August 2015

Our neighbor across the street gets free sweet corn from a family farm and offered us as much as we wanted. So we took a few bags full. The boys helped me shuck them and get them ready for freezing. It was so yummy.

Circus

We heard a circus was in Spirit Lake so we decided to take the kids. We made an afternoon of it and went to the lake for a picnic lunch before heading over to the circus. 

Laken always willing to smile for a picture.

Kaliya and Jared 

Carter can be a stinker when it comes to getting his picture sometimes and this was one of those times. 

Some of the fun circus stuff. It was all in an outside circus tent so it was pretty hot in there. But the kids enjoyed most of it and weren't too fussy. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of Kaliya watching any part of the circus. 

Laken enjoyed watching all the fun stunts - unicycle on a tightrope, unicyclist juggling flames, the girl swinging by her hair, etc. He sat still for most of the circus. He kept asking for a blow-up dinosaur but we decided it was too expensive. It was hard to see him so sad over not getting something he wanted so much.

Carter is a little harder to please. He sat with a straight face for most of the circus. It wasn't until the dogs came out that he started showing interest by smiling and clapping. 

The River

One Sunday afternoon we decided to take the kids to play in the river. We found a decent spot that wasn't too deep and didn't have a strong currant. The kids had lots of fun. Laken is usually the first to walk right in and get as wet as he can. Carter is a little more timid and wants to make sure he is safe. Kaliya stayed on the edge with me for a while before getting in the water. 

Carter loved throwing rocks in the water.

Laken having a good time with sticks and getting his head wet.

Kaliya has learned from her brothers that playing with sticks is fun.
Then later she also decided to stick her head in the water. 

Everyone having fun in the water.

After Kaliya had enough, she came and sat with me for a while until everyone else was ready to leave (or at least most everyone).

More corn to shuck and freeze from other neighbors.

Arnolds Park

We decided that since school was starting soon, we needed to get things done that we had been planning this summer. Going to the Arnolds Park Amusement Park was one of those things. We had a few points left over from last year when we went with Jared's parents so we figured we would finish them up and let the kids do some rides.

The boys riding on the fish. We tried to put Kaliya on but she didn't want to go.
Then we went to the dragon ride and only Laken wanted to do that.

We thought Carter was done with just his one ride so we planned on letting Laken do whatever he wanted but then Carter spotted the train ride and decided it was a safe enough ride to go on. So the boys did that and spent the last of our points.

After we were done with the rides, we had a picnic lunch and got the kids changed into their swimsuits so we could play on the beach and in the lake. The kids started out playing in the sand at first. Laken was really the only one who went into the water on his own.

Laken in the water. Jared challenged him to see who could hold their breath the longest. No surprise Jared won.
We tried to get Kaliya in the water but she wasn't a huge fan of it unless Jared was holding her.
Carter loved just playing on the sand. I don't think he went in the water at all. 

Camping

We realized we were running out of weekends to go camping so we just picked one and got it done. We had dinner at home first and by the time we got there and got the tent up, it was already getting dark so we made a fire real quick and let the kids have some roasted marshmallows. Laken found his own stick and wanted to use that to roast his own marshmallow instead of our metal ones. Carter and Kaliya weren't huge fans of the fire and wanted to stay as far away from it as they could. One at a time we got the kids to lay down for bed. Laken stayed up until Jared and I went to bed. I'm glad he is starting to enjoy camping more and does better with it, it makes it so much more fun. The next morning we didn't stick around too long - just long enough to eat and start taking things down. There was a high change of rain and we wanted to make sure we got out before anything got wet. But we were there long enough for the kids to find sticks, rocks, acorns, leaves and a toad.

Campfire at night.

Having fun in the morning. We even took Misty with us.

Other

My cute kids. Carter just being a silly, happy boy.
Laken being my gentleman by carrying my bags of groceries to the car for me. He likes to be as strong as hulk.

Kids enjoying an icecream treat.

We bought Laken a new watch with an alarm to help him remember to go to the bathroom throughout the day. We thought we needed to do something since he still has a problem with being wet and he's going into all-day Kindergarten. So we decided to give this a try. We also told him if he could stay dry for 8 days we would get him something. So he did and wanted a fish. And since Carter has never had much of a problem with staying dry we let him get a fish too.

The kids enjoying some time at the playground.

To celebrate Laken going into Kindergarten I took him (and consequently the others) to get an ice cream treat at McDonalds. We rarely take the kids out for things like this so they enjoy it when we do.