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Lovely Walks

We go on an awful lot of walks around here and we all love it!  We are so lucky to have a beautiful creek in our neighborhood to walk along and enjoy all of nature's beauty.  We love the wildflowers, the frogs, the birds, the squirrels, the 2 ducks, and the bugs!  Here are some pictures from a recent walk.

 

 Lily loves to try to swing on these willow trees!

 Here is one of the ducks who moved in at the creek.  I think he was mad at us for disturbing him, he was chasing us!

 Our creek, I love it!

If you look in the middle of the picture, you can see an orange/yellow bird.  It is such a pretty bird and I love seeing it!

Summer time

School has been out for a week and we are in full swing of summer vacation.  Today I asked the kids what things they want to do this summer.  Lily had a one word answer, swim.  That is all she wants to do.  She LOVES playing in the water.  Skyler, of course, had much more on his list.  My disclaimer, I am not making any of this up!

1.  Watch movies all day long. (not likely going to happen).
2.  Play on the computer, ipod, and wii.
3.  Look for toys to play with.  (I do not know what this means, nor do I think I want to!)
4.  Play with Gavin.
5.  Sleep in.  (Yes, would you please do that!)
6.  Not get sick.  (Another one that I agree with!)
7.  Go out to eat.
8.  Count money.  (Huh?)
9.  Play school.  (Seems normal to me, we always did this).
10.  Play with Lily.  (Nice to see you included your sister).
11.  Build something with Legos that no one else has ever built.
12.  Go to the library.  (Nice, I like that on).

Skyler also made a daily schedule for me for the summer.  You can see he wants to keeps us busy!

Here is what it says:
1.  Do something fun.
2.  Reading.
3.  PE or art.
4.  Spelling.
5.  Math.
6.  Recess.
7.  Lunch.
8.  Story time or read by self.
9.  Science.
10.  Movie, or wii.
11. Play basketball.
12.  Computer lab, ipod, or Leapfrog.
13.  Computer or movie.
14.  Stop school.

Okay, here are the things we actually have planned:
1.  Summer school.  I will not lie about this.  I am very excited that they will both be in all day summer school this year.  I don't know what I will do, but I know that I will be able to run during the day, which means I will actually get to SLEEP IN!  It will just be nice to have a little time off!
2.  Vacation to the Smokeys.
3.  VBS
4.  Art camp for Skyler.
5.  Bellevue Fire Department Kids' Safety Camp.
6.  Skating.
7.  Bowling.
8.  Swimming.
9.  Splash parking.
10.  Library reading program.
11.  Riding bikes.
12.  Taking walks.
13.  Zoo trips.
14.  Complete the Go! Play Adventure.
15.  Whatever else I can think of to keep these monkeys busy.

So, hopefully both Lily and Skyler's expectations will be met and we will have a great summer!

Lily Graduates From Preschool

Lily graduated from preschool and I love that the school made it such an event.  They even had caps and gowns!  Here are some the songs they performed for us.

She was so proud of herself for graduating and we had so much fun celebrating with her!  We got her a real nice and tasty Sweet and Salty cake from Jones Brothers' Cupcakes and she got flowers from her grandma and a nice graduation stuffed dog.

She was so excited for kindergarten a while back and now she that she is ready, she's not so sure about it.  A few days after her graduation as I was putting her to bed, she started crying.  I asked her what was the matter and she told me that she was scared to go to kindergarten at Skyler's school because it is so big and that there are so many big kids there.  I felt so bad for here.  She was genuinely scared!  I told her that there is nothing to be scared about.  I reminded her that she already knows a lot of people at Peter Sarpy and she will do just fine there.  I also told her to talk to Skyler and tell him that she is scared to go to school there and ask him to tell her what it is like there.  She finally calmed down.  Now we just have to wait a little over a week and she can give it a try and see how she likes it while she is in summer school there.  My guess, the only one crying will be me :)

Skyler's music program

Skyler's music program was quite a treat!  The 1st and 2nd graders put on quite a show for us.  Here are a few clips of the excitement.

Lily is 5!

