Magic Show

This summer the library has had different people come out once a week to put on shows. We had a reptile show, science show (which we missed, forgot about that one), and today's magic show. This magician did some pretty cool tricks. The kids loved it! I think the trick that had Nolan's head spinning the most was there were a bunch of different cards like what the boy in the picture below is holding, which had the title of a book on each card. The boy chose one card and didn't let the magician see it. The magician tried to guess the name of the title by himself by drawing a picture of a Harry Potter on his little white board that's in the second picture. The boy hadn't chosen the book, Harry Potter, but the Harry Potter that the white board had on it started talking to the magician and told him to look in this envelope the size of a book that had a question mark on it. He pulled out of the envelope the book, Where the Wild Things Are. This was the book on the card that the boy had chosen.

I went to the dollar store later on and found a little magic show kit that had 15 different magic tricks. Nolan was excited to learn some. Stay tuned soon for Nolan's Magic Show!!!

Day #2

Today Nolan wanted to sell more of his cookies and lemonade. During Annika's nap we opened up a lemonade and cookie stand just in front of our house, or maybe I should say the back of our house since that's the side that faces the street. We actually live in the perfect neighborhood to do this. We didn't have as big a quantity as yesterday, but he sold out within an hour. It's amazing how supportive people are when they see kids trying to earn money. I think the first 5 cars in a row that he waved down stopped to buy. Nolan is so excited to save money to go on a mission someday.

"Kids Dream"

Nolan has his very own business! It's called, "Kids Dream." :) Today he started out by selling ice cold lemonade and chocolate chip cookies. He was very successful and it was just his first day! He made $35.50. Nolan was out waving to everyone that passed and lots of people loved it! We even have a sign man who is going to make Nolan a nice sign for free! Nolan had delivered him a free cookie. We want to go about this legally, but were so excited to get started today. It shouldn't be hard since he can do it through the catering business. When Annika gets old enough, she can join in too!

"Up, Please!"

This little girl has been saying a few new words lately. She loves to climb and is not afraid of heights AT ALL! When I'm sitting in the recliner, she'll walk over to me and say, "Up, please!" You can hear her say it in the video below...



Then, once she's in the recliner she'll climb over to the bookcase across from it.



She'll pick out which books she'd like to read and drop them on the floor.
You can also see the orange snap on watch she has on her arm. She loves to wear little bracelets or any circular thing she can put her arm through. She loves little purses to carry around with her. And she LOVES to carry her little stuffed bears and baby dolls as she toddles around the house.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We sure created a day we can laugh for years down the road. We wanted to do something fun...something we haven't tried before. For the 3rd year in a row, Adam's missed out on the parade and fireworks. Auburn has both in the evening, starting at 7, which is the time he goes to the old man. So, he wanted to do something fun during the day, so we thought we would check out the boat rental shop just down the road. I stayed home while Annika took her nap and Nolan went with Adam. They brought back a nice inflatable boat (weight limit of 600 pounds, we have to think about these things ;) ) and we packed a few things and headed to Lake Clementine. We got the boat blown up and were set to go! I was in front with Annika in my lap, than Nolan and Adam in the back. So, I couldn't see behind me since I was scared to tip us by looking behind me, even though I'm sure I wouldn't have. We must have looked quite a site though. Adam hadn't told me how water was seaping in on his half. It may have been a 600 pound weight limit, but not to where most of the weight is on one end. :) I wish I got a picture of the boat but it didn't happen. It was like a skinny little canoe type of a boat where once we were all in and situated, we better not move. And there weren't seats, you just sat directly on the bottom of the boat. It worked well for me cuz I could sit indian style, but not so well for my long legged husband (he can't bend his knees so well). Anyways, so we start paddling, or trying too...kept turning in circles and veering this way and that. We weren't having much luck. We made it to the end of the house boat docks. :) Got everything out to reposition. While we sat out on the dock for a minute and a man came up to us. He asked us how we were doing and we told him we were kind of having trouble and this was our first time etc. Than he said, "There's a rule for people who (and I kind of forgot the rest, cuz I thought uh oh, he's probably gonna be mad that we're on his dock or something)." But, the rule was that we got otter pops! :) He was a nice man after all. Well, we had a little snack and than got back in the boat. Adam sat in the middle with Nolan in front of him and than me behind with Annika in front of me. We sat off again. :P Or tried. We kept turning in circles or going backwards. We were all laughing hysterically. We had better luck not paddling at all actually and letting the lake move us, except it was moving us back in the direction we came. Oh well. We decided we better go back. This just wasn't our thing. We picked the wrong part of the lake I believe. We were a little scared to not have control and lose the boat since there was a huge water fall just to the left of the boat ramp, we had gone right, but were being pushed in that direction. I didn't feel comfortable doing this anymore. We thought we would just go return the boat, hopefully get a partial refund or something.

We got back home and asked the neighbor lady if we could use the pool. We had the pool to ourselves. It was just right! Other than Nolan getting stung by a bee and almost drowning (he forgot to put his life jacket back on after using the bathroom. He was under the water, luckily Adam was right there. Jumped in and brought him up), it was fun. Than the kids took a nap.

We only had one car at home and Adam needed to get to work. He dropped us off at the parade and we would just walk home after the fireworks. I didn't really want to deal with driving in traffic anyways. The kids really enjoyed both the parade and fireworks. Annika LOVED seeing the pretty lighted sky and didn't seem bothered by the BOOM noises at all. :)

We don't live too far from the fairgrounds, so the walk wasn't bad. It was just that last hill up to our house that wiped me out. Nolan helped me push the stroller and cheered us on the whole way! We made it back home!

There's A Wocket In My Pocket

Fun in the Water

I love this little swimming hole/ pond at the Penn Valley park. We spent many a summer day there growing up. We had fun going there last week with cousins! Nolan had a blast climbing around the rocks like a turtle. He was gettin pretty brave. :P Annika loved it too! I love in the video starting at 2:47...silly girl.

At one point we were over by those metal tunnels where the water comes pouring out and into the pond. The kids loved walking across and feeling the rush of the water. They went across over and over again. Annika loved splashing in it. The water was pretty strong so I really had to keep an eye on Nolan to make sure it didn't whoosh him out. Well, as I was hanging on to Annika for a while, I realized after a minute or two I hadn't seen Nolan come through for some time. I took a look at all my surroundings and didn't see him. I took ANOTHER good look...still didn't see him anywhere. I started to panic a little. Having a lost kid is one thing...having a lost kid near water is another...I started to ask everyone, HAVE YOU SEEN NOLAN??? over and over. He was nowhere! AHHHHH! Now I was really panicking. I looked into the water where it drops off from the sidewalk to see if he was underneath. I couldn't see him. I even popped my head through one of those tunnels and still no Nolan. I handed Annika to my Dad and was seconds from jumping into the pond, fully clothed. All of a sudden Nolan pops out of one of the tunnels. AHHHH! I just had to look in the wrong one. He had walked across the road to the other side and gone through. It was partly my fault. He saw some other kids doing it and I told him how fun it was when I used to do that when I was younger...:P I gave him the idea. I was a little surprised he hadn't told me where he was going. That isn't normally something Nolan would do. Oh well, now he knows!