Our Great Escape

On Tuesday of last week, we headed an hour north to the Great Escape amusement park. We went last summer and Michaela really had a ball; this year both girls were able to ride many of the attractions. Some of the shows (the famous diving show!) and rides I remember from when I was a teenager. This year was nice as I didn't have to nurse Jenna on any of the rides, like I did last year. (It's another funny place to put on the "Places Jenna Has Nursed List.") Little things like that make me feel like we're making good progress.
So the day was a hit except for the fact that it was 93 degrees and humid, and the Great Escape has jacked up its food and drink prices so a bottled water would have cost us $3.50. Honestly, all I remember from the day is my brain screaming,"It's HOT! It's HOT!!" and searching for water fountains. Towards the end of the day we found this fantastic misting station, like on NFL games, and we stood in front of that as long as we could to try to cool off. Thank goodness I took pictures of the girls or I would have no memory of the roughly $130 we spent, I mean, good times we had.
Michaela loves the rides no matter what the thrill level and is excited to grow a few more inches so she can go on everything. Nothing scares her- neither heights nor speed nor peril. She did, however, get a little freaked out by the superheroes in costumes but did ten times better than last year when she screamed and clutched us in fear as they walked past.

For a few pictures from the day in which you can see the girls progressively getting hotter, click this link: http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s193/davieselizabethm/?action=view&current=7593bb11.pbw

Our Fabulous Fourth

One of our favorite parties of the year is Aidan's birthday party on July 4th. We always have such a great time with all the kids in their red, white, and blue (the pictures look so coordinated!!) and everyone is relaxed and enjoying the summer. Aidan turned four this year and was super excited for his party. He got lots of presents related to his favorite things: dinosaurs, superheroes, crocodiles, and pirates. We were joined this year by Judy's brother from Oregon and his two beautiful daughters, who are almost identical in age to our girls. They were a great addition to the group. The picture above is the best shot we got of 10 wriggling kids, amped up on presents, games, and cake.

Amidst all the chaos of the day, Judy, Dan and I remembered that at Michael's first birthday party, there were 2 kids: him and Michaela. Now, there are 10+, depending on the families who come. That's a lot of babies in five years!

Happy, happy birthday to our precious Godson Aidan. We love you to pieces!

Finders Keepers

Look what I picked up at Price Chopper the other day! (Too bad it wasn't a buy one-get two free deal... it would may the 2 vs.3 children debate a lot easier!!)

So much to blog, so little time

Wow!!! What a few weeks it has been. I again have been delinquent in my updates but will attempt to catch up... though it may take several posts. We had a blowout party at the Strauss House for Aidan's birthday on the Fourth of July and Danny was off last week so we did lots of fun stuff. My brother and Beth were in town and we spent lots of time together, as well as caught up with our friends Mark and Carrie, who were also in town with B and B for a friends' wedding... check out their blog for pics and details of that fun night. Besides all that, we have had our normal day to day shenanigans and goings on.
Let me sum it up this way: I have taken over 200 pictures in the last two weeks. I will not bore you with all of them but have selected a few that I will post for your viewing pleasure.
Enjoy!

Superheroes

We had an awesome playdate today with the Strauss boys! We were going to meet for ice cream, but with the temps around 95 degrees outside, we thought indoor treats would be a better idea. The kids got out the Costume Box and everyone got an outfit... even Jenna. She originally dressed up in the Spiderman costume but Aidan was deeply troubled that "she doesn't even know how to spin a web!!" (clearly hurting her credibility) so we figured that Jenna being The Flash would be a better fit. We snacked on Popsicles and ice cream sandwiches... a great, carefree (or as carefree as you can be with five kids under 5), fun summer afternoon.