We're back!

We are finally back from vacation! We spent 12 days down in Branson and had a blast! I have about 800 pictures to go through so it might take me a bit and I will probably break the pictures up into different sections to make it easier. Stay tuned to see the good times!

Update on 100 fun things to do this summer!

Here is our updated list of the 100 fun things to do this summer list.

1. Go for a bike ride
2. Make homemade ice cream or visit an ice cream parlor many times
3. Bake a double batch of cookies and deliver one to another family
4. Learn a few magic tricks and produce your own magic show
5. Have a picnic
6. Hike or climb trees we've seen pictures of my kids doing this.
7. Make popcorn or maybe even caramel corn
8. Blow bubbles
9. Go swimming or water skiing
10. Plan a scavenger hunt for outside. Or plan one for in the house using every letter of the alphabet.
11. Draw a map of your block or of your town, or trace a map of your country and fill in the states or cities or other feature
12. Make playdoh
13. Read a good book aloud
14. Look through photo albums or view family movies, or videos
15. Make a collage from magazine words and pictures
16. Collect some canned goods for the food bank
17. Draw pictures with chalk on the sidewalk
18. Go fishing
19. Plan a family game night
20. Work on a jigsaw puzzle
21. Go roller skating while camping
22. Paint a picture
23. Have a candy treasure hunt
24. Work on a crossword puzzle
25. Try origami (Japanese paper-folding) or make a paper airplane and fly it
26. Make an obstacle course in your back yard
27. Visit a tourist spot near your home
28. Write a poem
29. Make a bird feeder did this at Lowe's
30. Walk around your block and pick up all the litter you can find.
31. Go to the zoo
32. Go bowling
33. Make your own homemade pizza
34. Invite another family over for a game of charades or "Guesstures"
35. Listen to your favorite music and dance around we do this alot
36. Go without TV for a day
37. Make a collage using seeds, rice, cereal, old buttons and sewing scraps
38. Run around the block 3 times
39. Open a day spa
40. Go camping–or stay home and camp out in your own dining room.
41. Build with LEGOS
42. Make puppets out of lunch bags, old socks, felt, wooden clothespins. Put on a puppet show
43. Have a bonfire outdoors or in your fireplace and roast hot dogs and marshmallows
44. Write a letter to your best friend
45. Visit a shut-in or an elderly friend or relative in a nursing home
46. Pick wild flowers and press some of them to save
47. Make dinner for your family this is nightly
48. Sketch a picture of your house from the outside
49. Play educational computer games
50. Find a joke and tell it someone else
51. Make a piece of art out of objects you have around the house
52. Sign up at your local library for their Summer Reading Program
53. Color a picture or write a letter to send to grandparents
54. Make a list together of all the things in your house that use electricity. You might do this when you lose power sometime.
55. Plant something our garden
56. Enjoy a shopping trip for something little, but fun---a jar of bubbles, stickers, paper dolls, a matchbox car
57. Play store, library or school
58. Visit a farm. Milk a cow, help to feed the animals. Take pictures.
59. Play a new sport- badminton, volleyball, tennis, Frisbee, yard darts or ping pong
60. Tour where Dad works
61. Play hide-and-seek (inside or outside)
62. Help wash the car kids did this with daddy
63. Share a favorite movie with a friend
64. Draw a family tree on paper and complete it as a family. Add old photographs if available
65. Go jogging or take a walk together
66. Give each person a large piece of paper and take turns tracing the outlines of their bodies on it. Color in the outlines to look like you.
67. Jump on a trampoline
68. Go to the library
69. Gather a variety of leaves and identify them
70. Rearrange the furniture in your bedroom
71. Memorize something meaningful: a psalm, a poem, a passage from the Bible, the Gettysburg Address
72. Make caramel apples
73. Fly a kite
74. Jump rope
75. Learn how to make a fortune teller
76. Visit a friend
77. Make a summer snack fruit popsicles
78. Read favorite poems aloud
79. Put together a scrapbook describing a favorite vacation or any special event (pictures, writing, souvenirs)
80. If it's warm outside, turn on the water sprinkler and run through it
81. Make a lemonade stand
82. Water the yard, houseplants or flowers our garden
83. Play with sand toys and trucks in a sandbox
84. Swing
85. Play a card game
86. Go to a ball game or play one---football, kickball, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer t-ball and soccer
87. Finger paint with chocolate pudding
88. Make a milkshake or a smoothie
89. Have a real tea party with some friends
90. Take a trip to an amusement park, a museum or a planetarium
91. Clean out your closet just did this with winter clothes
92. Practice playing a musical instrument. If you don’t play an instrument, try learning to play one, maybe the recorder or the harmonica.
93. Make a yummy salad and eat it
94. Build a fort
95. String beads to make a necklace
96. Write and illustrate a short story
97. Build a robot out of empty boxes of all shapes and sizes. Oatmeal and salt boxes work well
98. Volunteer to help a neighbor for free—just because
99. Play with water guns
100. Make your own list of things to do when you’re bored

Wow, we are almost done! Some of the things seem a bit old for my kids, but we will try our best to finish it!

