Second Grade!!

Here she is, my beautiful second grader.  Malloy was very excited for her first day in Ms. Woodley's Wild Things.  She and Dearie went shopping for a special "first day" outfit.  She came home with this dress and the sandals.  I think she looks ready for middle school. 

4th Annual Daddy Daughter Trip

The Daddy Daughter baseball trip just keeps getting more exciting.  First Houston, then St. Louis, followed by Pittsburgh and now...San Diego!!

Checking out the Naval Yard

 Top Gun 

 Front row at the baseball game

 Trip to the San Diego Zoo

 Enjoying the outfield "beach"

Annual Chicago Trip

Highlights from the annual trip to Chicago....

My parents were visiting Shreveport a few days before our trip to Chicago, so Malloy rode up with them on Monday.  They stopped in Newton, Iowa to visit the family farm.  Malloy got a tour of the offices.  

Then, on Saturday, Kyle and I hit the road with "only" the twins.  We stopped for lunch in Little Rock at Chick-fil-A.  As we pulled in to the parking lot, I looked at Kyle and wondered why we were eating there since our picky eater was not with us.  Nonetheless, we had a good lunch and then headed full speed ahead all the way to Missouri.  We stopped about 45 minutes before St. Louis for gas and then made a longer stop in STL to eat dinner and burn off some energy.

Kyle and Maisey enjoying the view of the Arch.

Stretching their legs after being cooped up in the car for 9+ hours.

Dancing to some live music 

Delirious kids!

We made it to Naperville around midnight and everyone made a surprisingly smooth transition into unfamiliar beds.

The next morning, the girls got right into my stash of old homecoming/Prom dresses.  They provided much entertainment.

Maisey looks like a future Prom queen.  She's pretty comfortable riding around in a convertible in her gown and sunglasses.

Taking a spin in Grandma's convertible was entertaining for Gardner too.

We stopped by to visit my friend and her kids.  She has boy/girl twins (Marlowe and Sawyer) who are six months old.

We went to one of the local waterparks.  Maisey had fun on the slide.

Even Grandma got in on the action.  Probably the first (and only) waterslide she's ever been on!

Gardner could have stayed in the sand area all day.  He loves to dig and build.

The next day, we went to Santa's Village A"Zoos"Ment Park.  Ha ha!  Funny name.  As the name indicates, it was a mixture of an amusement park and a zoo.  The kids enjoyed their pony rides.  My dad was quite nervous that all 3 were riding at the same time and no one walked along side them.

Daddy and G-Man enjoy a roller coaster.

We delegated Papa to ride the Tilt a Whirl with the kids.

Gardner's favorite ride was the firetruck.  You rode out to this little house that was "on fire" and the kids sprayed it with their hoses.

No trip to Santa's Village would be complete with a visit to Santa...in July.

We finished up our day with a treat at the ice cream shop.  I have never seen Gardner look so exhausted.  I thought he might fall asleep on his ice cream.

One day, my mom and I decided to take a girls' trip to Ikea (probably a bad decision in retrospect).  The girls enjoyed riding with the top down.  We were able to drop them in the Ikea childcare as planned, but they had a 1 hour limit so we were slightly rushed to shop.  

We picked them up after shopping and enjoyed some lunch in the Ikea cafeteria.  I love those Swedish meatballs!!

Meanwhile, Kyle and Gardner ventured into the city and visited the Field Museum (a little more educational than our trip to Ikea).  Gardner was very excited to tell me about the animals he saw there.

The rest of our time was spent swimming at Uncle Kerry's and hanging out with friends and family.  Kyle and I did sneak away for a Cubs game with our Shreveport friends who happened to be in Chicago.  Eddie Vedder sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".  He has only sung it three times at Wrigley Field and one of those times was on July 4, 1998 - our first trip to Wrigley together when we were dating!  

July, July!

Sadly, when I opened up my photo program on my computer, I realized that I had no folder called "July".  That means I took ZERO pictures with my "real" camera for the entire month.  Thank goodness for my phone's camera to capture the day to day happenings.  Here's what we were up to in July....

The kids finished up their last week of camp at St. Paul's Day School.  They came home with tons of arts and crafts that they made and [sadly] some of them had to secretly be thrown away after they went to bed.  These pictures and the tissue paper frames were keepers though!

 On the 3rd of July we headed up to East Ridge for face painting, fireworks and fun!  This was the first year the twins have been included.  I am a pretty big stickler for bedtimes, but I let them stay up "late" to watch the show.

On the 4th of July, we started out the day with the annual pool party at the Tuckers' house.  This year, the moms were pleasantly surprised by how much the dads kept the kids entertained in the pool.  We actually got to sit and relax while the dads did all of the work.

We headed out to Lake Bistineau that evening and spent the night at the camp for the first time EVER as a family of five.  Again, I have issues with bedtime, lack of sleep, etc. and I knew it would be challenging to get all of the kids settled down and asleep in the bunk room.  They were exhausted and actually went to bed quite well and did not wake up too, too early.

They enjoyed swimming and tubing in the lake.  We would love to spend more time there next summer.  They've already begun drawing down the water level in the lake so boating season is over.

For a few days, we had some tree trimming crews working in our backyard.  Gardner got himself suited up and gathered all of his gear so he could help.

 Granddaddy even took him to a few job sites where he got to operate some equipment.

Kyle brought some vintage Lincoln Logs home from his childhood home in Minden.  They were a big hit.

 As demonstrated in the photo above and below, Maisey is really in to color coordinating.... from head to toe.

 This is just an example of the type of bed-head that I deal with on a daily basis.  Wait until you see her hair for the first day of school.  You will appreciate what went in to achieving that look!

 While Kyle and Malloy were on their baseball trip, I scheduled some one on one time with Gardner.  I took him to see his first movie at the theater - Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue.  He did really well.  He enjoyed his popcorn and Sprite and sat still for the whole show.

 Meanwhile, Dearie and Maisey were having some special time together that included Maisey's favorite thing - MAKE UP!!!

 When he was getting ready for church, Gardner told me he wanted to dress like Daddy.  I remembered that my mom had bought him this seersucker suit to use as a dress up costume.  He was thrilled to look just like Daddy.

 I asked the kids to pose for picture and this was the best I could get.  It's probably for the best that they are all 3 feet away from each other.