Family Bike Rides!

Now that Owen can ride a bike (we're still working on getting rid of the training wheels!) we decided to get Paige a seat of her own so we can all go out together! She really does like going (see first picture) but she's  not too keen on putting on the helmet anymore (see second picture).

Grilled Cheese!

If you were "lucky" enough to see me the week I heard about spreading mayo on grilled cheese instead of butter then I probably told you all about this crazy concept. Then I didn't do it. Until now! I followed through eventually...mmhmm. It was good! It felt wrong. It felt weird. But in the end it was tasty. Pat confirmed it with his own sandwich over the weekend (minus the tomato and spinach). To know for sure which is better I need to do a side by side butter vs. mayo test...hmm...maybe next week! 

History Museum

We needed to get out of the house this weekend so we headed to the History Museum. They put up a new exhibit since the last time we went where kids can work on all sorts of construction jobs and Owen was in heaven! We went outside to see the animals first then went to the construction exhibit and never left. It was fun watching him work. And I do mean "work," Owen took his job very seriously!

Books

Owen has been asking to go to the library pretty much everyday and I've been indulging him most days because...

1. I love libraries (I totally should have been a librarian)

2. I love that he loves libraries (you knew that)

3. It's been really hot outside

4. We've been mixing it up by going to different branches

5. Paige loves books too (see below)



Paige likes to lean in to get a really good look at her books.
Also, this book reminded me that I need to get the kids to the beach



Here are a couple book-related websites

1. Goodreads (thanks Diana!) - Best way to keep track of what you're reading, what you've read and what you want to read in the future.
2. What Should I Read Next - I haven't tested this yet but I love the concept. You type in the name of a book  you love and it gives you suggestions.

Father's Day!

I suppose I should be asking Pat how it was for him but I definitely had a fantastic Father's Day! We had a good breakfast, Pat was able to go for a run and then we headed out to my parent's house to celebrate the day and have a cookout!



Owen painted some fantastic lunch bags for Pat to bring to work. He's not usually very focused on art projects but he spent a lot of time on these and applied all the paint very thoughtfully. It was adorable. 





Trains!



One of my favorite pictures from the weekend!

Smoothie

I wanted to try out making a green smoothie last week (this recipe, with a few changes, was the one I liked) and found it to be pretty successful. Paige is sort of obsessed with them and not just because she had fun making a big mess! I promise that most of it made it into her mouth.

Amazing.

I couldn't have dreamed up a better father for my children. We love you, Pat!

P.S. Happy Father's Day to all the other great Dad's! Like mine. And Pat's. And yours.

Bike Practice

Pat started working with Owen last week on riding his bike without the training wheels! They didn't get very far but it was good to practice since Owen has been on his bike so much that the training wheels are pretty worn down. I happened to take a picture during what I think was his best ride! Most of what I saw looked more like the bottom picture:)

Italian-American Festival

We went to the Italian-American Festival over the weekend where we did some things that had nothing to do with being Italian. We had a ton of fun doing it though!



Spinach-Artichoke Bruschetta

 

This was called Poorman's Candy Apple. It was chunks of apple with a scoop of ice cream on top then drizzled with caramel, chocolate and M&Ms. Super good. Super non-Italian.



Bounce House!



Shh! The teenager taking tickets for the bounce house didn't know that Paige was getting free bounces on the side!

Horse Park!

We were about to leave to start the long drive home when Owen reminded us that we hadn't seen any horses (not counting the ones we drove by). Our parental guilt got to us so we stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park before we came home. The best part was probably the interactive computer program where you could pick a horse and then do things with it at different stations throughout the museum. Owen chose a white horse and named him Altair.




Owen was studying the map for us

The giant chair!

The Next Day!

