Omaha!

The penguins were by far the favorite at the Henry Doorly

My grandma dancing with my uncle, Dan

Dear Vince, the tortured most-likely to be the next family member (boyfriend of Bethany)

Carter, Rome, Mimi & Linc

I LOVE OMAHA! Man, I forgot what a great city it is...

Whew...summer

We've had a few CRAZY, CRAZY weeks! We hit the path to Iowa immediately following school being out. We first stopped in Omaha for Julia and Geoff's wedding - great wedding, great number of Grafs and Pauls to be seen - great catching up with them - I love having the boys see the large, insane family I grew up in and seeing them fall in love with the craziness of it too! Many of my cousins are about 10 years older than my boys and the kids think they are so cool (and they are - they are a group of great kids who humor the boys and play with them so nicely - I know we were not that nice to the "little kids" when we were the big kids!).

Our next stop was Grandma and Grandpa's house (as in Donna and Richard) and we got lots of play time in with the cousins & got to meet the "baby cousin" Elin. I wonder if they will call her baby cousin forever...I think she's the last cousin they will get so maybe so! The boys were too busy to do much but glance her way but I got some snuggle time with her - will hope to have much more in August at the Ozarks with the Hogan family.

We then relocated to Mimi and Papa's house to play on all the toys - my mom says Linc is going to be a race car driver the way he was driving the go-kart (lucky for us he can't reach the pedals so he can't make it go on his own!). Carter swam in my parent's pond - YUCK is all I can say, but he loved it and the inflatable boat Papa bought for the pond.

We got to see the Goff's, friends of ours from Texas which was a treat - they've moved back to Iowa - ah, lucky ones.

I then hit the road to Muscatine, Iowa - home of Nat Kay - lovely visit with the Melrose girls. I so look forward to this annual event and hope we do it until we are old and gray! We had a tour (Muscatine is a great town - of course we had a really good tour guide) and then on to Iowa City (where I accidentally wore black & gold - eek!!!). A lovely dinner of tapas followed and some cocktails with tons of laughs! Ah, food for the soul!

Next was a long day of driving to Corning with a connection back to Edmond, OK with a stow-away, Ms. Marah (cousin #1, and our niece) came for a week and we kept her busy. We swam, bounced, zoo-ed, bowled, toured the fire station, had 3 t-ball games - whew, a busy, busy week! She did so well and although slightly tortured by her 3-year old cousin in particular, I think she had a good time.

This week Carter's been at VBS, we've seen an old friend who is in town, swam with friends and Linc had a play date with his BFF, Molly...yep another busy week, no wonder I haven't blogged (that and the computer with the pictures is shall I say slow). Pictures to come...not as many as I'd like due to me forgetting to charge my battery before take-off and being only able to take a few on our trip. Happy Summer everyone!

Polka dots just make me happy!

We are doing a mini-redo in Carter's room - he wants a "Go Bears" room (actually he and Sean keep plotting to paint the office "Go Bears" and this is the compromise!). His bedding is in, next up is painting (think we will wait until actual summer for that) and I'm likely to paint a big C on the wall. I also changed the shower curtain in their bathroom - amazing how a new color brings new life into the bathroom. Right now Carter's room has a Thunder theme as he's been coloring their logo like crazy - not exactly my idea of decor but he's loving it.

We also have a new fish in the bathroom, I found our first blue fish laying on the rocks last week and we had to get a new blue fish. I might have been able to better prepare myself for this passing if I hadn't gasped loud enough for the boys to hear when I discovered him but we made it through talking about why the fish died and where he went - there might be a smidge of confusion but overall they took it better than expected. I on the other hand did not love being the adult and having to flush the fish, it was a bit traumatic for me!

Zoo Trip

We took Sean to see the elephant exhibit this weekend & got to see Malee out and about with the other elephants - big excitement at the OKC Zoo. Sean couldn't quite get over the speed that the boys travel the zoo at - so he spent much of the afternoon walking, then stopping to wait on C & L. It was hot and the zoo was offering cups of ice which the boys thought was a great treat in the heat! The trip was great except for the snake sighting - eek, I was walking right toward it when Sean pointed it out, luckily this nice man helped it cross the path so we could continue on our way. Loose snakes in the zoo are not my idea of fun!

Slippen' and a Sliden'

We got out the Slip and Slide this weekend - the boys attempted to hurl themselves down the path but we found it much more effective on the thrill factor to have daddy help them along! I declined my turn being flung down the slip and slide!

His first day of Pre-K

And his last day of Pre-K (last day in uniform at least!)

Carter will be out of school later this week - what a year it has been, I can't believe Pre-K is over but am very confident he's going to love Kindergarten when he gets there in the fall. He's grown so much this year - in inches and respect - his yes mam's never get old nor does his ever growing love for his friends and learning. Bring on summer!

Linc's first real play date

As the 2nd child, Linc hasn't gotten umm, any all about him play dates until this week when Molly came to play. They had a great time and both said they wanted to do it again! They were so sweet with one another, now he has an official little buddy for preschool. Aren't they cute?