Adios Luigi

Or is it Ciao Luigi?  

If Brenden had to write this post he would shed a tear. We sold Luigi earlier this month to a nice older gentleman in Kansas.  We had listed him for sale and he was gone within a week.  Luigi was good to us.  We bough him before kids...when Brenden was still in grad school.  At this point in our lives it was time to pass him along to someone who would love him and would be able to fix him when he broke down.  I will now sleep better knowing Brenden won't get run off the road.  I feel like an era has passed.  We are officially grown-ups.

2007

 2012

Luigi, I'll miss hearing your high pitched VROOOM from 2 miles away letting me know Brenden will be home in minutes.  I will not miss him smelling like gasoline or you belching exhaust...cough.

Nebraska State Fair

 We took the kids to the State Fair this week.  It was super hot! We saw all the animals, rode some rides and ate funnel cake.  I found out that my kids love roller coasters. Emmie got to ride on one and Pete screamed so loud that he wasn't getting on that the guy let he and Brenden on for free.  Oh and we are getting a corn pit.  The kids played in that thing for at least 30 minutes.

Preschool

 Emmie started preschool today.  She is in the afternoon class 3 days a week which works out great since she is not taking as many naps these days!  

Age: 4

Favorite food: Bananas with peanut butter

Favorite TV show: Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and My Little Pony

Favorite thing to wear: Skirts

Favorite treat: Marshmallows

Favorite hobbies: Building Legos with Peter and jumping on the furniture with Peter

Favorite phrase: Starts every sentence with the word "actually"

 

Waterpark

 We decided (along with our neighbors and their Korean foreign exchange student friend Ellie) to go to the water park in Grand Island on a Saturday.  It turned out to be rainy and cold so postponed until the next Saturday... which was rainy and cold but we were tough and went any way- we drove 45 minutes- we were going to do it! 

 Here's the gang. 

Pete lasted 15 minutes and then his lip started to quiver and he turned a purple-ish color.  We just snuggled the rest of the time.  This was huge.  Pete hasn't snuggled since infancy. 

 Check out Emmie's face.  This is how I felt every moment I was in the water.

We had fun but next time we will make sure the temp is above 80!

Sunflowers

Nebraska has some awesome sunflowers every August or so.  They just pop up in empty fields everywhere.  I love it!  I remember when Emmie was only a few months old we took her out and took some pictures in them. 

Oh how things change... the kids, not the sunflowers.

Name art

 I decided to put my many hours of scanning pinterest to work. The kids loved it and here is the result.  Sorry the bottom two are upside down.  I am computer illiterate and don't know how to fix it.

Soccor

I signed Emmie up for soccer this summer.  She picked out her own pink soccer socks and we got her some new shoes for the occasion.  It turns out Emmie didn't like soccer.  We spent every practice/game with her running to me in tears saying she was too tired.  Her team was the light blue lizards.  She kept complaining she wanted to be on the purple team.  Oh well...maybe we'll try again next year!

Ft. Kearney Beach

We love our next door neighbors.  We couldn't have hand picked a better family to live next door to.  Sometimes we put the kids down and then meet in the backyard and just chat over the fence, or we make smores around the fire pit, or we let the kids run around like mad in the sprinklers.  On this occasion we went to Ft. Kearney's beach.  Now, living in the very center of the United States we are very far from a real beach but this met our needs. I had forgotten how much kids like sand and how much I dislike kids and sand.  I was finding sand in their hair for a week!

Summertime

Emmie and Pete's guide to summer: 

1.  You should go to the pool as much as possible to hit on all the cute girls.

2.  Eat Popsicles often... and get the drips all down your arm. 

3.  Don't forget about the snow cones.  They are just as good as a Popsicle.

4.  When mom's too tired to go to the pool, the sprinkler is just fine. 

5.  When you get too hot, relax in hammock.

6.  If it rains after you've been at the pool for 5 minutes, that's OK.  Come home and play with your umbrellas.