Summer Activities

So far we've had a fun summer. We've implemented our summer chores, which surprisingly, the boys do really well without complaint. Most mornings, they get up and do them before I even have to bug them about it. It's amazing how motivating it can be to get paid for their work and to not be able to play until they're done can be for the boys. Abby even does her part, but not as much as the older boys.

Since we have the yearly passes, of course we went to the zoo. They actually have a couple new exhibits, so the kids were excited to see the new animals. And I told Ben that our goal was to go there and learn something new about something that we hadn't known before. Ben spent some time at each exhibit reading the information plaques, so I'd say it was a success.

Here are a few pictures from that zoo trip:




Mom and Cindy and her kids came up for a visit for a few days last week and we had a lot of fun. I never did get any pictures though. But while they were here, we went to the zoo again (and got to see the butterflies this time), we went swimming, and ate out a lot. I'm surprised my kids aren't sick of pizza after that trip. I also had Cindy help me touch up the roots of my hair and we colored her hair too. I think the color took hold on her hair more than mine though. It's funny how using the same color can end up with different results, even on identical twins.

Yesterday I spent some time with Ben working on his wolf for Cub Scouts. His birthday is next month and he'll be moving up to the bears, so he wants to finish his wolf first. We actually now have everything except for one thing done, so we should be able to finish in plenty of time. One of the things we did yesterday to help him complete it was to go over to the city courthouse and the veteran's memorial they have there. It wasn't too thrilling for the kids, but it was interesting to see. I expected to see more names on their Vietnam memorial, but their biggest list was for WWI.

Here are some pictures I took of the kids there:









I'm sure this summer is going to go fast. Hopefully we can find more fun things to do to make it a memorable one. We do have a trip to Utah to see some family planned and swimming lessons after that, so I think we'll be able to come up with more fun things to do that don't cost too much money.

And today is Daniel's 4th birthday! I will do a new post after we've done his cake and ice cream. Happy birthday Daniel!