Summer Fun

Summer always brings with it many opportunities to get out and about!  This summer was no different!  Here are a few of the ways we passed the time this summer.


Hanging out with the cousins (an impromptu picnic dinner)

The kids had asked about going to the painting place again, so we took a trip to The Painted Penguin one cool morning.  Connor was thrilled to find a Buzz Lightyear piece, and Juliana had seen an example of Elsa, so she transformed a generic princess into the Ice Queen!

Another day, we met up with our friends Maddy and Bella at a local outdoors store for some "crafts" (which turned out to be a 2 inch wooden circle to color!) but much preferred wandering around the store itself!

The kids went to Goddard once a week this summer on Wednesdays.  Juliana got to participate in some big kid field trips (Sci-Tech museum, Yogurt Delight, Phillips Park.....) while Connor got to socialize with all his friends.  The Trike-a-Thon fundraiser for St. Jude's Hospital early on had to be rescheduled due to weather, so we stopped by on a Thursday to participate!

We implemented a chore board this summer to get the kids to help out a little more.  They really got into it by choosing their own chores and earning "punches" to be redeemed for prizes!

We visited Phillips park to see the animals at the zoo and play on the playground one weekend.

We made the annual trip to Santa's Village with Madelyn and Allison this year (first-timers!)  Madelyn was brave enough to do all the rides with her cousins at her side (though we couldn't get her to go near Santa)!  The petting zoo was a disaster this year too!  What a fun place.

YESSSSSS!!!!!

We met up with a bunch of friends at LegoLand.  It was a cool place, but probably not worth a return trip.  Connor's favorite part was the dragon ride, where he got to shoot the "bad guys" while flying in a dragon! 

 

We found a park on the other side of town that boasts a "rocket ship" design.  They had a blast climbing up the rocket and "preparing for liftoff."  Connor and I even revisited the park a couple times while Juliana was at rehearsals for Pinkalicious.

Of course, some of our time was spent much closer to home, riding bikes around the block and visiting the "park."  It is really just an open area on our block, but the kids have a great time running in between the trees.  This day, they made a "fort" in one tree and practiced walking across the fallen log.

Hanging out at the Phillip's Park Pool:

Visiting Blackberry Farm:

Riding the Rails at the Illinois Railway Museum:

A quick splash at Raging Waves: