Thursday, June 26, 2014

Hi, There!

I am Atticus. I am 8. I am your friend.


 

Older Week

 A couple weeks ago Brad had a work meeting down near Altoona where his folks live. Every summer we've been sending a set of our kids to one set of grandparents and the other set to the other grandparents. Then we switch it up the next summer. So Brad arranged for the younger kids to stay with his folks for 4 days. It happened to be VBS at his parents' church that week so Lincoln and Thea Belle had lots of time with their cousins at that as well as some playdates and two sleepovers. Meanwhile back here I had lots of active morning trips planned for the older boys and Brad had signed them up for afternoon soccer camp. We went to the movies one day. And we set up the tent in the backyard and they got to "camp" one night. As it has been everytime we've done this, it is wonderful to have more focused time with just two of them and it was so great to have nearly no inter-sibling conflict for the week (somehow it seems most of the conflict occurs between Atticus and Lincoln and most of the spontaneous chaos moments seem to be related to Mr. L.). Everything is just easier with two kids (even simple things like mealtimes). Great week! Thank you Nancy and Tom!!









Big Bugs & The Carousel


The First 2014 Summer Big Zoo Visit



These two photos are Dietrich's request...


The beautiful new carousel...It is just lovely.





This is the one I wanted to ride!

Grandma Nancy -- Atticus chose the penguin! (-:


Lincoln wanted the falcon he was first sitting on, but moved up to the baby hippo to ride next the Thea Belle.


He's just so cute!













Enormous robotic bugs!






The bombardier beetle shot hot steam out of it's nose which was weird since they actually shoot their acid out of their bootie. Anyhoo...the boys loved it...






A 9-inch long real live walking stick insect!














Live animal show...



Ending indoors at the shark tank -- this time all three boys were able to pet a shark...Thea Belle's arms just aren't long enough yet! This was Lincoln's first success and he was so elated (-: