Sky Lanterns

Our neighbor Donnie turned 21 this weekend. His family had a big party for him and his mom bought at least 20 flying sky lanterns. Ben and I helped her light them off. She had us do one as a family and make a wish as we sent it flying. The boys loved this! Flying sky Lanterns are AWESOME!!

Pirate Day Camp

Lukas attended Moraine Trails Council River Valley District "PIRATE DAY CAMP" all week: July 23 – July 27! This was his first year to attend day camp and he really enjoyed it. It was all day, 8:30AM – 4:00PM. He was exhausted every night. The first day they divided the kids up into four different groups/ships. Lukas was on the Green Sea Turtle Ship. A lot of the boys in his group were from his Den which made it really nice. Of course our little social butterfly made some new friends, too!

Green Sea Turtle daily schedule:

8:30 – Open Ceremony

9:00 to 9:45 – Crafts

9:45 to 11:15 – Pool

11:15 to 12:15 – Lunch

12:15 to 1:00 – Shooting Sports

1:00 to 1:45 – Field Sports

1:45 to 2:30 – Nature

2:30 to 4:00 – Special  

His favorite highlights of the week:

Monday, July 23rd – he got "Top Shot" in archery. 

Wednesday, July 25th – they had an annual egg drop. The kids had to find a way for their raw egg not to break when dropped. Lukas wrapped his in bubble packaging material and it survived!!

Cool crafts he made:

A ship in a jar

Treasure chest made out of popsicle sticks

Necklace

Sailboats/Ships

Treasure map

Lukas's raw egg wrapped up like a football:)

BBgun target

KENNYWOOD

The boys and I went to Kennywood with Great Nanny, Nanny, Aunt Kristy, Lee Ann and Ashlynn. Of course Ben couldn't go because of his work schedule. This was Landon's 1st year at Kennywood and he LOVED it! He got to ride a lot of the "BIG" rides. More than we were expecting.

The first ride we went on was the Kangaroo. Everyone loves this ride. My sister and I can still remember riding that with our Nanny when we were little. This year she got to sit and watch us ride with her great grandchildren. How many people get to experience Kennywood or any other amusement park with their great grandparent? We sure did make some priceless memories this year. We got Great Nanny a scooter to ride around the park and that turned out to be a two for one deal. Landon got to ride around with her all day and we didn't have to worry about him whining about being tired. It was fantastic. Great Nanny really enjoyed riding around with Landon on her rented scooter. They are best buds:)

The second ride we rode was the Jack Rabbit. Lukas punked out this year and sat with great Nanny, but Landon was excited to ride. He rode with Nanny and Kristy and I rode together. We sat right in front of them and watched Landon's face the whole time. It was priceless! This coaster has two jumps and after the second jump we thought he was in shock. After a few seconds he started laughing and said it was awesome. He's definitely our little "Rider". He wanted to ride EVERYTHING!

Lukas spent a lot of time riding with Ashlynn. Lukas kept saying that she was his "riding buddy"! They had us howling on the bob sled ride. Lukas insisted on being the back rider (this is the person that gets smashed). He's too much! We all had fun watching them:)

Lee Ann took Lukas and Ashlynn to ride the raging rapids, Kristy and our Mom went to ride stuff that the kids couldn't get on and Great Nanny and I took Landon to Kiddie Land so he could ride. I got to say that this was the best part of the day...watching my Nanny smile with excitement while she watched Landon on all the little rides. Every time he'd go round and round yelling "Hi Great Nanny". Then after he'd got off a ride, he'd hop on her scooter and she would ride him to whatever he wanted to go on next.

When Kristy and our Mom came back to Kiddie Land she told us two to go ride any rides that we wanted to go on which were the Aero 360, Slingshot and of course I had to ride the Black Widow. The Black Widow is the new ride this year that took the place of the Pitt Fall. All I have to say about the Widow is ....AWESOME-LOVED IT, LOVED IT.....LOOVEEEEED IT! We waited in line for 30 minutes and it was totally worth every minute!

We had a wonderful day and I told Ben that the FOUR of US are definitely going next year!

Fishing!

Today we spent the day at Megan's grandparents house in the middle of no-where. Our nephew, Logan, is home from Kentucky so Megan made plans for us to take all the boys fishing in their pond. All the guys caught  fish today...even Daddy and Uncle Mike! Lukas caught his biggest fish yet...a monster blue gill:) He caught a total of 4 for the day. Landon caught the tiniest fish of all...a baby bass! It was super cute and he was so excited. He was done fishing after he caught his little fish.

Her grandparents (Ralph and Emma) made us a huge ham dinner. They had a small refrigerator full of drinks that the kids loved. It was just their size and they could help themselves. We loved spending the day with them. They were so sweet and generous. Thanks for everything Ralph and Emma! We definitely plan on coming back:)

A Day Downtown!

The boys and I spent the day with Aunt Lee Ann and Ashlynn in downtown Pittsburgh! First we stopped at Panera for a quick breakfast and then we headed to The Andy Warhol Museum. I can't believe that  I've been a graphic designer over 10 years and have never been to this museum. I've wanted to go since I was in college. I loved it! This was the first time for both boys to experience an art museum. They did extremely well. Lukas enjoyed the camouflage and skull series. All the kids loved the silver clouds. They did not want to leave that room! Lee Ann took them to the studio/education room  where they could explore Andy Warhol's art, life and artistic practice. They even hand-screened their own t-shirts. They each picked what color tee, graphic and inks for the shirts. It was totally awesome. They all turned out great!

After spending a few hours at the museum, we rode the "T" Downtown. This was another first experience for the boys and they loved the "T" :) When we got off at Gateway station, we headed straight to the Six Penn Kitchen for lunch. The food was delicious. After lunch, we walked to Market Square and the kiddos played in the PPG dancing fountains for two hours.

We finished our day with icecream from the Marble Slab...MMMmmmm:) It was a fantastic day. They had so much fun with their cousin today! We'll definitely have to do this again, soon:)

Thanks Lee Ann and Ashlynn, we had a blast!