They’re growing Up…

A Fun Day at the Water Park

The other day we went to the water park and the kids flopped around in the pool and went down the “lazy river” and had a great time. But, for some reason both of them got it into their heads that they were going to jump off the high dive into the diving pool. “Huh?…”, I said!

The diving pool is something like 12 feet deep, and I was unsure of our kids’ swimming abilities, but there were two lifeguards there, so I figured it would be ok. Here is a video of the kids working up their courage to jump. It’s a collage of the many attempts.

By the way, I was surprised at how well the kids did in the deep pool. They had no problems at all swimming themselves over to the ladders, etc. and didn’t seem freaked at all that the bottom of the pool was way below them.

The Giant Mushroom

There has been a lot of rain this spring and this has led to some mysterious things growing around our house. The other day a mushroom popped up that was truly huge. It was a toadstool type of shroom, and sort of pretty in its own little way. It was so big that it looked like a came out of a fairy tale. I expected a little fairy to yell at us to get away from her house.

Oh by the way, the storm last night knocked out our power and it hasn’t come back on yet. It was quite a storm…

The End of an Era

I was excited the other day when I cleaned out the garage, but at the same time I was sad that my kids are growing up. Seen here are some of the “little kid” items that I threw out. Their baby chairs, their car seats, various toys, and their picnic table.

In truth they never used the picnic table, mostly because of the spiders that spun their webs on it, and the little furniture never got a lot of use. They preferred to sit on the sofa snuggled up against mommy and daddy (makes sense, right?).

But I was especially sad to throw out their battery-operated motorcycle (it stopped working and they outgrew it) and their little horse. The horse was a gift from my parents and they loved it. But, like the other things, they outgrew it and it broke. I might fix it and keep it hidden away somewhere, but don’t tell mommy.

My kids are a lot of fun now that they are growing up but there are times when I see other people at church with their little kids and I long for those days when my kids were small.

Ian Almost Becomes a Girl

The other day we had a picnic in the park. At one point Ian got into one of the baby swings and I swung him for a while. It was great fun.

And then he tried to get out. Oh boy, he got himself so wedged in that he almost became a girl. It took both me and Mommy to get him out. At one point I turned him over and tried to dump him out of the seat. It was all very funny.

Later that same day Daddy fell off his swing and landed on his butt in the dirt. About 10 seconds later Ian fell off his swing and wound up hurting himself, though not badly. He mostly scared himself, but he did cry a lot. It was actually a little embarrassing that he was so loud as he cried. The other parents were looking at us like we were bad parents. Oh well, we had a good laugh about it later that day.

At the Illinois Railway Museum - 2011

Once again this year we went to the Illinois Railway Museum for a reunion of my dad and his coworkers who used to work on the Railway Post Office trains. Ian and Cami are pictured here inside the car that the IRM had running that day. Ian isn’t excited that the girl who is draped over him is his sister.

The kids have really grown up. I looked at older pictures and it is shocking to me how grown up they look in these pictures. I guess time is really getting on these days.

The weather was fabulous. It wasn’t hot (it can be really uncomfortable in the trains when it is hot) but it wasn’t cold either. And it didn’t rain! The mud there can be miserable when it rains.

The IRM also had the old sleeper cars open, but not running. They were really cool. The little rooms looked really comfortable. Each one had a toilet and at least one bed. There were sinks and controls for heat and AC. It made me long for the days gone by.

Balloon Animals

A few weeks ago we went to a restaurant for Auntie’s birthday. At the restaurant there was a man there making balloon animals. The kids enjoyed it so much that I got them a bag of balloon animal balloons so they could make their own animals.

The example above is my first attempt at making one. This design came out of my head. In other words there was no book that I was looking at and I hadn’t yet watched any videos on YouTube or anything. I think it’s a pretty good effort.

Below is my second attempt at making a balloon animal. It’s sort of an homage to Anthony Weiner. It didn’t start out that way. It just sort of evolved as I went along. I’d like to say I was trying to make something non-perverted and that it just sort of turned out to be rude looking, but in reality I was trying to make a pair of boobs.

I have to admit that sometimes I have the mind of a child.

Cub Scout Fishing - 2011

It’s that time of year again when we take the Cub Scouts fishing. Thankfully there is a pond close by that we take the boys to. It’s only about 5 minutes from our church building, and it has a lot of hungry fish in it.

Thankfully every boy (and girl) that went along caught a fish, except I think for one boy that did not, but he caught a bunch last year so he wasn’t too bummed.

Ian caught two fish (a crappie and a bass) and Cami caught one fish (a bass I think). It was a lot of fun!