Last Friday Alex and Luke came down for a visit. The boys had a great time playing, riding bikes and eating lots of food. After lunch, Nick went down for a nap and the bigger boys went outside to play in the sandbox. The sandbox quickly became a bog, flooded with water. It was an impressive mud pit. And, as you would expect, it resulted in three DIRTY boys.
Last Thursday was Ben's last official day at Sharon's. He had been there for four years, since he was 12 weeks old. Sharon was very sad. Ben didn't know what was going on because we stopped talking about school after his 4 year life crisis two weeks ago (more on that later). But, not to worry, Ben and Sharon still get to see each other every day when we pick Nick up.
The soccer place has a bounce house area that was free after doing the trial class. I believe Nick liked the bounce house WAY better than the soccer class. I couldn't get him out of the obstacle course inflatable. He had a bit of fit when it was time to go.
Last Saturday, we tried an experiment. The indoor soccer center in Perrysburg was having a free trial day for their Little Kicker's classes. We figured we would try it with Ben, but weren't sure how it would go. Adam was in charge of Ben and I got the maniac. Adam went out on the field for about 5-10 minutes with Ben then said he had to go on the other side of the glass in order to take pictures. And Ben bought it! Adam was able to leave Ben on the field by himself and he finished out the rest of the hour and had a great time! Ben wants to sign up for the classes, so we'll see how it goes!
Nick went to a class, too. But he just couldn't understand why they had to do anything other than kick the ball. When it was time to run the field and play stop and go, he looked at me and asked, 'Why?' When it was circle time and we rolled the ball, he looked at me and asked, 'Why?' then pointed to the balls in the goal and said, "Ball. Kick ball.' The only non-kicking ball part he liked was the parachute. That he liked. Not too many of the other kids liked it, but Nick was all about it. But then it was time to kick the ball again, and that's all that mattered.
Adam trying to distance himself in Ben's class
A daddy-free field and having a great time! Shocking!
A few weeks ago, we headed to the zoo for one last time to see the wallabies. They are heading back to their farm soon. I think they are going to keep the two babies, Willa and RJ, but all the others will be leaving. The zoo will be keeping the crocodile, big Australian birds, and dingos.
Another llllllooooonnnnnggggg walk at Sidecut. This time 5 miles. After coasting around in the stroller for the vast majority of the walk, the boys went for a run by themselves up the sledding hill and then decided to roll down the entire hill. I was too tired to get pictures of that, though.
Two Saturdays' ago, we took the boys to see their first theater movie - Planes. They both did excellent at watching the movie in the theater! They weren't very comfortable in their seats so they ended up sitting in Adam and I's laps, but that ok. And the movie was very good, too! [Ben was present, but did not want his picture taken]
Last weekend Ben rounded up all the cicada shells he could find in the yard. I think he had at least 20, if not more. The willow tree is infested with them! As he was looking for shells, he found one that was not quite vacated yet. The boys were enthralled with the cicada shedding its shell.
A random video I took one night when the cicadas were crazy loud.
Ben has been bugging to go to Imagination Station most of the summer, so I took them over there a few weeks ago. Their current travel exhibit, Grossology, is only there through Labor Day, so I did want to take them this summer for that.
The Grossology exhibit had this air gun game thing where you shot ping pong balls into a huge nose. Wow, can we say major hit with my children. They would have stayed and played that thing all day and into the next if I had let them. Nick was completely self-sufficient with it, too. He could load the balls into hopper, aim and shoot all by himself. I was surprised that Ben never told me he wanted one for Christmas (which has already become a regular saying around these parts...)
Play equipment shaped like the digestive system. Just what I always wanted - catching my child as he exits the stomach slide and lands in the small intestine.
Nick loves the air floating ball thing like nothing else. He played ball for probably 10 minutes, which is like eternity at IS.
