Beach Day!!

We started KM Summer Academy this last week. Grant, Norah and Mason go every morning for some fun learning and activities and then we plan fun activities in the afternoon. Yesterday, we headed to the library for an afternoon program. It was a juggler that had been on America's Got Talent. Today, we headed to the beach with some friends for a picnic lunch and fun on the beach.

Grant quickly made friends with some boys building a sand castle and digging a major moat around it. He was the foreman of their project before long, and he was having lots of fun.

Mason and I swimming.

Norah and I made a drip castle. A favorite of mine, I can remember making these with my mom as a kid when we would camp at Rock Island in the summers.

Mason was busy collecting tiny shells along the shoreline.

Ta Da!!

Strawberry Picking

We headed to Jelli's today for strawberry picking.

I think the kids ate at least one strawberry for everyone that made it in the box.

Time to enjoy the ride out of the field.

Mason, I caught you!!

When we got home, we turned these delicious, 28 pounds of strawberries into syrup, sorbet and jam. It was a full day of fun, and everyone was caught red handed.

Hiking at Retzer Nature Center

This morning as we decided how we were going to kick off our summer of fun, Grant, Norah and Mason unanimously choose to go hiking. Specifically at Retzer Nature Center, is where this hike was going to take place. They had just been there a few days before with a class field trip that Mason, Daphne and I joined Grant and Norah's class on. They wanted explore the rest of the trails that they didn't have time to explore when they were there.

We set out in the morning before it was too hot, but it was already sticky humid. Norah and Mason had lots of energy to run ahead!! Grant and I were counting how many different types of birds we could find.

 We caught up to Norah and Mason taking a rest in the Oak Grove.

After the trails were all hiked, we stopped at the pond to hunt for frogs!!

The perfect hike to start our summer of fun!!

Celebrating Mason!!

Last week, our sweet Mason, turned 5!

This weekend, Jason's parents and his brother and family joined us at Green Meadows Farm to celebrate his birthday and have fun.

Green Meadows was a great place to have fun family time. The kids loved everything there was to play with from animals, to the playgrounds, and bins of corn to play in.

Right here is where we lost Mason for about 10 minutes. It was the first time I can say we had no idea where one of kids was, I never want to feel that ever again. We found Mason back by the main entrance looking for us, he was crying and stayed close the rest of the day.

We had an awesome day celebrating Mason! Things all changed right after this picture. I climbed in to play in the corn with the kids. Mason and I were burying Norah in the corn and Mason burped. The look on his face after he burped said it all, but he said, "I'm going to puke." I was able to get him outside of the bin to the bench we had left our shoes by before he starting vomiting...right on to my new pair of white TOMS...Mason spent the next few days with a bug. At least he had some great new toys to keep him entertained.

Oh Mason, we love you so much!! Happy Birthday!