The 29th playground

Today we visited our 28th and 29th playground of the summer.  Since our goal is 30, we have been focused on that number, but once we got home, I realized that #29 breaks our record of 28 playgrounds last summer.  In retrospect, it's a good thing we picked up some McDonald's for a picnic at the 28th playground (which was Legion's Park in Mandan.)  I can now say it was for celebration.

The 29th playground was Stargazer's Park in southeast Mandan.  It is a newer park, and this was our first time visiting it.  I told the kids we would just drive by it to check it out, and play at it later.  But as luck would have it, I got a phone call right as we approached it, and being the responsible parent that I am, pulled over in front of the playground to take the call.  I opened up the sliding doors just in case the kids wanted to play.  They did.  We went back later this evening with Huxley, who is spending the night.  The kids have voted it their favorite playground of the summer.

Kacy

Some of these pics were taken by the boys. They have gone just a wee bit crazy with the camera

 She kind of looks like a pet shop toy here, with her head looking bigger than her body

 A perspecitve of how tiny she is

Megan wanted a picture of Knuffle Bunny Free with her bunny

If you take your kids to Petsmart....

you might come home with a 7 wk old kitten.......

 We only needed cat litter for Trudy and a replacement goldfish for Megan's tank.  She thought her current goldfish was lonely since it only has its reflection to play with.  When walking from the fish section to the cat section, we walked past, err....shall I say, stopped, by a by a bunch of cages with adorable little kittens.  Some were part of Jillian's Haven ( a pet rescue organization).  One just had 2 little black-ish kittens that she had rescued at 3 weeks of age.  Of course, the kids asked to take one home.  Of course I said no.  Repeat this conversation for 10 minutes, then enter Dad.  We left with the female.

 She is pretty tiny

 She loves having her tummy rubbed

 We anticipate them liking each other

We are sure that Trudy is thrilled to have a playmate.

We won't officially name her until Monday (just a random date we picked), but I think we will call her KC (short for Kitty Cat)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 First tomatoes of the season!  They were so yummy.

 The tomatoes are almost as tall as Megan!

 squash

 cantaloupe

cukes

Playgrounds #24-27

Today, we visited playgrounds #24-27 of the Summer.  We parked near the Amusement Park by the zoo, and hit 4 different playground along the trail at Sertoma Park.  The boys mostly rollerbladed around the playgrouds.  They have become quite proficient on them, and can even chase a small frog around on the pea gravel while wearing them. Megan is enjoying her bigger bike, even if it isn't pink.
Tomorrow, we discussed staying home and doing nothing, since we've been pretty busy the last few days roller blading, playing, swimming.....Maybe we will, or maybe we will try to break our playground record.

Oh how I love to go, Camping.

Saturday morning, we went to Amy and Whitey's campsite on West Crooked Lake. Whitey and the boys left around 8:30 to set up camp, while Amy, Megan, and I got the groceries (and McDonald's coffee.) It was a beautiful and perfect day to be camping on the lake. First thing the kids did was head to the beach. We had it all to ourselves. The boys went on a paddle boat ride, and Tiff and Tasha took Megan on a paddle boat ride. Then, the kids all made their water dams and tried to catch minnows.

After playing on the beach, we cooked some pizza sandwiches on the campfire, drank pop, ate licorice, played silly games, and ate some more. We all thought the grilled sandwich makers were a hit!  We then took a pontoon ride to the middle of the lake and went swimming.



Gma and Gpa met up with us for supper.  Tacos in a bag, cooked on the grill.  We took another pontoon ride around the lake, dropped Gma and Gpa off so they could go home, then went fishing

 Eric caught the most fish.  He typically would catch one within 5 seconds of dropping his hook.

 Jonathan won the bravery award for taking the hook out by himself!

Whitey won the award for biggest fish caught!

Park Rapids Fun

The kids and I went to Park Rapids last week for our annual summer R&R.  Don stayed home this year.  I packed our bike helmets, ball and gloves, frisbee, and swim/lake gear.  I also packed my rollerblades.  I did not get to wear them, as Jonathan asked if he could try them out.  Then Eric asked if he could try them out.  Thanks to Grandpa's walker, each boy is now a mostly proficient roller blader, and logged many, many laps between Gma and Gpa's long driveway and Chris and Layla's driveway.  Megan had fun on Macy's old 16" bike, and logged many laps on it as well.

Thursday night, Mom took us uptown for the music festival (it has a fancier name, but I don't remember what it is....)  Megan got her face painted.  The boys did not.

On Friday, we did our shopping uptown, which included a stop at Aunt Belle's candy shop.  Each kid got a little treat.  After lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet, I took the kids to one of my High School friend's family cabin on Long Lake.  The boys went tubing behind a waverunner, and Megan got a ride on a waverunner.  There was also a waterslide down the yard into the lake make from tarp and a water hose.  How much fun did they have!

The Man Party

The boys had their birthday party today.  Per their request, they each picked just one friend to come over.  It was close to a billion degrees outside, so we made it a pool party.  Austin gave the boys each a water gun, so we had a total of 4 water squirter toys for them to play with.  After swimming, they munched on pizza rolls and then had some video game time where they played violent video games.  No cupcakes and pinatas for my boys.