Lily just could not wait to turn 5.  She thought so many things in her life would change once she turned 5, turned out, she was wrong.  She thought she her loose tooth would get looser and fall out, nope.  She thought she would get to go to kindergarten right when she turned 5, nope.  Even though those things did not happen, she still had a great time turning 5.  She had her very first birthday party!  We aren't big on birthday parties in our house and when our kids turn 5 is when they get their first big party.

Lily celebrated hers at Skate City.  She had so much fun skating and getting to play the arcade games, which we never play any other time when we are there.

She also had her birthday dinner at Grandma Biben's.   What is great about birthdays at grandma's is that the birthday person gets to pick out the menu.  All Lily cared about was having green chips (lime tortilla chips) and queso and lemon cake that had lemon drops on it!  She got it!  But we also had cowboy steak and veggies, you know, to round things out!

She got great gifts and was so excited to turn 5.  The next day, she wanted to know how long it would be before she turned 6!  Oh, to be young again!

St. Patrick's Day 2011

We had so much fun again this year celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  We worked very hard on our leprechaun trap, but again, it did not work.  We saw the evidence of the fact that the leprechaun got caught it the trap, but he was able to get out and then he punished us for our trickery!  He turned our milk green, turned our toilet water green and left green spots all over the toilet paper!  Skyler's solution to this is to make more than one trap next year.  We will have to see if that will work.  And now that I am done with school (hopefully I passed my exam!) I sure hope I will have more time to blog, we'll have to see!

Martin Luther King Jr.

I am very lucky that I can help out in Skyler's class a couple of times a month.  I like that I can see what is going on in there and help the teacher at the same time.  Yesterday I helped and I was a little bit amazed at what I was seeing.  Actually, I was not so much amazed as I was angered.

I was helping a group of kids with a play about Martin Luther King Jr.  I was shocked that in the play any reference to religion or God was blacked out!  They actually had text of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech and they actually blacked out the any time he said "God's children."  I was in complete shock and then I was just appalled and angered.  Here we have an actual historical speech from one of the most important people in American history who fought for equal rights and his speech was changed to be politically correct.

Have we come this far?  How can you teach about this country and its history and not include the religious aspects of it.  How can you change the text of one of the most important speeches in history?  I don't know.  But I am glad that I saw it and happened to be in the room that day.  I already supplement what my kids learn at school.  Obviously, they attend public school and so we teach the Christian values and concepts at home and they learn them at church as well.  I guess I never thought that I would have to reteach history to my kids to make sure that they were getting the whole story.

So for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday we will be listening to his I have a Dream speech and listening to U2's Pride, and watching A Ripple of Hope, a documentary about the day he was assassinated.

The speech:

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Our first family rodeo - YEEHAW!

We were so lucky to have the chance to go the the River City Roundup Rodeo.  We had so much fun watching all of the action!  We all dressed in our best cowboy/cowgirl gear too!  So much fun watching the bulls!  Skyler liked the bull riding the best.  Lily liked the the bull lassoing the best.  I liked the bull riding and the bronc riding!  Chuck liked the bull riding the best.  We were a little disappointed because there were a lot of disqualifications and we weren't sure what all of that was about, but the action was awesome!

Camping Again

We went camping again a few weeks ago and had so much fun.  There was no one there again and we had all 300 + acres of nature all to ourselves.  We did a lot of hiking and some chilling too.  We also did some animal catching.  We caught a toad that Lily decided was her best friend in the world.  She carried him with her for some time on one of our hikes, but when we finally told her it was time to let him go, she was not too happy, as you can see from the pictures.  We got some incredible views of the destruction caused by the tornado of 2008, the same one that hit at the Little Sioux Boy Scout camp.  They have spent the last 2 years cleaning the park up from the destruction and it makes me wish we had seen it before the tornado because I cannot even fathom what it used to look like.  

Lily recovered from the toad loss after she caught a monarch.  She was upset when we had to let him go too, but recovered even quicker when she found her friend "cricket" who for some reason didn't want to leave her and just stayed right by her for over 2 hours!  The last night we were there a thunderstorm struck.  We survived it fine, but I was a little creeped out by it.  The kids slept through the whole thing.  By the time we needed to get up and go it was still raining and the water was just starting to creep through the bottom of the tent, so even if we hadn't planned on leaving at that time, we probably would have.  

