Back from Grammy & Papa's

A tradition that the boys and I have had since we've lived here --- so, ya know, for their whole lives --- is going to Grammy and Papa's house for a week in the summer. That tradition has evolved (which may not be the right word considering it's only been five summers) into just the boys going to Grammy and Papa's house for a week in the summer. I don't recall it being an annual tradition for my brothers and I, but I do remember a few select moments when we were at my grandparent's house, just us, in the summertime. {One of those such moments was when I got swimmer's ear while we were there, and the other memory was when my grandpa yelled at me for jumping on the couch. "Do you jump on the couch at your house?!?!" Uh, no Grandpa. I don't. Sorry. Weird what we remember, huh?}

Anyway. I digress.

This is the second time that the boys have been able to spend time with Grammy and Papa at their house, without Mom and Dad around. It's a treat for all of us - the boys, Brad and I, and my parents. Although I'd say that Grammy and Papa do the most work on these "vacations"! It just so happened in scheduling our summer, that my parents were able to come here for a few days prior to taking the boys back up to Minnesota, and upon returning the kids to us on July 3, they were able to stay a couple days to celebrate July 4th with us, as well.

So the boys vacationed from Tuesday, June 28th - Sunday, July 3rd at Camp Clifton in Minnesota. I hear there was a lot of swimming, playing, and quality cousin time. I confiscated the photos from my mom's camera and asked Drew to give the commentary.

On their way...

"Reed was a little bit sleepy, and I have my soccer shirt on. Sometimes Grammy got the wrong clothes. Reed's just looking at me saying, 'How ya doing?' "

"That's when I was fixing a new road when I was at Grammy and Papa's with their building trucks."

"Reed was in his Elmo pajamas and he was fixing a puzzle all by himself."

"Addy was playing on the computer and me and Papa were playing games on Papa's computer. Papa has Tractor Power on his computer. Addy really likes computers."

"Reed wanted to play with the Elmo computer but Addy wanted to. That's when Reed and Addy were fighting over the computer."

"Me and Reed were playing in two pools. They had two swimming pools with sharks on it and fish on it and seahorses on it."

"That was when Addy was playing in the pool and she got wet."

"Me and Reed were laying down and lookin' at the sun."

"Me and Reed were eatin' ice cream out on the porch. And Papa was out there, too."

"Reed was helping Grammy doing dishes."

"Me and Avery and Uncle Justin. Avery was eating and I was waiting. Uncle Justin was waiting, too."

"Me and Avery and Reed and Uncle Jeremy went to the farm to see the animals and feed them bread."

"That was when me and Avery were looking at the duckies, I guess."

"Addy was in her stroller, walkin' to somewhere."

"Everybody was in the picture on that funny tree thing that had the funny arm at the farm still."

"Me and Avery at his house are playing baseball. I know how to play it now. You push the A button when I'm swinging and Avery's pitching."

"Reed was playing with Addy's toys."

"That's my empty plate!"

"We're just sitting and looking at mommy on the computer."

"Oh, that was the boat ride! Uncle Jeremy was the driver."

"That's still the boat ride, when me and Perry were takin' a picture. Perry didn't have sunglasses, so he wore his regular glasses."

"On the boat ride, and Addy didn't want Grammy, she wanted her mommy. I was eatin' some crackers and Perry was eatin' some Scooby Doos and Reed was sittin' in the sun."

"Perry was trying to squirt Reed while he was dumping the bucket. And I was doing nothing. And Papa said, 'No, you don't shoot people.' "

"We were watching Mickey Mouse."

As always, HUGE thanks and appreciation to Grammy and Papa! Especially all the extra driving back and forth from our house. We sure do miss our little guys when they're away, but I'm pretty sure we enjoy our time alone as much as the boys enjoy their time with you!

Now, a little shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Vander Waal: When can they come to your house?!?!?! :)

Fun Food Friday #5

Today's treat met three very important criteria:

1) healthy

2) easy

and 3) even easier clean up.

Homemade Trail Mix

I raided the cupboard and created our concoction by using what we had on hand (and what I thought would taste good together).

Cheerios, Goldfish grahams, raisins, marshmallows, and chocolate chips (ok, those last two aren't exactly "healthy" but all things in moderation, right?)

