Olympic Opening Ceremonies and our very own Circus!

Before the incredible pageantry of the Opening Ceremony (wasn't it incredible?), Kiddos 1, 2,3 and 4 put on their very own Circus, that rivaled the Beijing spectacle! LOL :-) They rehearsed all day, had their very own roles (Kiddo #1 was ringmaster in a bright red coat,


















Kiddo #2 was a clown/magician,
with his magic merlin hat,















Kiddo #3 was an elephant tamer and had his pachyderms all balance on a ball

















and Kiddo #4 was a juggler and actually did it once!) :-)















What a show and in our very own basement, not thousands of miles away!

Busy days of summer

Boy, it's August already! This summer is flying by. This past week was a well-deserved one of relaxing and hanging out at home and in the pool. You see, the week before was a crazy, hectic week that we enjoyed, but were glad when it was over. :-)

Kiddos 1 and 2 had a science camp from 9-12 that they really enjoyed. They made sidewalk chalk, crystals, took fingerprints and lots of other fun things. Kiddos 3 and 4 had a little science camp of their own from 9-9:45 that was about different kinds of animals. So, it was back and forth to the park for Mommy 2 times a day. (lovely with these gas prices)

If that wasn't enough, dinner had to be made, consumed and cleaned up by 6:05PM since in the evenings that same week was Vacation Bible School! I volunteered to work it and was a group leader, so I had to be there before it started at 6:30PM. It was a lot of fun and the kids' show at the end of the week was wonderful.

But, that was 6:30-8:30 each night and the kids had to be up in the morning by 7:30 to get to their science camps on time. Oh, and did I mention that we had playdates in the afternoons and had 10 kids in the house at one point? :-)

Thus, the well deserved rest-week this past week! :-)

This coming week sees kiddos 1 and 2 at another science camp and our preparations for our week at the beach that starts next Saturday. I have already started laying things out on the dining room table. Everyone in the family has a "job" in vacation-preparations, and Mommy's is getting all of the clothes and linens out to be packed. Of course, they all need to be washed first, so that is another hurdle.

We Rode a Duck!

My husband has only been getting 3 Sundays off a month with his overtime and military duty, so when he wasn't called in for overtime on Saturday, instead of being upset over a missed day of time and a half, we were thrilled! We actually would have a Saturday to do something together as a family!

Well, what to do. It was going to be over 90 degrees out. We took a train into the city and decided to go on a duck ride. Yes, a duck. Not a live duck, of course, but the amphibious vehicles from WWII that helped in the invasion of Sicily and Normandy. It was a lot of fun-- 70 minutes of sightseeing on land and river (of course, that was the kids' favorite part-that and the quackers that they got to quack to music, to people and other boats!) :-) I, myself had never quacked to the Village People or the Chicken Dance before, either. LOL.


We were driven through a lot of the historical sites in Philadelphia and then plunged into the Delaware River right underneath the Ben Franklin Bridge and cruised the river for a bit.



It was definitely an adventure!

The "Other" Zoo

On Thursday, I took the kids to the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, PA. Most people when I mention that zoo look kind of perplexed and say that they didn't know there was a zoo in Norristown. :-)


Of course, we have the Philadelphia Zoo, the first zoo in America with it's huge displays and large "zoo" animals: lions, tigers, elephants (well, not for much longer, but that's a topic for a whole other post). We have a membership there and the kids do enjoy it.

But, I decided to surprise them and take them to the small zoo that many don't know about. It is much smaller, doesn't have the lions, tigers and elephants, but has a charm that is undeniable. And, there are animals they wouldn't necessarily see anywhere else like American Bison. The Union Pacific train caboose always goes over big as does the big playground and the walk-through aviary and the crawl-through prairie dog tunnel.




I have to mention that I like to visit this zoo for another reason, as well. They not only discount military families' admission, they don't have *any* admission cost for military families. That's right, free. Wow. There aren't many places around today that acknowledge families like mine at all with even a small discount, let alone allow free admission. So, I was happy to buy the children ice cream on the hot summer day, pay for pony rides and buy them a small souvenir-- my way of saying thanks to them for being thankful. And, a great time was had, hot temps and all!

The First Fruits of Our Harvest

The first vegetables were picked from our humble garden today-- 2 cucumbers. Since they are kiddo #4's absolute favorite, we gave her the honor of picking them. I think kiddo #3 will be picking some peppers (his favorite) tomorrow! We all have sampled the cucumber (I know, before dinner, naughty us!), and it was really delicious-- far better than store bought!

Fourth of July

Although a bit rainy and overcast, it was still a fun day with a barbecue and some family members over to enjoy the festivities. I thought it too rainy to attend the local fireworks display, so we allowed the kids to stay up (I didn't know that they weren't going off until almost 11PM!) to watch the televised firework display from Philly. They were magnificent, though. Poor, tired, kiddo #4 was a very cranky, tantrum-prone girl the whole next day from the lack of sleep. :-)

The kids all had matching 4th of July shirts that I found at Target that looked really cute on them. I didn't get a photo of kiddos 1 & 2, unfortunately, but here are photos of kiddos 3 and 4 in their "July 4th attire." Happy Birthday America!

The Pool is Open!

After countless hours of blood, sweat and tears by their father and grandfather, the kids have been able to swim in the pool for the past week or so. (thus the real slow down of posts of late!) The fact that the kiddos have not missed a single day of swimming and spend *hours* in the pool at a time has made all of their work worth it, but I am truly thankful, because I know I would never be able to keep up with that kind of maintenance and work with everything else. Here are a few pictures from the first day in the pool on 6/22. A lot more "toys", inner tubes and other playthings have joined us since. :-)