JUMP!

My little monkeys are really loving the trampoline we bought last year. Actually, I should say, the trampoline they bought last year. Yes, they saved and saved, checked under cushions, couches, beds and any other place they could think of for loose change, and emptied out every last penny from their piggy banks to make this purchase possible. And let me tell you, it was worth all of their hard work. They spend time jumping, flipping, twirling and doing all sorts of other tricks on that trampoline every single day. Not to mention, all their neighbor friends think it is the coolest thing ever, which makes my monkeys beam with pride.

It is just plain old cool seeing your kids work hard to save their own money, purchase something they have dreamed of having for two summers, and seeing how very proud they are of themselves in the end. It makes this Mama beam with pride too.

TEDDY BEAR PARK

We have finally been getting some nice weather here in the frozen tundra - aka Minnesota, and this is seriously heaven sent. I swear, the winters in this lovely state have been slowly getting worse and worse over the past 4 years. They are getting so bad that I have actually contemplated packing everyone up, convincing the Mr. to sell the Marinas, and moving someplace - anyplace - where it is warm year round.

Anyway, now that the weather is warm, one of our most favorite parks has opened. The ever popular Teddy Bear Park. Needless to say, the kids were thrilled when I told them we were going to head there for the very first time this summer.

We played on all the fun play sets,

tried out the "zip line",

played in the tunnel,

Climbed the ever popular rock walls,

hung out some more in the tunnel,

zipped down the log slides,

played a little peek-a-boo at the bottom of the tree,

took a time out to drool a little,

rounded everyone up for a little eeny, meeny, miney, mo for a game of hide and seek,

Took turns jumping off of the rock walls - WEeEeeeeEEE!!

Ready, set......

GO!!

Took some time out to have a chat with the Teddy Bear on site,

And didn't forget to snuggle up nice a close to him for a bit too.

Of course, everyone had a great time, and no one wanted to leave. Especially Anthony.

We love Teddy Bear Park.

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

Memorial weekend was a very memorable one. Memorable in both a good and bad way - good in that the kids and adults all seemed to have a wonderful time. We tubed, played in the sand, stayed up late making smores and running around twirling glow sticks around. We watched movies, snuggled up for afternoon naps, ate, and ate, and ate some more. You get the idea, we had some fun.

But we also were cursed with the stomach flu. Oh the stomach flu - the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stomach flu. It started with my Anthony puking all over the bunk beds at the nice and early hour of 3:30am Saturday morning. He puked in to the early morning hours, then took a 3 hour nap and lounged the rest of the day, only to feel 100% by early Sunday morning. BUT, just as he was skipping out of bed ready for a fun day of sun, swimming and friends, Papa Scotty walked out of his bedroom to inform us that Nanu [Grandma had it.] Poor Grandma had been up since 3:30am puking - she stayed in bed all day long feeling like death. Then, Sunday night my Liv Grace out of the blue puked by the campfire in the middle of making smores. After she was finished she looked up at me and said, "Mama, my tummy hurts. I puked." My poor girl.

The next morning we got up, packed the car and headed home in the hopes of having no other pukers. And we lucked out. My sister; not so much. Gaby ended up waking up Monday night to puke.

Needless to say, there was lots and lots of puking going on this Memorial weekend. But there was also lots and lots of fun to make up for all that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, tummy flu that passed through the family. Lots.

ICE CREAM MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER

Today was Anthony's very last day at his summer fun program at Sunny Hill. For some reason every Thursday that I drop him off he crys and goes on and on about how he wants to stay home. 'Cause you know, who wants to play with your friends all day, creating fun art projects, playing at the playground, watching fun movies, and all that sort of stuff? Apparently not my Anthony.

I was told by a few people that his lack of enthusiasm has most likely been that his older brother and sister and baby sister get to stay at home with me while he is gone for the day. This makes him feel left out; as if he is missing out on something big at home. I have tried to convince him that on the days he goes to school there is nothing exciting going on at home; but he just does not believe me.

So every Thursday for the past 8 weeks I have left him at school, crying big old crocidile tears, pleading with me "I don't want to go to kool Mama, I don't want toooooo!!!"

And it breaks my heart every.single.time.

With today being his very last day at school, I thought a celebration was in order. So I took all the kids to Nelson's for ice cream at the end of the day. If you don't know, Nelson's is pretty much the best ice cream place ever known to man. Why? For $3, they pile the ice cream so darn high in your cup or on your cone that you can't imagine being able to eat every last drop of it. And somehow you are able to ingest all of that ice cream because it is just that good. Seriously.

So we picked up our ice cream and managed to enjoy every last drop of the sweet ice cream goodness at home in the front yard.

Little baby boy and I even enjoyed a giant waffle cone stacked full of Peppermint Bon Bon. Can we say Yum - O?

After hogging our own ice cream for a while, we all decided it would be nice to share.

I should say we all decided to share with Miss Liv as she was walking from one person to the next gazing at each persons ice cream with those big blue eyes as if to say, "Oh, if I only had a taste of that...." This tactic seemed to work for her as she got plenty of licks from everyone's ice cream. The girl knows how to work the crowd.....

And apparently she is very happy about that, but who wouldn't be?

I think it is safe to say Anthony's last day of school turned out to be a good one.