I told the boys that the only rule was that they had to include all five ingredients in their trail mix. (And I closely monitored the chocolate chips and marshmallows.) :)

I poured out some of each goodie onto the counter, gave each boy a sandwich bag

and they went to town, making their own trail mix.

After the bag was filled to their (and my) liking...

...it was time to shake, shake, shake!

{There may have been some snack sneaking along the way.}

The best part of this goodie? Portable! Although I quickly realized that I should have transferred the mix from the baggie to the boys' non-spill snack cups. Like, three times I learned that.

:/

Craft Wednesday #5

{Today's craft can be found in the March 2011 issue of Family Fun magazine, or HERE online.}

Presenting the Vander Waal version of

Recycle-bots!

{Robots made from recycled goods}

What we used:

various jar/bottle lids (I've been saving these for a while, and when I started digging them out, I realized how many I have. I don't think I'll need to save any more.), aluminum cans, yogurt cups, twist ties, rubber bands, old CDs, egg carton (there are any number of options here: steel wool, bolts, washers, other recyclable containers, etc etc etc)

I also decided to throw in some of our other supplies. Just to have options. And because I like color. And I like craft projects, so I like to use stuff. :)

(ribbon, poms, pipe cleaners, beads)

Then we started assembling!

We worked together, first choosing eyes, then the other facial features. Drew struggles a bit plugging into his creative originality. He first wanted to copy what the picture looked like in the magazine, and I encouraged him to use his imagination and to use the pieces he wanted. I think he tried, but every time he saw Reed using a particular item or putting something in a certain spot, he wanted to do the same thing (Reed's robot has 3 eyes - so does Drew's). I tried to encourage him to use the same supplies as Reed, but to use them in a new way. He kind of caught on, and he then wanted to start adding everything to his robot!

(And like the cardboard cars we made two weeks ago, I used my hot glue gun to attach everything. I squirted on the glue, then let the boys attach as much as they could on their own without getting burned. I opted for the glue gun because it dries super fast. Not kid-friendly at all, but I don't think their participation lacked because of it.)

Drew's Recycle-bot.

Reed's recycle-bot.

{Reed's, Drew's, Mom's}

With all of the added flair from pipe cleaners and poms, perhaps they look more like Recyclowns than they do Recycle-bots!

The 4th of July

It just so happened in the planning of our summer that Grammy & Papa were able to join us for the third year in a row on the 4th of July. Pekin puts on a really great fireworks display, and I guess it must be top notch if my parents elect to drive seven hours to see it! Well, that and they had to return our children to us after they spent the week vacationing at their house in Minnesota. I'm not sure what the bigger draw was - the fireworks, or giving back the kids! :)

Either way, they were here, which we loved!

The first two-thirds of our day was typical - we stayed at home playing, eating and napping before heading out for the evening festivities. We had our traditional Godfather's pizza dinner, before trooping over to the park/arena/high school, where they shoot off the fireworks. We arrived there around 6:30, and staked out our spot on the hill.

Then we occupied our time with games and chatter while we waited for the sun to go down.

Oh, we also occupied our time with the occasional sibling squabble. :)

We played many games of kick croquet.

Drew vs. Papa, Drew vs. Mom, Drew vs. Reed, Papa vs. Mom, etc.

And while this is an amazing shot of my husband's back side (tee!), I was really taking a picture of the boys catching lightning bugs. Or really, Brad catching them and Drew saying "Yuck! Bug!"

At dusk, it was time to get out the glow sticks. "Yes!"

Thank you, Dollar Spot. You once again provide endless fun for my children.

There was a bit of a pre-fireworks fireworks show as other spectators shot off a variety of celebratory paraphernalia.

Our crew.

Yep. We match. Because we're that cool. And festive!

We haven't set Brad up yet with the appropriate wardrobe. For shame.

And then the light show began!

All of us got a hoot out of the boys' reactions to the fireworks!

Drew was making up funny names, and Reed's facial expressions were a riot!

{This one is my favorite.}

And in the midst of all of the boomin', bangin', hootin' and hollerin'...

we had this.

:)

It was a wonderful way to spend our 4th of July holiday.