Zoo with Friends

My college roommate, Amy, and her family came in town last week and we met up at the zoo.  Jack and Bo had fun with this penny smashing machine.  Yes, we went to a zoo with lots of real, live animals, and the boys enjoyed playing with a machine with a stuffed animal inside.

Our friends Garrett and Nick met up with us, too!

A train ride is a must!

The boys enjoyed lunch by the sea lion basin.

My friend Kathleen came over last week with her kids, Lily and William.

Patrick is one day older than William.

Apparently Patrick didn't like what William had to say.

Jack has been enjoying all his old baby toys I have been slowly bringing out of storage for Patrick.

Jim went to get Patrick when he woke up one morning.  He brought him downstairs and told me, "Before you say anything, the other guy looks much worse."  Huh?  Then I saw Patrick:

Apparently Patrick got a bloody nose in his sleep.  His sheets, blanket, face, and hands were covered with blood.  Yuck!  Patrick seemed happy, though.

Staying Cool

Here are some pictures from the past week. 

 Patrick shows off his beautiful blue eyes:

Smiley Jack:

Patrick learned how to clap a couple weeks ago. 

Did I mention his eyes?

We got to swim at Margo's pool last week.  Patrick took a 3+ hour nap inside while we swam, swam, swam outside!

Margo demonstrated the new swimming skills she learned at her swim lessons.

Patrick still is not crawling, but he can roll, twist, and scoot to get most things he wants.

Love the blue eyes...

We went to my friend Janie's house to swim one day.  Jack loves to be in the water.  Once again, Patrick napped while we swam.

Janie's slide was popular with the kids.

Mary caught her son, Patrick, when he came down the slide.  She also caught Jack when he went down the slide.

Luca seemed very happy in the water.

Lilly wasn't so sure about sharing her pool with all these boys!

The boys were a little scared of Holly. 

Mary and Patrick:

Me and Jack:

At home, Jack built this "wall" to keep Patrick out.

Yesterday, we went to our friend's lake house.  Jack and Patrick held hands in the back seat for part of the trip.

We had a lot of fun at the lake.  We swam, fished, rode on a boat, played wiffle ball, grilled, made s'mores, and slept well.  I don't have any pictures from the actual lake because I was afraid to bring my camera on the boat.  April took some pictures with her camera, so I will post them later if she sends them to me. 

 Daddy and his boys:

 April and Bill were great hosts.

  

 There was a lot of room for Jack to run.

Play-Doh

Jack has been playing with Play-Doh a lot lately.  It's funny to listen to him talk about what he is making with it.  The other night he was playing at the dining room table while I was cooking dinner.  Jack was making pita bread and falafel.  Funny!  We had that for dinner a couple weeks prior.  Today Jack is making Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake, which is what we had with breakfast this morning.  I think it's funny that he doesn't say he is making "coffee cake" or "blueberry cake."  Nope.  He refers to it by its full name.  I also wonder how many other kids make falafel and pita bread when they play with Play-Doh. 

Kansas City

We just got back from a short trip to Kansas City.  Jim had a couple days off work so we decided to go on a mini-vacation.  When deciding where to go we consulted the Cardinals schedule.  They were playing in Kansas City!  Perfect!  We left after Jack's tee ball practice on Saturday.  Our friends Jake and Julie kindly let us stay at their home in KC.  When we arrived on Saturday afternoon we took the kids to a petting zoo near their house.  Jack got to ride this pony.

Jim and Patrick studied animal x-rays.

Jack got to milk a cow (it's not a real cow).

On Sunday morning we went to my cousin Katie's house for brunch.  The food was delicious and it was nice to catch up with her, and meet her new husband Matt.  You can tell from these pictures that we both married men that are considerably taller than we are.

Then it was time for the Cardinals game!

Kauffman Stadium is the fifth MLB stadium Jack has been to!

This was Patrick's first MLB game!

The game was fun.  There were as many, or more, Cardinal fans as Royals fans.  Too bad the Cardinals lost!  My friend Kitty was in town from Denver and took this picture.  Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture with her.  It was really hot at the game, so we moved to the very top row of the stadium where we were in the shade and there was a slight breeze.

Saturdays

Here are some pictures from our past couple of Saturdays.  Two Saturdays ago we went to our parish picnic.  It was so hot out that we didn't stay long.  Jack and I went down this big slide (later Jack went down by himself).

Patrick sweated in the shade of the stroller.  I gave him my water bottle filled with ice and water to cool off.

Jim and Jack rode the roller coaster.

Jack has had tee ball the past two Saturdays.  At the first practice he didn't really want to do much of what the rest of the team was doing.  This past Saturday was better.  It's pretty cute to watch a bunch of 3 year olds learn how to play tee ball.

We warmed up with a run.

Then we practiced throwing and catching.

Next the team gathered around Coach Mark for a hitting lesson.

We practiced fielding...

...and hitting.

Finally we ran the bases!

After practice we played at the playground for a bit before going home.

Last weekend (Father's Day weekend) we had wanted to go camping, but it was incredibly hot.  We decided to do something "cool" instead and went to Onondaga Cave.  It's a cool 57 degrees inside!  The tour was a little over an hour and a half, but the kids did great.

Bright flash in dark cave:

Jack was excited to finally get to touch something.  Visitors are not allowed to touch anything in the cave, but we were allowed to touch this stalagmite.

When we came home we played and had a picnic dinner on the floor while we watched the Cardinals win the World Series (we watched the DVD from the 2006 Series).