4th of July!

I meant to get this post up before vacation, but it just didn't happen. This year for fourth of July weekend we did our annual parade at St. Charles with lots of our friends on the 3rd. We were joined by my brother and sister in law and their three kids, Pete and his two kids, Summer and her two kids, and a friend of John and Maria's and their kids. So we had LOTS of kids with us and it was so much fun!


After the parade we headed to pick up our camper at Uncle Roy's house and get it home to get it ready for vacation.
We then headed back down to St. Charles riverfront for all the festivities. We let the kids ride a few of the rides.



Surprisingly the kids didn't throw a fit when we told them they only got to ride two rides each, Chris said its because they are so used to being deprived of everything....I think they just wanted to be good for momma ;-)
Next we set up a blanket with lots of snacks and got ready to watch the fireworks show.
Here are the silly Weber boys!

And all of the crazy Weber kids! Yes, this is my kids on sugar....haha!

Watching the fireworks show!



And one pictures of the awesome show!

On the actual 4th of July I had to work (which I do every year) so I just came home for a late dinner and sat out on the deck with the kids and watched all the fireworks our neighbors set off. Its great because our neighborhood goes CRAZY with blowing their money as I like to call it.
It was a great weekend and lots of fun was had by all!

A day at the Zoo!

Last week was such an awesome week for the weather after having a very hot streak so we took advantage of our membership and headed to one of our favorite spots....the zoo! It was a perfect day for weather which made it a little busy but still lots of fun!
These pictures aren't the best because they were from my camera phone. Yes, I did remember my camera this time but forgot to check the battery before leaving and wouldn't it be my luck that it was dead :(
Here is the kids brushing the goats at the children's zoo.


We stopped by just in time to catch the beginning of the animal show.

And of course a day is never complete without a train ride!

Slacking on my pictures!

I'm not sure why, but I have been terrible about remembering to take my camera with me anywhere the last couple of weeks. We've had 5 parties in three weeks plus Father's Day, plus a few other activities and not once did I remember my camera :( But don't worry my kids haven't changed that much and I will back up and running on my picture taking soon!

Learned something new!

I was listening to a talk show the other day and a lady was talking about her child who received the MMR shot then was diagnosed with ITP (immune thrombocytopenic purpura disease). She was asking if the shot had caused the ITP. The doctor on the show said yes, it could have caused the ITP. After hearing that I started doing some of my own research and what do you know, I found several websites that said the same thing. The only good thing is that is causes the acute ITP and not the cronic ITP so within a few treatments the children would be fine. I'm now looking back at the time that we were first told about Andrew having this and Dr. Bergamini (Andrew's hematologist) told us we could not get certain shots until it has been a year from Andrew's last treatment (which is also when he was released from Dr. Bergamini's care). I'm guessing now that they do this so that any of the other shots don't knock him back into the ITP. I know I've always heard that certain childhood shots can cause Autism in children, but I never knew that it could cause this disease. I think some of these shots probably cause many other problems but they try to cover them all up so people aren't so afraid of the shots. I think knowing what I know now and after dealing with the nightmare that we dealt with with Andrew, I probably wouldn't have done the shots.

Crazy week!

I know I have been slacking on my posts, but we have been having one very busy week! This is VBS (Vacation Bible School) week and I've been volunteering a lot of my time helping out with it. The kids have been having so much fun, well and so am I if you really must know the truth :) I've also had a couple of big cases at work that have put me into working extra hours......ugh! Oh and one big happening this week......Adriana is now riding her two wheel bike by herself.....woohoo! If you know anything about my oldest child then you know she has to do everything when she feels its right. We started trying to teach her last year but she didn't want much to do with it. Then the other day she said she was ready to try so we took her out to the park and BAM within 10 minutes she was riding by herself. Seriously, once this child puts her mind to it she can do anything! So way to go Adriana. And more posts will come again next week when momma ain't so worn out!

100 fun things to do this summer!

Anastasia from a playgroup I am in came up with this list of 100 fun things to do this summer. It looked like a lot of fun to see if we can do most of them. So here is the list and I will try to highlight what we get done and I will check it again at the end of summer and see what we have done. Thanks Anastasia!

