Aaron animals

Aaron clearly played around during nap time today. We had to leave so when I went up to get him, this is how I found him. 

This is the pile of animals that he had stuffed up his shirt! That is one full belly of animals!!

Aaron visits the firehouse

While the kids went climbing, Aaron and I passed the time in the area. He spotted a fire truck so we went over to the station to say hi to the firemen. One of the firemen, Travis, gave Aaron the royal tour. He showed him all the tools they use on the truck. And he even got to spray the fire hose. Aaron was beyond thrilled. Afterwards, we brought the guys some pizzas for dinner as a small token of our thanks for what they do on a daily basis and for showing Aaron around. 

Beach with friends

We are getting our beach time in before the kids have to go back to school this summer. This time, our friends met us there. Was a great day. A very long day, like 9am - 9pm, but a great time for all. 

Kids climbing

School is out so we are having some fun. Today we hit the climbing gym together and had a blast scaling some walls. Aaron included. He scaled some of the routes the kids started off climbing when they first started at the gym last year. Kyle and Emily seem to have no fear of the high routes. I don't know how they do it!

Kyle & Emily visit Grandma

Kyle & Emily had a wonderful time in Wisconsin with Grandma. This was the first time they got to go to Grandma's house without us. My mom picked the kids up at the airport in Chicago and brought them up to her house for a fun, active, busy week of Grandma fun. She took them to some fun Wisconsin places like Old World Wisconsin, made some delicious Grandma dinners, put them to work outside on the projects her and Mike were working on (Kyle & Emily LOVE lopping bushes and in the forest behind Grandma's house), but most of all made some great memories together. Thanks Mom for having this time with the kids! 

Aaron time

With school out for all 3 kids at the same time (quite a feat in this school system with how they have us set up), we have a bit of a summer! Jeff had a work trip to Chicago so Kyle and Emily went along to spend some time with Grandma in Wisconsin. That left Aaron and myself back in North Carolina to have some fun together. 

One of the days we went over to Marbles. We hadn't been there in quite a long time so it was fun to return. 

Aaron's favorite room is probably still the piggy room. We waited a long time to get this slow motion video of the balls falling on Aaron. 

Another day, we headed east for the beach. We hadn't been to the beach (on the Atlantic) since our San Diego friends had visited us last August. We had a great time hanging out, playing in the sand, making a sand castle and sand angels and jumping waves. And of course topping the day off with some ice cream. Within minutes of pulling out of our parking spot there, Aaron was asleep for the entire 2 hour ride home. 

Another day we had silly hair day. Aaron really wanted purple hair. So he had some purple hair along with blue and pink. He was thrilled. Having dark hair, it didn't so much show up on my hair. 

We hit the bowling alley with our silly hair. 

Kyle's monkeys (not the real Miko) were tucked into his bed while he was away. 

We had a silly string battle day which was silly fun. 

For Father's Day, we made red macaroni in honor of my dad. Jeff was able to celebrate the day with Kyle and Emily and his dad while in Chicago. 

And we had ice cream night. 

We had a lot of fun together and certainly missed Kyle, Emily & Jeff. 

Last day school

Today was Aaron's last day of 3 year old preschool. Yes, he is wearing the same outfit he wore on the first day. That was intention for the comparison. You can see he has grown physically. He also came out of his shell quite a bit and his personality is really shining through. He is quite the ham. A cute, adorable and charming ham. 

First day of preschool for comparison
 

Fun

Just some random pictures of fun while the kids had their short summer break. 

We went ice skating and learned some new skating techniques from a nice lady who teaches women's ice hockey. 

Mint chocolate chip milkshake. With spinach. You can't even taste the spinach. Oh and it's vanilla ice cream, loads of real mint, a huge handful or two of spinach and a few cocoa beans. It's delicious and we all enjoy it. Even Aaron who seems to have sworn off any sort of green vegetable except pickles, cucumbers (which he also calls pickles), asparagus, and avocados. Ok so really it's the green leaves that he takes most offense to. 

State games

Kyle and Emily participated in the North Carolina State Games for track and field. It was a fun opportunity to extend their track season a little bit. Little did we know this meet was gigantic, meaning there were probably 1,000 kids competing and it would be a crazy long and insanely hot day. Nonetheless, they persevered and had fun. 

They started the morning off with the turbo javelin. That was a morning event around 9am. Even then it was blazing hot. Probably 90+ without a cloud in the sky. Scorching. The mile run was later in the day, which turned out to be way later due to the sheer number of participants, many events and rain delay. So around 5 or 6pm they took to the track to run their mile. Emily had a tough time with the heat, but she went out there and finished in the blazing heat and a very difficult field of speedsters. Kyle also ran and it was the first time he had a starting gun for the start. He wasn't a fan of that at all, standing at the start line with his hands covering his ears. He ran a good race and tolerated the heat fairly well and came in 2nd overall with an insanely fast field. 

Emily running

Kyle running

Great job Kyle & Emily!!

And great job cheering on the kids, Aaron! He was a trooper throughout the day in the heat and taking a nap in the car (with the AC on) while we waited for the mile in the afternoon. 

Bouncy

During the rain delay at the State Games, we went over to the Durham Museum of Life Sciences. We saw some lemurs, butterflies and other wildlife. The kids also got to do the bungy-trampoline bouncy thing and had a blast with it.