Philadelphia

Jon was a good sport and agreed to come with us on a day trip up to Philadelphia. We started our trip at the temple (free parking garage!) and then did a LOT of walking to see all the sights on our list. Lunch was (of course) at Reading Terminal Market. We knew how busy and tight the space would be from previous experience, but we've added a few kids since last time. Not sure it's something we'll try again with little ones! 

After lunch it was another long walk to the historic district. Luckily Grandpa bought doughnuts for everyone to enjoy once we arrived: 

(You can't tell, but Independence Hall was right behind us)

Our kids' attention spans aren't up for any of the really cool tours yet, so we stuck with things that were short and sweet, like seeing the Liberty Bell: 

Our last stop ended up being the favorite: the United States Mint. I had heard cool things, but was skeptical because of said short attention spans. But besides Elise (who spent her time running away from us as quickly as possible), the kids were all fascinated. Glad we decided to give it a try! 

Not Philadelphia-related, but the next day we all got to go watch one of Seth's soccer games. I didn't take any pictures of games this year, so I'm glad my parents were around to! He had another kind of rough season, with only a couple of wins. We decided this will be his last year of soccer. Hopefully something else will spark his interest eventually! 

Grandpa, Grandma and the Aquarium

We were SO excited for Grandpa & Grandma to come visit us! Thanks to some work on the east coast, Dad arrived early and got to spend some quality time playing Starcraft with Seth:

Their visit perfectly coincided with Homeschool Days at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We've never been before since it's crazy expensive, but it's cheap for Homeschool Days!  

Waiting in the auditorium with Grandpa

Seth opted to sit WAY in the back with Grandma: 

Guess they were having fun taking selfies together! 

No question where those freckles came from originally!

The best part of the whole trip was watching the scuba divers feed the fish. They were very much putting on a show for the kids, making silly faces and gestures. My kids were enthralled: 

Feeding clams to a puffer fish: 

They also had a pool full of moon jellyfish that the kids could touch. Aaron was fascinated but refused to actually touch them: 

Catherine went back repeatedly to touch them. I think we had to physically drag her away from the pool when it was time to go: 

Group shot (minus Grandma) outside the aquarium: 

Maybe it was a case of high expectations, but I was not super impressed. It was very dark inside, it was hard to figure out how to get from one level to the next (there were escalators that went up, but not down), and the shark alley and kids' touch sections just weren't that great. We definitely preferred Adventure Aquarium in NJ (and it's less than half the price of the National Aquarium!). But now we can check another Baltimore essential off our lists. 

September Starts

These were taken in May, but I just found them on my phone.

Kaia, Elise and Sydney by the cherry tree at church.

Three beautiful girls

Playing with the green screen at the library

Elise is not sufficiently terrified of the shark attack

Playing with slime at Luke's house. Don't miss Seth (the blur) in the background.

Elise helping Daddy investigate the damage to the doorframe.

Catherine drew Elise a butterfly on the driveway...and then it rained.

She was very concerned and stood out in the rain watching it slowly wash away. 

Dutch Wonderland

For years friends had been telling us about a theme park called Dutch Wonderland that was designed for kids. It sounded like a great idea, but the price just seemed excessive for a kids' park. But a combination of a Groupon deal and Aaron's birthday finally gave us the nudge we needed to go.

Jon and I split the day: I took the big kids for the morning, then we swapped and I had the littles for the afternoon. My kids are not daredevils by any stretch of the imagination, so I may have had to use coercion and/or deception to get them on a few of the more intense rides. They ended up loving all of them except the old wooden roller coaster (which even I didn't enjoy as much: too much brain-joggling).

On the log ride (which ended up being their very favorite)

Bumper cars

Seth may have caused a traffic jam with his excellent steering abilities.

Ready for the dive show and braving the splash zone.

Seth chose to sit literally as far from the splash zone as possible.

Riding the Sky Ride with Daddy.

Elise had no fear of heights and constantly crawled around during the ride.

I was sure she was going to fall out under the guard rail.

Very proud that they were big enough to ride solo.

I put the youngest three on this ride thinking it would be a fun, relaxing ride.

I didn't realize it would whip them around the corners crazy fast.

Aaron took a few turns to get used to it, but Elise... Elise was ECSTATIC.

She was laughing hysterically every time it whipped her around.

Riding the train together

Monster truck drivers

There was really only one ride in the park that was super thrilling: Merlin's Mayhem. But, of course, my kids were terrified of it and refused to go on. Jon finally made a deal with Seth: if he went on the ride, we would go to Golden Corral for dinner (Seth's favorite). I didn't think he would do it, but I guess food is a good motivator! 

We all had a blast! Definitely worth doing at least once or twice while our kids are little. The day after we got home Elise was already crying, asking to go back to ride the "baby rockets" (her favorite). Good thing we happened to get free tickets to go back again!

Elise

This little girl is still just too much of everything. Her teachers always tell us how sweet and cooperative she is: guess I should be grateful she saves all of her...enthusiasm for home?

