Weekend Wrap-Up

Summer weekends are flying by.  Here's what we've been up to.

Kael is getting so great at driving and I'm enjoying time alone in the car with him.  He's so fun. 

He drove me out to Cherry Glen the other night and asked if I remembered how when he was little he used to love coming out and watching the boats get put in/pulled out of the water.  Seems like that was just yesterday and now here he is driving me!

This monkey has spent a lot of time hanging around at the park and in the 'hood with friends.

Friday morning I told the kids I needed their help cleaning the house then promised them we would go do something fun afterwards.  They all pitched in and after lunch we headed to the Operating Room! The had fun trying all the new games!

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Then we went to Cold Stone.  The kids were so sweet and so thankful. Then we stopped by B and B to spend a few arcade cards before heading home.  Fun afternoon!

Later that evening Kent and I swung out to Polk City quick to hang with the Vogels for a bit.  Kael and Kase stayed home and Kael was so proud to help out by watching Kase and getting to have pizza delivered for them to have for dinner.

Meanwhile, Kylee was at one of her best friend's birthday parties!

They had a blast and stayed up until 3 AM!

The next morning it started pouring and Kase asked if he could go out and feel the rain.  I said yes, then fully blew his mind when I told him he could run out and play in it if he wanted.  Kael was like, "Mom are you serious?" and then asked if he could go too.  Honestly it was probably one of the highlights of their summer.  Kase said, "I'm never going to forget you let us do this and how fun it was."  It's always the little things, right?

 Kase's game got cancelled because of the weather but later it cleared off enough for us to go "camping" with our friends! We try to go once a year together and every year it rains but we still have the best time.

Kase couldn't get enough of playing with these giant leaves.

The crew heading off to swim at the beach flooded parking lot.

These city girls didn't hesitate to give themselves a mud bath.

Kael is such a good sport about going along even though our friends don't have any kids Kael's age.  He has fun with Kent and Mark playing KanJam!

These two are hilarious together.

These girlies have so much fun together.

It did look like rain, so we headed home after dinner and s'mores.  We pulled the fire pit into the garage and the kids had fun running around with glow sticks until the rain came.  The girls stayed at our house and Kase stayed at their house for a fun sleepover night for all.

Look at this epic fort they made!

Kase had fun playing in it the next morning when he got home.

What a fun night.  The next day Kent was up early and went to Kyle and Julia's to help with a tree branch that had come down in their driveway. Later we all went over and had lunch and had a great time catching up with the family.  So excited for everyone to be closer soon! Kevin and Kaity and Kellen will be moved to Ankeny in just a couple weeks!

We spent the afternoon hanging around then later went to a neighbor's 40th birthday get together.  It was a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for cute cousins and family get togethers.

I'm thankful for friends with Adventureland passes for Kylee!

I'm thankful for Kylee's creative side.  We were out for a walk the other night and some neighbors were in their driveway with paint and Kylee came home with this.  Cute!

I'm thankful for basketball camp buddies.

I'm thankful for this awesome Henna tattoo workshop at the library the other day! The black peeled off and left Kylee with some cool arm art!

I'm thankful for silly moments with Kase.  He rode along to Target with Kylee and me yesterday while Kylee needed to shop for a friend's birthday gift.  He entertained me by showing me all.the.Pokemon things and Fortnite Nerf guns, but the most entertaining part was watching him run around in my cardigan.  We'd just had ice cream and it was freezing in Target! I offered him my cardigan thinking he would refuse but he accepted and thought it was the funniest thing.

I'm thankful for my Camper of the Day! Kylee came home with a mini volleyball last night saying she had been chosen as Camper of the Day for her hard work.  So proud of her!

I'm thankful for Kael's independence.  He's had a very busy couple weeks with Driver's Ed, basketball camps, and weightlifting.  He's always willing to ride his bike to and from all of these things without a single complaint.  Really proud of my buddy.

I'm thankful Kase slept in on Tuesday! It was 9:30 before he got out of bed! Wowza- a record for sure!

Happy Thursday!

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had such a great weekend at the Ozarks with for the Edward Jones Summer Regionals.  

We left right after Kael was done with Winning Edge on Thursday morning.  The kids were such good riders! It was a beautiful day when we got there.  Had a little time to walk around the resort since our room wasn't quite ready.

Kent and I then had a quick meeting while Kylee and Kase were at Kids Club.  Kael went bowling and got some ice cream, then when our room was ready, he got our keys and carried in all the luggage from the car! How awesome is that? So proud of him and it was so nice to come back from our meeting with everything already in the room!

Next up was our group dinner.  Kase loved the tattoos.  It was a great night catching up with everyone and then we all hit the pool! It was a fun night for the kids.

The next morning after breakfast the kids hung out in their secret stairway hideout. This crew had so much fun together all weekend.

Kent and I had meetings (mine was a fun Bags tournament!) and Kylee babysat with a friend.  Kael got to go to a group teen bowling outing and Kase had fun in Kids Club.  When my meeting was done we went to the pool for a little bit then went to Redhead's for lunch.  It was a cool place! Kent and Kase had fun playing Ring Toss and Kael had fun talking with our waiter all about the boat races and how fast some boats can go on the lake.

At Redhead's with my favorite redhead!

Then, dessert at Andy's! We made it there twice during our short weekend trip!

Kael's was called "The Mizzou" which is why he is making a face.  He loved the ice cream.

Back at the resort, Kael played mini golf with some friends.

Then, we had a group outing at Bridal Caves! Kids had fun looking in the gift shop and taking funny pictures before we went on our tour.

The caves were really neat!

Kase kept catching "cave kisses" in his mouth.

What a fun group!

That night we had a group dinner on the deck.  Had to take a picture of Kase since we sometimes call him JB!

The live music was great!

There were all sorts of fun things for the kids to wear.

And someone doing caricatures! The kids got some done with their friends.

But Kase told them his name was Charley- ha!

The limbo was so fun! Kase was kind of shy and only did a few rounds.

But Kylee hung in until the end!

Look how much taller she is than the rest of the kids who were still in! Lol. It was a really fun night.

The next morning, Kent had a meeting so the rest of us went to the hotel arcade then hit the pool.  I'm so thankful for this group of kiddos!

We had lunch outside with our good friends.

After a relaxing morning/afternoon at the pool, we had just enough time to race Go Karts! So fun.  Kael was a good sport and had Kase ride with him on one of the races.

We came back to the hotel and got all cleaned up then took the boys to Kids Club and Kylee babysat with a friend again.  I had so many nice comments about her this weekend and how grown up and helpful she is.  So proud.  Later in the night Kael checked a friend out of Kids Club and they went mini golfing so that was great too!

Kent and I met up with some friends in the lobby before dinner.

I truly can't say enough about how thankful I am to be a part of the Edward Jones family.  Kent has worked really hard this last year and got some really special awards.  It was a memorable night celebrating and some very nice things were said about him! I already can't wait until next year's Regionals!