Friday 7/10

Practice Carnival Part II

Piper & Haley

things got a little messy...

taking a break from carnival for rockem sockem aliens

counting tickets

more outdoor time during music lessons

the game they never tire of...

Thursday 7/9

Okay, between our Mediacom connection never working when I have 5 minutes to post a blog and Verizon making me jump through horrific hoops to finally get pictures from my camera, I've fallen way behind. To catch up, the next several updates will be brief and mostly pictures with captions - thanks for your patience!

a practice carnival in the basement to prepare
for the upcoming Kids Party in August

Piper mans her post

Keigon returns from Harrison's tape maze

prizes from our "to garage sale" tub

Haley passes Piper on the tape maze

Justice won some tickets

counting tickets

Outdoor time during music lessons

What time is it, Mr. Fox?

a visit to the critters at PetCo

Justice helping Keigo look at lizards

posing for the camera

Justice

Ta-Dah! Turtles!

Wednesday 7/8

Rain Rain Go Away! So much for the Linn County Fair today! No matter - the kids had a great time playing indoors this morning, then after lunch we began our adventuring - by the time we got back to the house, the rain had stopped, though it wasn't warm enough to swim.

Piper & Keigon build a Littlest Pet Village

We didn't make it to Half Price Books with our reading logs last Friday (since everybody was gone for the July 4 weekend) so we took advantage of the rainy weather to get our $3 gift certificates, and redeem them.

Piper got an activity/sticker book with hers, but she really had her eye on a lovely Precious Moments bible cover. It was a dollar too expensive, though, so she settled on her activity book. Then Harrison decided to use his allowance to get her the bible cover as a belated birthday present. She's going to use it to store her beloved crafting items at the daycare this summer.

Keigon parlayed his certificate into TWO Spiderman videos and an Incredible Hulk video - we've got some great shoppers!

We just had time to grab a quick lunch, then headed to Franklin. It was still kind of rainy, so we decided to read in the van with the windows open, to stay dry but get some much-needed fresh air.

We dropped off all the middle school passengers to their respective homes, and dropped Harrison off at Connor's house, then team kindergarten headed to the Hiawatha library for a special craft activity. They made pretend pizza's, complete with pizza boxes and a special gift certificate for a free kids' soda at Godfather's on Blairs Ferry Road.

Keigon thinks his dad will probably eat this pizza accidentally!

Since the pool was closed, Keigon shared his new videos with us and we had a movie party with popcorn and treats when we got home.

Tuesday 7/7

A little something for everyone on a day with beautiful weather! We started out with a morning visit to Thomas Park. There was a daycare there from Anamosa that was swarming all over the play area, so we decided to start out with a short trail hike.

Unfortunately, our trail hike lasted through the other group's very early lunch (we got back at 11:20 and they were finishing their lunches and heading back to the play area - sigh) but it turned out to be a mixed blessing - there were some nice kids in that group, so we made some new friends.

We finally got hungry and headed back to the house for our own lunches. Then we went to the Hiawatha library, where Leslie Charipar, the artistic director at Theatre Cedar Rapids, was conducting an acting workshop for middle school students. She said we could stay and watch Harrison, but when we finally got a little bored, we headed out to the children's section to pick out some books to check out and play in the fun zone.

Leslie is in the tie-dye shirt. Harrison is in grey.

Believe it or not, this is a breathing exercise.
The little kids were doing this in the back row, but they stopped before I could snap their picture!

almost ready to head out of the classroom

one last look at Harrison

puzzles in the fun zone!

awesome train table

Monday 7/6

PIPER'S 5th BIRTHDAY!! She was dressed in the prettiest pink dress, and it turned out to be a lucky thing. At the movie theater, they had a kid's parade. Anybody dressed as a prince or princess got to be in the parade, and was then awarded a free movie pass - happy birthday, Piper!

unfortunately, this is the only picture that came out - my phone doesn't take very good pictures in the low light of the movie theater!

After the movie we had a quick lunch, then raced to Franklin to drop off 2 trumpet players and 2 cellists at their music lessons. The rest of us took advantage of the beautiful weather to play at the nearby playground.

Keigon takes a break in the shade

Keigon watches Justice go down the HOT slide!

Wanting to keep her pretty dress clean, Piper decided to play with her brand new (pink!) Nintendo DS

Piper's mommy picked her up at the playground, and the rest of us caught up to her later that afternoon at the pool.

Friday 7/3

No daycare today - everybody stayed home to get an early start on 4th of July festivities - so in lieu of a post, here's a copy of the article in the 7/3 paper that featured our very own Piper!