Arlington Park

It was that time of year again where we get to go to Arlington Park for the Arlington Heights Community Day, which basically means we get free tickets! So, we went with our good friends, the Weck's.  The AH Fire Department is always there letting the kids play with their engines and equipment.  Watch out fire...Ben has the hose!

Abbey's riding shotgun in the truck!

Then it was time to go watch the horses race!

They also had a lot of family fun events, like a petting zoo!

Juju is getting close with that lamb...

And pony rides!

Great job Abbey!  Every year she does better with the pony ride.  This time she did it with just holding Daddy's hands!  The first year, she refused and cried being anywhere near the pony.  The next year, she would only go on it if Paul's arms were completely around her while on the pony.  This year, she held his hand.  Who knows, maybe next year she will go on it alone!

Juju seemed to enjoy it though (with Daddy's hand behind her).

And of course, there is always the fun activity of rolling down the hill!

It was a great day and I think Paul even walked away ahead - good betting Daddy!

Wagner Farms

Some friends of ours invited us to go to Wagner Farms one morning and we had never been before, but really enjoyed it! It is a fully working farm, but also had a big area of kids activities. And the best part? It is free! I think we will be returning!  We met chickens...

Got to use the cool swing...

Saw some cows

Then went inside to play in the kids' area.  They had this chicken display where you could collect the eggs from the chickens and put them in the bins.

And they got to milk a cow!

We played for a while, and then had a picnic lunch in the very relaxing rocking chairs!  All in all, a great morning!

 

End of Summer

With school starting soon, we spent almost every day getting in some last minute summer fun! We met up with Caroline and Aunt Domi at Pirates Cove one day!  Pirates Cove is always a fun day.  We started with the push train ride, which Juliette seemed ok with at first, until it started.  Then she cried the whole way around :(

 

Poor Juju!

Ben and Caroline sure enjoyed it though!

Then there was the potato sack slide, which Juliette did enjoy as long as she went down with Aunt Domi.  Abbey was still warming up at this point and thus refusing to go on anything...don't worry, she soon got into it and enjoyed herself!

Whee!

 

Then we rode the train.  Luckily, we were first in line for the next ride, so the kids got to go in the engine and ring the bell, which they did incessantly the entire ride!

See, I told you Abbey warmed up.

Love these two....

Then we got to watch the Pirate show.  At the end of the show, they got up to dance.  Caroline and Abbey saw that you could make your way up on stage, so they both immediately went to do that.  At this point, Ben came to sit down next to me!  Here are Abbey and Caroline doing the chicken dance.

Then they stuck their left elbow in for the hokey pokey.

They had a good time dancing!

Our last ride was the merry-go-round.

Juliette wouldn't go on a horse, but she did enjoy riding on the sled.

This was a big hit for Abbey!

 

 

No hands!

They made a telescope craft...

Check out those pirates!!

What a fun day!

Activities

Ben finished up his swim team experience with an end of season party at the pool. He had great coaches this year, specifically the girl coaches (the guy didn't too much besides tell them to swim). Coach Kristie and Coach Sarah really worked with him (and all the kids) on learning the proper stroke technique. They were encouraging and really did a great job. I hope they are back next year!

The girls got to swim at the party too!  Abbey has become quite the little fish and is usually spending most of her time going under water.  After watching Ben all summer, she is trying to do the strokes as well and is actually doing a pretty good job with them!  I see swim team in her future...

 

Juliette has become a little bit more timid in the water, which is not a bad thing.  After going under at the beach in TN by walking out a bit too far, I am quite OK with her being a bit more cautious until she is a little older/bigger!  She still loves the water though!

The big news from the swim party was that Ben went off the high dive for the first time.  He loved it.  The next time we went to the pool he spent most of his time in the diving well!

Well with summer activities ending, it was time to start fall activities (hard to believe).  Ben is doing flag football this year for the first time.  A bunch of his friends are doing it and they actually group the kids by school, so he is with all kids from his school, which is nice.  So far, he is actually loving it.  They take it pretty seriously, but the coaches are extremely encouraging and really teaching them a lot.  

 

 

Again, the girls have siblings of players to play with and a park attached to the practice field.  So needless to say, they love going to football practice!  And I enjoy catching up with my girlfriends from the kids' school too!

They had a scrimmage tonight and I was amazed at how well they did.  Ben was awesome - got the flag off of two guys carrying the ball and that was just while I was watching (I spent half the game with the girls at the park).  It will be interesting to see how the season goes, but so far, he is really enjoying it!

Happy Birthday Keegan, Kasey and Kameron!

I don't know about you, but we have been consumed by the Olympics within the last two weeks! The kids have really enjoyed watching all the events. So when we got invited to a gymnastics birthday party for our friends Keegan and Kasey, the kids were super excited!  Here is Juliette, showing off her finest form on the balance beam!

Wow!  Look at those tricks Abbey can do!

Juliette needed a little help on the dismount, but I'd still give it a 10!

I think Abbey had a good time!

There's the birthday girl Kasey after having some cake!  She turned 3!

The whole party.

Keegan and Kameron, who turned 5 and 1 respectively.

Happy Birthday Keegan, Kasey and Kameron!  Thanks for inviting us - we had a great time!