Our Kids Blog

Day 4 of our trip involved going to some local parks with the kids in the morning (it was 84^o and humid at 8:30 am), then we cooled down at the mall where we met a really helpful mom who shared some great ideas on fun things to do in the Edmond/Oklahoma City area. The day ended hanging out with some great friends, their son, and their two dogs. We ate a great dinner with them at their house and then spent the rest of the evening staying cool in their neighborhood pool. Spending time with friends is usually a big part of our family vacations and visiting the Zuckermandel family was a major reason we wanted to get back to Oklahoma for a visit.

Sorry Owen, I guess we needed something more exciting by the camera. You do have a nice profile though.

Oklahoma City has a nice science museum and the four of us spent the whole morning learning and playing there. Emma really enjoyed the gymnastics exhibit and then the kids’ area where she could do her own face painting. Emma also got to ride on a Segway. Kenny enjoyed the water area and the bubbles.

In the afternoon, we decided to try going to a movie with both Emma and Kenny. We went and saw Toy Story 3. Emma did a great job, but Kenny being only 20 months needed to get out of the theater for a while to stretch his legs. It was a great Father’s Day.

Our second day of our trip involved visiting our dear friends the Ongs. They visited us just before Christmas, but we wanted to visit them in St. Louis before they left to go back to Singapore. While in St. Louis we also wanted to do a little sightseeing. We, along with Grace Ong, made a quick visit to Grant’s Farm where the highlight was feeding goats from bottles. We also saw the Budweiser Clydesdales, parrots, giant tortoises, and quite a few species of deer. It was a lot of fun.

After Grant’s Farm, we went downtown to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. I didn’t mention yet that it was hot (mid 90s and humid). Well the Arch was so busy that we stood in line outside in the sun for almost a half hour just to get into the visitor center. Once inside we found out that it would be another 2 hours to get onto the elevator to the top of the arch. Needless to say, with too little kids and an 8 hour drive left, we didn’t go up the arch this time. We hope to be back someday and we will buy our tickets for the elevator in advance.

To start our trip to Oklahoma, we actually left from Welch, MN where Kenny had one week intensive Occupational Therapy with a lady named Sheryl Field. Our goal was to make it to St. Louis on this first day, which we did. Most of the driving actually was not on Insterstate Highways. Instead we took a lot of local highways. As a result, our first stop eneded up being in Pine Island, MN at an A&W.

The actual recital went very well and Emma enjoyed performing and watching the other dancers perform. The grand finale involved all of the dancers and the younger dancers literally looked up to the older dancers to help with the routine.

The last couple of pictures are just to show Emma’s hair which Tammy did for the recital.

The Sreckov’s came over for a visit to watch Serbia play Ghana in the World Cup. The Sreckov’s have Serbian blood, but even with their cheering Ghana still came up victorious. The kids all got their soccer jersey’s on for the event. It was hard to let Emma wear an England jersey just one day after playing them to a draw, but it was all that we had.

Emma was in a dance class all year and as with most dance classes, the year end event is a recital. This first post is actually from the dress rehearsal where we could get nice and close to take some pictures.

UPDATE: Here is video of the dance.

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On the last day of school for me (and usually on the first day back in the fall) Tammy and the kids bring me lunch. It is tradition. Whenever the kids come to school they need to write on the whiteboards. To keep the markers from staining the kids clothes they get to wear some of my old undershirts. Fun memories.

When Emma was dedicated, the Ternbergs gave her a rose bush. We planted it at our old house on Emery Street and it was in bloom for Emma’s 5 month birthday so I’ve included that picture in this post. When we moved to our new house two years ago, the rose bush came with us and as it bloomed this year we got another picture of it with Emma.

After going to church last night, we headed to the local Renaissance Faire. We didn’t stay too long, but the weather was great and we had a lot of fun.

Tammy started the day with a free archery lesson. She only fired one arrow and she actually hit the pile of hay bails on which the target was attached.

Kenny didn’t eat enough iron for breakfast.

Emma started with the cup of corn for the goats, but she did give Kenny a turn before the corn was all gone.

Kenny did a little feeding.

Even when the corn was all gone he still tried to do some feeding.

Kenny moved on to try to give the goats some water. He was quite confused though, he would dunk the little flower pot into the water and within two steps of leaving the bucket the water in the pot would be all gone.

Kenny is hoping to give some of the imaginary water to this “woof-woof.”

The had a few rides and one was a lot like the swings at a regular fair, but the seats were a little more relaxed and the whole thing was operated by two men turning a big crank to get the thing to go around.

Kenny and mom didn’t get to go for a ride, but they did try out the seats.

Emma still likes princesses, but we had to pretty much force her to put on this princess dress (the face tells that story). She has been anti dress lately.

We got to take in a little jousting. This show was just a preliminary joust involving cabbages and rings. Later in the day would be the “joust to the death.”

Petting the horses was a treat.

Emma soon forgot that she had the dress on and enjoyed herself again. Kenny was wearing a pirate costume that we got at a garage sale.

One last ride. Another spinning ride that was all, in this case, women powered.

We ended the day with an elephant ride. This was a little bit of a surprise. Yes, the elephants themselves were a surprise, but the bigger surprise was that when we sent our little girl to ride the elephant without either of us, we assumed that one of the workers would be riding with her. Nope. Our little four year old was all by herself.

After wards, Emma said she didn’t want to say anything while on the elephant, but she did get a little scared when she thought the elephant was going to tip over (not just her, but the whole elephant). Just a little scared though.

We often head up to Great Uncle and Aunt Maloney’s on Sunday afternoon. One of the activities that has become a favorite of the kids is to ride on Uncie Dayle’s scotter. Their nice big driveway makes for some nice rides.

Our kids have been growing up going to Waterworks at our church, Jacob’s Well. Kenny hopefully will soon do a better job of not just crying while in his class. Emma really enjoys all the fun and learning about God that is a part of her class. There is a toy in the toddler class that both Emma and Kenny have enjoyed…a rocking cow (cows are more popular than horses here in Wisconsin). So here are shots of Kenny on the cow, a present day picture of Emma on the cow, and finally a picture of Emma at age 18 months on the cow.

I cut the corn off the cob for Kenny’s first helping of corn, but after watching his sister he insisted on getting the whole cob. I don’t think he will ever go back to plain old kernel corn again.

Emma loved visiting Disneyland and all the princesses, so a few weeks ago she decided to make drawings to send to the princesses. We sent them away to Disneyland so hopefully they got to the princeses.

Memorial Day in Eau Claire means a parade. Papa Swany (who was drafted during the Viet Nam War and served in Oklahoma joined us). The last picture is of cousin Carter who actually walked in the parade handing out Express Baseball schedules. Mom and Emma were in the cities getting Uncle Joe from the airport.