Evers Family: August 2012

More August Fun

Here's the last of a string of posts about our August fun! Everything from birthday parties to trips to Michigan, it's been a great month! We are winding down these last 2 weeks and getting ready for fall routines to start. I've been trying to move the girls bed-time ahead so that they are up and going a bit earlier in the morning! Lydia has been skipping her afternoon nap, so that has also been shuffled into the mix. The last 2 nights the girls both went to bed around 7 or 7:30pm! Wow! Seems crazy but that's what they need when they don't nap and when they need to be up and moving by 6:30 or 7:00am! Makayla starts pre-school on the Wednesday after labor day. She'll go M, W, F morning for 2.5 hours. She be in the 3-year old class, even though she just turned 4. With an August birthday, she could have gone either to the 3 year old or 4 year old class. I think she'll do better being one of the oldest in her class vs one of the youngest. Makayla will also be in gymnastics, dance, and swimming this fall. Lydia will go to swimming and tumbling 2 of the mornings that Makayla is in school. It's going to be a busy fall but I'm looking forward to it and so are the girls! We get to meet Makayla's new teacher and tour her classroom next Wednesday! Then, we have 1 more weekend up north before summer is really ending! Wow!!

We planted a small garden inside the chicken wire in the photo below. We planted 1 grape tomato plant, 1 pumpkin plant, 1 green pepper plant, and 1 bean plant. The bean died and the green pepper is struggling, but the tomato and pumpkin plant are growing like crazy! You can see the tomato plant has taken over the inside of the chicken wire and the pumpkin has grown completely out of the chicken wire...out into the yard and under the deck!

I don't think I've posted photos of one of the girls favorite drive way activities! They love to have me draw roads on the driveway and then they drive their little tykes cars around the roads.

We add things like stop signs and other road markers! Makayla decided she didn't like a 1-way street, so it became a 2-way street! LOL!

Here's a sign for curves ahead!

Here's the gas station. We later added a string for air for tires. We also added some parking lots, parks, a pizza store and a McDonald's drive through! This keeps the girls entertained for quite a while! And every time it rains, we get to start over again! :)

Playdate at Bay Beach

We got together with my friend Louise and her 2 children, Ella and Jayden, at Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay. This is a fabulous park for kids and everyone had a great time!

Somehow, the girls twisted my arm into getting ice cream as we were leaving (we had just had a pretzel with Louise and her kids and we on our way to the van...we then got size tracked by bumping into my sister-in-law Julie and then needing to use the restrooms and then having to change a dirty diaper and then somehow Makayla remembered exactly where to buy ice cream from our last visit). Anyways, the girls both sat in the back of the stroller and enjoyed their ice cream, so it all worked out well! :)

Station #1 Tour

I'm in a Mom's Group in Appleton and one of our activities was a tour of the Fire Station in downtown Appleton! It was a really cool tour! We had a picnic lunch at a nearby park afterwards and I met a few more Moms who I really like!

Reunited with my Camera

When visiting Michigan in May I accidentally left my camera there. Since we were leaving for Florida the day after I got home and it was so expensive to overnight ship my camera, we ended up going out and buying a new camera for our Florida trip! So then I just had my parents hold onto the old one until we visited again! Here are a few pix that were on my camera from May in Michigan!

Visiting Michigan - More Fun

After our camping trip, we spent the rest of the time in Midland at my parent's house. We took a lot of trips to local parks, spent time with family, did some sewing projects, got some back-to-school shopping done, and had a great time!

Here's a photo of us with my Grandma Sandoval!

Here the girls are playing at the playground/park next to my parent's church! We also enjoyed slurpees from 7-11 at this park! There are no 7-11's around here in Wisconsin, so I love getting a slurpee when we are back in Michigan! Unfortunately, their low-calorie flavor was banana (ick) so I had to splurge and enjoy a nice sugary one! Yum, yum, yum!!

These photos were taken at a splash park in downtown Midland. The kids had a fabulous time until Lydia somehow tripped and scratched the top of her pinky toe and ring toe! So Lydia and I sat in the van watching a movie while Makayla and Grandma finished splashing! Her sore toe has been a drama since then! She's only been able to wear flip-flops because she doesn't want a sock or her crocs to touch the sore spot! Good thing it's almost healed! She did put a sock on to try on some new shoes yesterday...they were sparkly pink princess shoes! :)

These photos were taken at Plymouth Park's "fun zone". Makayla and Grandpa and I biked over one day while Lydia was snoozing!

We always like to play in the boat named Lydia!

These were taken at Emerson Park! Grandma, Grandpa, the girls, and I all had a picnic lunch!

My Grandma Sandoval (pictured above in this post) gave me a sewing machine that she had in her basement. It used to belong to my Aunt Ginny, who sadly passed away almost 2 years ago. I have been thinking about buying one, so it worked out well! My mom helped me sew pillows and purses for the girls! It gave me a little refresher on sewing and also helped us figure out how the machine works! Now I have to figure out what my first project will be...I'm thinking a curtain for the master bathroom! Below is a photo of us with our sewing projects! This was a great rainy day project!

On the way home we stopped along Lake Michigan! Lydia was tired, so she didn't play much at this stop, but Makayla had fun!

Visiting Michigan - Camping and Birthday

A few days after Makayla's birthday, I packed the girls up and we took a two week trip to Michigan to visit my parents! The drive is about 450 miles, so it's always an adventure with 2 kids! The girls did great in the car both ways! It took us about 10-11 hours each way and we made 2-3 stops each time.

This trip also gave Chad some time to relax...well, maybe not! Other than working his regular job, he spent most of the time working on his never-ending to-do list!

The first few days in Michigan we stayed in a cabin at a large camp ground! There was a beach, 3 pools, playground equipment, mini golf, trails, and paddle boats, and a bunch of other stuff, so the kids had a blast every day! Here are the girls swimming with Grandma!