Last Sunday: playgrounds and donuts

The weather was rainy and humid today.  This was our low-key day, although we still were out of the house for most of the day.

We did a playground in the morning.  It was a really neat playground with lots of climbing and got high marks from everyone.  However, it looks like I didn't take any pictures.

It started to rain, so we went to a place called Doughnuts & Dragons.  They had delicious specialty donuts and a collection of board games to play.  The doughnuts were so delicious that everyone got a second round for breakfast the next day.  Laura and I went to IKEA while the rest played some games.  It was my first trip to IKEA...it was pretty cool and there were lots of things I could have gotten, but settled with just a few storage totes for fabric.  We somehow managed to keep our trip down to about an hour, but we knew the others probably had a limited attention span with the kids.  If there were closer ones I'd probably go more often, but I rarely need something when we're going to be close to one.

There was a LEGO store nearby, so we stopped for a quick pick-a-brick cup.  We haven't done one in a while.

Last Saturday: Conner Praire

The forecast changed overnight, and so at the last minute we decided to change our plans.  (This ended up being a wonderful change.)  So we went to Conner Prairie.  This was probably my favorite place of the trip.  It was so fun to have all the people in character and talk to you and it was a beautiful day.  We were there almost the whole time and didn't get through all the stuff either.

There was a trading post.

A farm area, although the boys were not as impressed by this.

A treetop/tree fort area:

A prairie town.  We talked a lot about leaches and even got to touch one.

We got ice cream after prairie town because it was getting hot and the kids were wilting a bit.  (To be fair, it was snack time.)  Isaac ended up with my root beer float.  The kids had been waiting all afternoon for the ice cream.

We made one more stop at the loom house.  They were unfortunately not actually using the loom that day, which I had really wanted to see.  They were spinning though, and we spent quite a while watching and asking questions.

We had to leave after that because it was closing time, but we had asked the guys to get dinner ready.  So by the time we got home and settled there was something delicious to eat!

Saturday: summer list

One of the things the boys said they wanted to do this summer was eat blackberries.  They were on sale this week, so we were able to cross it off the list.

Friday: Urban Air

Today was a busy day!  We started out in at a playground (Drenthe Grove Park) with my mom's group from church.  It was a new playground for us, so we rated it like last year.  It was a pretty normal playground, but it did have close bathrooms and a lot of shade.

Isaac: 6
Joshua: 7
Amanda: 9

We ate lunch and then went to Urban Air.  The boys have wanted to go for ages.  It was a lot of fun...I got the parent admission so I could also do all the activities, but I don't think I'll need to do them again.  Once was enough...fun and I'm glad I did it, but trying to escape the foam pit was more difficult than I expected.  I think being larger just makes a lot of the things harder.

Anyway...Joshua was a bit afraid of heights, but he worked his way up to the tops of the climbing wall and even tried the ropes course at the very end.  He was a bit scared of the ropes course so we only went around the first small section, but he did a good job while he was up there. 

There was a ton of climbing stuff for Isaac.

Joshua's favorite part was the ball pit.  It was really an obstacle course with balls underneath (like ninja warrior), but a lot of kids just played in the balls.

Isaac's favorite thing was in the climbing wall section.  It was a bunch of capped tubes that got higher and higher that you needed to climb and then you could jump/spin off the top one.

We stayed about 3.5hours, but at the end everyone was just a tad bit out of sorts.  They rebounded quickly though once we were home.

Thursday: roof

Today they put a new roof on the house.  It was loud and annoying, but...they (mostly) finished within 12 hours!  I had been expecting a week or so of annoyance, so I was delighted to find out it would go so quickly.  We did get a large crew (12 or so guys), which is one of the main reasons.  Some crews apparently have significantly fewer people and so it obviously takes longer.  We also didn't have any damage under the shingles that needed to be repaired.

There is a bit of caulking left for tomorrow and the dumpster is still in the driveway, but it should be mostly quiet at least.

We also brought Grandma to her appointment today.  The boys came with me to see her.

Last Friday: done with school!

Today was (finally) the last day of school for the kids.  They had a half day.  We got home, dumped all of their stuff by the counter, finished packing, took a short nap, and then headed out for vacation!

I *think* I finally figured out how to tell them how to dress.  Joshua likes shorts and a T-shirt if the high is going to be about 63F or warmer, but is willing to bring a jacket.  Isaac likes pants until about 70F, and usually will take a sweatshirt regardless.  (In the pictures above, Isaac was going to be outside most of the morning and Joshua was going to be inside.)

Wednesday: no school

Well, today felt a bit crazy.  It was the first day of summer vacation being home.  The kids did a great job, but I also felt like I only got half of my normal work done.  This was a bit of a problem because I had 1.5x the work to do today because we just got home from vacation.  I chose to do several things with the kids and it was definitely the right choice, but I didn't get some important things done.

We went strawberry picking first thing in the morning.  It's a hot week, but there was a nice breeze and strawberry picking really doesn't take that long.

Joshua started to incubate his hedgehog from the children's museum and I got some jam set up.

I also played several games with the kids, taught Isaac how to do his laundry, and attempted to get some normal chores done.