We later found out that Chuck got into some poison ivy and he is still trying to get rid of it!  I loved this campsite better than our other one, we had the perfect toilet all set up!, but I am pretty sure we will never camp at campsite number 7 again, as it has scarred Chuck forever and I guess we will either go back to friendly number 2 again, or try out number 6 next time!

Lovey Dovey

There really isn't much I can say here, except that I love it! We took a walk last week after a rain storm down by the creek and these 2 were like this most of the way. They were deep in conversation and it was just adorable. Why can't they be like this all of the time?

Monarch Tagging

We went to the Hitchcock Nature Center last week and had the pleasure of participating in their monarch tagging event. We love doing this each year.  We took our butterfly net and went searching for monarchs.  We were so surprised at how many different kinds of butterflies we saw this year, some kinds I haven't ever seen before.  We had a blast chasing those darn monarchs!  It was a successful adventure, as both Skyler and Lily both caught a monarch, tagged it, and released it.  Now we have 8 more tags to put on monarchs that we catch on our own.  We plan on going camping this weekend, so hopefully we will be successful monarch hunting then!

Our camping trip

We decided at the last minute to go on a camping trip to celebrate the three day weekend.  We have had our eyes on a great camping location for a while now, but it was closed due to tornado damage and cleanup.  Well, we were so excited to find out it was open now.  There are only 8 camp sites, they cannot be reserved, and they are hike in only.  We left right after school and were the first ones there!  We so thought we would not get a site since it was a holiday weekend and the forecast was so nice, but we did.  We have decided that our little camping site is a secret little gem out there and not many people know about it.  We plan to keep it that way.  We got there and did some hiking to decide which camp site to take, hiked back to our car, hiked back to the site with most of our gear.  We left the kids at the site to look for kindling while we went back for one more load.  We got back to the site, Chuck and the kids got the fire going and then set up the tent while I got the food ready.  After a bit, I cooked the burgers on the grill and then we ate!  After that we went on another hike in the semi-darkness.  Lily scared and we decided to go back.  We sat around the fire and I read some stories and then we had s'mores!  It was at this time that we started to hear the coyotes.  I felt a little freaked out about it, but kept my cool!  We cleaned up and headed to the tent for bedtime.  We were all pretty tired!

In the morning, we got up, started the fire and decided the best thing to eat for an appetizer to breakfast was s'mores and hot cocoa!  We then went on another hike and would have loved to go further, the kids were having a blast, but we had to be at the nature center for Monarch tagging, so we headed back.  We decided to skip breakfast.  We all got changed, cleaned up the camp site, packed up and hiked out.  It was everyone's favorite camping trip and we can't wait to do it again soon.

Omaha Nighthawks Practice

I took the kids to watch the Omaha Nighthawks practice. Unfortunately, it was the hottest day of the week, but we still had fun. Skyler got to see some very cool plays and players and asked a lot of good football minded questions. I got to see Ahman Green and Jeff Garcia up close and personal! It was very exciting! I have loved football for as long as I can remember and have been a fan of both the Packers and the 49ers for many years. Seeing two famous players from those teams within 10 feet of me was wonderful and we plan to go to a few games of theirs too!

Lily's first day of school

Lily was so excited for school to start. She had her open house a week before school started and everyday after that she would ask so excitedly, "Is this a school day?" I would tell her no and she would be soooo sad. When the day finally came, it was the only day she didn't ask if it was a school day. When she finished breakfast and walked past the couch, she saw her special first day of school outfit and then she finally asked if it was a school day. When I told her yes, she ran to Skyler's room and said, "Skyler, today is my first day of school, it is finally a school day for me! " She was just too cute about it. The hard part was keeping her occupied until school started!

South Dakota Part 1

The first stop of our summer trip to South Dakota was The Corn Palace. It really was a very neat thing to see! We were caught acting corny!

From there we went to the Badlands National Park. I have been there before, but the beauty of it still amazes me. The kids loved it and were off running and trying to climb huge hills, it was scary! They also collected some very nice rocks from here!

And then, no trip to South Dakota is complete without a stop at Wall Drug! I just love this tourist trap. They have a great place for the kids to play in the back and they loved it!

From there we went on to Custer, more on that in another post!