These Kentucky posts are getting out of hand! Just one more after this one! The morning after the wedding we spent a lot of time hanging out with family at the hotel's free breakfast (free breakfasts are the best!). The hotel was really nice and had these gigantic planters and fountains everywhere which Paige kept trying to climb into. It also had a glass elevator reminscent of the one at our mall; the mall elevator does not stop once it starts closing even if you push the side, like a normal elevator. Owen made it his job to make sure everyone got into the elevator safely so he had to hold onto as many people as he could while we all walked in together :)

Don't quite remember what the problem here was but I think Paige was feeling ready to go home :)



Me and Jamie!



Dad, Scott, Pat

This cereal box was pretty hilarious

While Paige was playing with cereal boxes, Owen was recruiting people to sprint around the hotel.

Scenes from the Reception!

I think some tickling was happening here

Dancing! I told Pat I was going to show him this picture at Paige's wedding. It's totally going to make him cry :)

The Wedding!

Finally! Some pictures from the wedding! The whole reason we were in Kentucky in the first place! I tried for a very long time to get these pictures in chronological order and finally gave up. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was lots of fun and the kids were fantastic through everything! We had such a fun time and were so glad the kids lasted longer into the night than we expected. 



Paige was fed a constant stream of Puffs to keep her busy during the ceremony:)



Aunt Marlene (Mother of the Bride) and Scott (Brother of the Bride)



Uncle Bill (Father of the Bride) and Erica (...the Bride!)



We waited outside for everyone else to file in for the reception and got some fun pictures



Erica and Blain. Aww!



Owen started the day with a sweater vest but it didn't last very long in the heat!



Great Kid's Book!

I requested Press Here from the library after seeing it on a blog and it's now one of my favorites simply because of the giggles it elicits from Owen! It loses a bit of magic after the first time but we've still been reading it every night and he still thinks its hilarious!

Fooooood

Important to know...after we arrived in Kentucky on Friday we were looking for somewhere close to eat and settled on Applebee's after the front desk of the hotel recommended a place nearby with a billion restaurants (Hamburg Place). Instead, a faulty GPS led us to Applebee's Park where a baseball game was being played...we got to Applebee's eventually but not at the location we had been told about. Saturday we decided to find our way to Hamburg Place. This had to be the largest gathering of restaurants and big box stores I've ever seen. We drove around in Hamburg Place so long looking for Cosi (Pat was convinced that we definitely needed to find this place because they had the "best food ever" or something along those lines) that Paige and Owen both fell asleep. Turns out that the food at Cosi was pretty impressive and all the driving around was totally worth it. Now I desperately want one near us, who can make that happen for me?



Sleep in Kentucky?

See that crazy look in Paige's eyes? That's probably from lack of sleep. The night before I took this picture Paige went right to sleep without a problem. No problems at all. Until...she woke up screaming and wouldn't stop. Not cool. The only reason I mention it is because it led to one of my favorite moments of the trip. I needed to snap Paige out of her screaming fit and nothing in the hotel room was working so Owen and I put on our shoes and the three of us traipsed around the hotel with the two kids in their pajamas. We ended up on a balcony by the pool where I think the warm temperature and the rhythmic sound of the water calmed everyone down. We stayed there awhile, enjoying the moment. When we eventually went back to the room, Paige went right to sleep and did great for the rest of the trip! 

Roadtrip!

We traveled to Kentucky over the weekend to see my cousin get married and had lots of adventures on the way and while we were there. I'll be putting up short posts over the next few days covering our trip! We wanted to make the most of our time in Kentucky so we drove up with my parents while Pat was still at work. The kids were fantastic although my parents behavior was a bit questionable (ahem. Just kidding!). We would definitely roadtrip with them again! We stopped at a super nice gas station/starbucks/subway where my parents got Owen an activity book that was a big hit and Paige spent her time staring into a cooler until we had to remove her to go back to the car.

The front seat!



Activity book!



Kisses for Hippo!



Visitors!

We had some friends from Colorado visit a couple weeks ago and we got to meet their baby for the first time!

David, Everett and Dani

The kids!

The babies!

Playing at the playground