a make believe game.  She is cautious and protective and a good thinker.

Eliza's Birthday

Eliza has been talking about her birthday and has been very excited for it- she calls it her "happy happy" :)

We went to grant's farm (named because Ulysses S Grant lived there).  It was a super cool place...and free!  First you take a tram ride tour through an animal park that is home to some pretty cool animals.  That was our favorite part.  Then you end up in a place with more cool animals to see and if you pay $5 you can also get a sno-cone, a carousel ride, and 2 milk bottles to feed the baby goats.  I don't think we could have found 3 things that Eliza liked better, it was the perfect way to celebrate her birthday.  In this picture she is eating her sno-cone.

She loves carousels and loves to be buckled.  She calls it a "bucky".  The skirt (tutu?) she is wearing is the same one Hannah wore on her second birthday.

She was very cute feeding the goats their bottles and petting them.

We invited the neighborhood kids that were playing in the backyard to stay for cake.

 

I mentioned before that I loved making picture collages.  I made each kid one of pictures of their life to display for their birthday month.  Eliza loved talking about the different pictures of herself, especially the ones when she is a baby.

And just like that my baby is two years old...crazy!  I love this little girl very much and so does her daddy and siblings!  She is very funny, smart, cute, sweet, happy, and so much fun!  She loves to play outside, jump on the trampoline, read books, take baths, eat any dairy product she can get her hands on, and do whatever her siblings are doing.  She is a great talker and I love the cute way she says things.  She loves going to her nursery class at church now and her teachers say she is a lot of fun.

She also LOVES waldo.  In one of the waldo books she can find waldo quickly on every page because she has done it so many times. 

Nauvoo

I love this picture because of the way Hannah and Andrew are looking at Daniel.

On an ox cart ride



I loved the statues of all the women at the Nauvoo temple visitor's center.

Playing with old fashioned toys was fun.  Andrew didn't let me dress him up though.

 



I bribed Ethan to let me dress him up.

 

I don't know if they've been matching before but I found these at a garage sale and they were the right sizes.

We loved the "sunset on the Mississippi" show.

Nauvoo temple visitor's center