1. Go for a bike ride
2. Make homemade ice cream or visit an ice cream parlor many times
3. Bake a double batch of cookies and deliver one to another family
4. Learn a few magic tricks and produce your own magic show
5. Have a picnic
6. Hike or climb trees we've seen pictures of my kids doing this.
7. Make popcorn or maybe even caramel corn
8. Blow bubbles
9. Go swimming or water skiing
10. Plan a scavenger hunt for outside. Or plan one for in the house using every letter of the alphabet.
11. Draw a map of your block or of your town, or trace a map of your country and fill in the states or cities or other feature
12. Make playdoh
13. Read a good book aloud
14. Look through photo albums or view family movies, or videos
15. Make a collage from magazine words and pictures
16. Collect some canned goods for the food bank
17. Draw pictures with chalk on the sidewalk
18. Go fishing
19. Plan a family game night
20. Work on a jigsaw puzzle
21. Go roller skating while camping
22. Paint a picture
23. Have a candy treasure hunt
24. Work on a crossword puzzle
25. Try origami (Japanese paper-folding) or make a paper airplane and fly it
26. Make an obstacle course in your back yard
27. Visit a tourist spot near your home
28. Write a poem
29. Make a bird feeder did this at Lowe's
30. Walk around your block and pick up all the litter you can find.
31. Go to the zoo
32. Go bowling
33. Make your own homemade pizza
34. Invite another family over for a game of charades or "Guesstures"
35. Listen to your favorite music and dance around we do this alot
36. Go without TV for a day
37. Make a collage using seeds, rice, cereal, old buttons and sewing scraps
38. Run around the block 3 times
39. Open a day spa
40. Go camping–or stay home and camp out in your own dining room.
41. Build with LEGOS
42. Make puppets out of lunch bags, old socks, felt, wooden clothespins. Put on a puppet show
43. Have a bonfire outdoors or in your fireplace and roast hot dogs and marshmallows
44. Write a letter to your best friend
45. Visit a shut-in or an elderly friend or relative in a nursing home
46. Pick wild flowers and press some of them to save
47. Make dinner for your family this is nightly
48. Sketch a picture of your house from the outside
49. Play educational computer games
50. Find a joke and tell it someone else
51. Make a piece of art out of objects you have around the house
52. Sign up at your local library for their Summer Reading Program
53. Color a picture or write a letter to send to grandparents
54. Make a list together of all the things in your house that use electricity. You might do this when you lose power sometime.
55. Plant something our garden
56. Enjoy a shopping trip for something little, but fun---a jar of bubbles, stickers, paper dolls, a matchbox car
57. Play store, library or school
58. Visit a farm. Milk a cow, help to feed the animals. Take pictures.
59. Play a new sport- badminton, volleyball, tennis, Frisbee, yard darts or ping pong
60. Tour where Dad works
61. Play hide-and-seek (inside or outside)
62. Help wash the car kids did this with daddy
63. Share a favorite movie with a friend
64. Draw a family tree on paper and complete it as a family. Add old photographs if available
65. Go jogging or take a walk together
66. Give each person a large piece of paper and take turns tracing the outlines of their bodies on it. Color in the outlines to look like you.
67. Jump on a trampoline
68. Go to the library
69. Gather a variety of leaves and identify them
70. Rearrange the furniture in your bedroom
71. Memorize something meaningful: a psalm, a poem, a passage from the Bible, the Gettysburg Address
72. Make caramel apples
73. Fly a kite
74. Jump rope
75. Learn how to make a fortune teller
76. Visit a friend
77. Make a summer snack fruit popsicles
78. Read favorite poems aloud
79. Put together a scrapbook describing a favorite vacation or any special event (pictures, writing, souvenirs)
80. If it's warm outside, turn on the water sprinkler and run through it
81. Make a lemonade stand
82. Water the yard, houseplants or flowers our garden
83. Play with sand toys and trucks in a sandbox
84. Swing
85. Play a card game
86. Go to a ball game or play one---football, kickball, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer t-ball and soccer
87. Finger paint with chocolate pudding
88. Make a milkshake or a smoothie
89. Have a real tea party with some friends
90. Take a trip to an amusement park, a museum or a planetarium
91. Clean out your closet just did this with winter clothes
92. Practice playing a musical instrument. If you don’t play an instrument, try learning to play one, maybe the recorder or the harmonica.
93. Make a yummy salad and eat it
94. Build a fort
95. String beads to make a necklace
96. Write and illustrate a short story
97. Build a robot out of empty boxes of all shapes and sizes. Oatmeal and salt boxes work well
98. Volunteer to help a neighbor for free—just because
99. Play with water guns
100. Make your own list of things to do when you’re bored

Raspberry picking!

Today we headed out to go Raspberry picking before the storms came. Considering it was supposed to be in the 90's today, this morning was actually a little chilly and with the clouds it made it perfect picking weather. We picked a few more strawberries then headed straight over to the raspberries and picked a lot of them. The kids enjoyed raspberry picking so much more but I think it was because they could stand up and pick them and they were much easier to pull off. Here is a few pictures I got of the kids picking.......




They even got to taste a few of the yummy, juicy raspberries! And they were GOOD!


So here is what we got at today's visit.......not too bad!

Watermellon cake!

As anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not a creative person AT ALL! Not one creative bone in my body. But I saw this watermellon cake in a magazine I had and thought it looked really easy to make. So I gave it a try and made it for my father in law's birthday which was Saturday. It actually turned out edible and even a little cute! I was very proud of myself and the kids loved it! So here is a few pictures of my very first creative cake........