Safety Town

Sydney attended Safety Town this summer. It is a program put on by our local police department that teaches kids ages 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 about all kinds of safety. They learned about trains, guns, strangers, poisons, and 911. They run a scenario where the kids are playing on the playground and they have a female detective in plain clothes try to lure the kids away to their car. Unfortunately, Sydney must not have been listening to the Stranger Danger lessons, and she and 7 other kids went with the stranger. Looks like she might be attending again next year!

Trip to the Zoo

While Kathryn was in Cheer Camp at the YMCA, Sydney, Reagan, and I took a trip to the Zoo! The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. The hippos were very active and fun to watch swimming around and making loud noises.

Reagan wasn't so sure about the water and the unpredictability of it, but Sydney loved it!

They both had a lot of fun playing in this little house.

Sydney was able to shout "All Aboard" over the train speaker!

Dance Pictures

The girls missed out on getting their dance pictures taken with their class, so I took them and got portraits done at JC Penney. I think they turned out really great! Great smiles and posing from both of them!

The girls really had fun taking these jumping pics. They loved seeing their funny hair!

Camping!

We went camping this weekend with some of our friends.   The first night it started pouring right after dinner.  We all hunkered down in our camps and waited out the long down pour.  It left some of us soggy, but it didn't dampen our spirits! 

On Saturday, we ate odd and ends for breakfast since the raccoons opened up one of our coolers and ate almost all of our pre-made breakfast burritos!  The kids and the parents had fun relaxing and playing.  The parents played a pretty intense game of Redneck Golf.  The kids played house, doctor, Uno, and who knows what else!? 

We ate foil dinners and Smores on Saturday night.  On Sunday, we did some more relaxing and eating.  Then headed home in the early afternoon.

The cicadas were plentiful, but didn't bother us too much.  There were a lot of their shells on the tree near our campsite and occasionally a live one would fly down near us. 

(An interesting note: Between us, we have kids in each grade, K-7, except 3rd grade!)

Dance Recital

The girls had their dance recital last Sunday.  Their studio rented out the auditorium at St. Charles Community College.  The girls did such a great job.  I was a little worried that Kathryn would get too nervous to perform, or give up if she made any mistake, but she did wonderfully.  Before they went on, they were allowed to sit out with us and watch some of the other routines.  I would point out girls that were smiling and girls that were not smiling, so they could see what a difference it makes!  After Kathryn's first performance she said, "I don't usually smile during my class, but I smiled while I was up there!"  And she looked beautiful.  Sydney was not quite as confidant with the actual routine, but she did awesome!  I could tell that she was focused and trying to do a good job.  Instead of flowers, I gave them candy bars, Pringles, and a little toy caterpillar.

Here are the girls with their class, ready for their "Do You Love Me" routine.

Looking kind of like bobbleheads. 

With their teacher, Miss Liz.

On stage for their final bow.  I wasn't allowed to take any pics during their actual routines.

After the show in their "Rubber Ducky" routine costumes.

Graduation from Washington University's PMBA Program

Yesterday Mike graduated from Washington University with his Masters of Business Administration! He finished classes back in August of last year, so we have been waiting a while for this ceremony! He qualified for the MBA honor society and also was named a Knight Scholar, which is given to the top 10 students in the program!

He really hated having to wear the robe and especially the hat! 

Mike's mom was able to stay and attend his graduation before flying home to Austin!

Chicago Getaway

Mike's mom was so sweet to volunteer to come and watch the girls while we camped and also while we took a little getaway to Chicago. She loves to spend the time with the girls and the girls love spending time with her!

The day after we got home from camping we drove to Chicago. On the way we stopped in Springfield, IL, and visited the Abraham Lincoln Museum. It was really interesting to read all about him and about what was going on during his lifetime and presidency.  

This was Lincoln's home in Springfield.

After our visit to the library, we finished our drive to Chicago. We had to dedicate a little time to finding overnight parking because the hotel charged $50/night to park! We finally got smart and downloaded a parking app to Mike's phone and found a lot for $22/night that was only 3 blocks away!

For lunch on Tuesday we had empanadas from this food truck.

We did a lot of walking during our visit. We loved to watch all of the people and look at the amazing architecture.

On Wednesday we had lunch at Gino's East. We had a Cheese & Pepperoni DEEP dish pizza.

There were thousands of tulips blooming along Michigan Avenue.

We also enjoyed all of the art in Millennium Park. This sculpture is called Cloud Gate.

Fishing at Montauk

To celebrate our friend Natalie's birthday, we went camping and fishing down at Montauk State Park.  Natalie loves to fish and also loves to help other people learn to love fishing.  It was cold and rainy most of the time we were there, but it didn't dampen our spirits.  We pulled our camper down there and were lucky enough to find a spot with electricity so we could have lights and plug in our heater!  Natalie later confessed that she though camper camping was not real camping, but this trip changed her mind!