Reading about dinosaurs has the same effect on me, too.

Sorry, Aunt Bubba.

August means time to start prepping for school to start (Nooo!).

Elise was happy to model Catherine's backpack:

Another "ready to go to bed" ensemble:

And yes, she did sleep in her swimsuit.

Several times.

Sometimes (most times) it's just not worth the battle.

Aaron & Ashley

We were so excited to have Aaron and Ashley come visit for a few days! In fact, (my) Aaron was so enthusiastic about sharing a room with Seth during their visit that he literally emptied his drawers and moved EVERYTHING in:

Things didn't quite go as planned for their visit, sadly. We enjoyed a lovely dinner/date night on the bay (Timmy joined us as well) while our favorite Kaia watched our kids. Unfortunately, Elliot managed to hurt his leg on the trampoline while we were out. It was serious enough that Ashley took him into Urgent Care the next morning to see if it was broken (it was very similar to Catherine's broken leg trampoline injury). Thankfully it was just a sprain, but it did put a damper on our plans to hike Kilgore. 

We loved playing games, getting to know Annie, and getting my computer fixed (thanks, Aaron!). Wish we could do this more often! Also, I should take more pictures. This one that Catherine took of Annabelle is all I have from that entire weekend...oops.

Catherine

Catherine's big goal for the summer was to learn how to sew. I am not a seamstress, but we did manage to get a pillow made! Thankfully I was able to find her a sewing class in the fall so she'll be able to learn from a pro.

I didn't manage to get a picture of one, but at some point Catherine and Uncle Timmy were discussing unicorns and realized that "corn" was involved. We then had several weeks of Catherine drawings involving corn cobs with eyes and unicorn horns. Uni-corns!

She is still my most willing food-cooking helper. She can make Pasta Roni and Ramen all by herself (minus the draining of boiling water). I love having a Catherine around!

Aaron

Aaron discovered numbers and math and now they're his favorites. I found this popsicle stick with a cryptic Aaron equation hanging around the house and had to laugh. 

Possibly my favorite kid drawing ever.

I think it's related to Plants vs. Zombies, but it's basically just pure awesomeness. 

Still rocking The Hair.

I sure love this sweet boy and his uniqueness!

Summertime!

We had so much rain this summer that we didn't get a chance to do a lot of the things we usually do during the summer (like the beach). Thankfully the rain paused long enough to give us a lovely afternoon at Rocks with friends!

Minus the part where Elise stepped on a bee (she refused to keep her shoes on) and would only be comforted by Bente (she kept shoving me away when I tried to take her from Bente), we had a blast! 

Luke and Elise.

These two spent most of their time trying to escape down the creek on boogie boards together. The water was deep and fast enough that I really had to keep an eye on them to prevent drownings. Two little troublemakers!

Seth and the other big boys spent all their time jumping off this rock. The water was so fast that they had to start swimming about 30 feet up the creek in order to get across in time, plus start swimming for shore immediately after jumping off in order to make it back across. Catherine also (after much persuasion) jumped off the rock and immediately swore she'd never do it again. 

Happy water baby!

Since our neighborhood is super lame and there are never any kids home during the summer, we have to improvise. Our friends host a summer camp at their house every year called Camp Apple Juice. They have an amazing backyard with huge trees and a creek. They schedule a few activities (like a craft) each day, but most of the time the kids are just roaming free in the yard and woods. It's heaven! 

One day he will regret these faces.

One day.

Elise wasn't actually able to attend camp since she isn't potty-trained, but I tried to stick around after drop-off for 30 minutes or so to let her play. She LOVED it! Next year, little one! 

I wasn't sure how Aaron would do, but he had a blast! He loved swinging on this cool swing with Lauren. Myka (one of the counselors) told me that Aaron was one of her favorites. During snack time the other kids would eat and run, but Aaron and Luke would come sit at the table with the counselors and eat their snacks slowly and purposefully. Aaron was also deeply concerned after the first day that there was no apple juice at Camp Apple Juice, so Myka grabbed some for the next day. (The family's last name is Wine, but they thought Camp Wine would probably not be the best option for a kids camp. Thus, Apple Juice). 

Catherine was fully in her element here. There were several other girls near her age that I thought she would play with, but, true to form, she was Miss Independent. She did spend a lot of time following Gabe & Seth around. She seems quite comfortable running with the boys. 

The best part of camp was the toads. They were everywhere. Much of their time was spent catching toads and building habitats for them. There was also some toad-stealing from other groups of boys. It was pretty hilarious to look in their "habitat" (5 gallon bucket filled with moss, rocks and wood) and see it swarming with toads! 

We LOVE Camp Apple Juice! Can't wait for next year when I can send all four kids!

And, finally, the new trampoline was assembled! Seth happened to be at a friend's house when I was ready to purchase one, so Catherine and Aaron got to choose the color. He's been much more accepting of the pinkish-purple than I expected. Now we need to buy more anchors to prevent having to buy trampoline #3!