Last Month As a Family of 4

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

Whew, it's been a hot week! We've been to the pool a few times, and went to a splash park for the first time this summer. It's actually been awhile since we've been and I guess the demographic of kids who play at splash parks are younger than I remember. You two were probably the oldest kids around, with most of the kids around Hannah's age or younger. 

 We watched the movie Frozen, and I was inspired by Pinterest to have you guys try to build tall ice mountains with shaving cream. Well, it was partially a pinterest fail, because it was pretty impossible to build anything super tall without a mountain detatching from the base, but you guys had fun. The clean up wasn't too bad and I even gave the glass table a good clean at the same time.

 On Friday, we had our monthly service project dinner. This month we made prayer guides to help us 1) remember to pray before bed, and 2) have a guide to follow when praying. You guys were able to do much of the project.

 On Saturday, we check out what the hype of brick fest was all about. While we all had fun, the lines were super long (averaged about 20-30 mins per attraction) and the tickets were a bit overpriced for what was available for the kids to do. Luckily Hannah was free, so we saved a bit there.

You two got to play your first game of mini-golf. Very different from the Wii version.

 And then we all built cars to race on the lego derby track.

 The lady who launched ours dropped both of your cars, so we did not win. But it was cool cheering all the cars on!

You guys then got to drive around a few lego bots. Nathan did a pretty good job navigating, but Hannah just liked the idea of being able to hold a real phone in your hands. There was a bit of disconnect between what you were doing on the screen and where your eyes were looking (at the next booth over or other kids). 

There were definitely lots of stations where you could build your own lego creations.

 I think we probably could've stayed here for hours, just letting you guys build stuff, but we outstayed our 4 hours and had to leave before our parking meter ran out.

 Hannah, you absolutely love dresses. This pink dress is particularly your favorite. If you could wear it every day, you probably would, but we've made a compromise and you only wear it on Sundays. So, for the past 8 Sundays, you've worn this dress to church. It's actually getting a bit tight on you (a button bust this past Sunday) so I hope it won't cause too much of a problem when I put it away for your baby sister.

After the lego fest, we checked out a toy consignment store to see if we could pick up some more legos for you guys to build stuff. We did. But we also picked up a doll house for Hannah's birthday. Amazingly, we were able to haul it back home in the back with a towel draped over it and neither of you noticed.

During the week Nathan had an idea of building our own doll house for Hannah, so one afternoon, we scoured the house for boxes, and designed a house of our own. You guys helped me figure out which rooms went where, where to put the stairs and doors, etc. The next day, you guys got to make your own wall paper to paste on "your" rooms' walls.

Last night, we went out for date night. Daddy and Hannah and then Mommy and Nathan. We actually ended up at the same restaurant, but we sat at different tables.

 It was nice to be able to talk to Nathan without Hannah interrupting and Nathan getting frustrated.
This weekend we will trade dates and Nathan will go ice skating with Daddy and Hannah, you and I will go paint something fun.

The restaurant we ended up going to was Applebees, which we've only been once ever. When we asked you where you wanted to go, we were 99.9% sure that you guys would say Chick-fil-a, but  I was totally shocked when Nathan, you yelled out, "Applebees!" and quickly Hannah did the same as well.

 Hannah had a pretty bad injury this week. I was cooking dinner downstairs and you two were playing upstairs. Suddenly I hear Hannah cry, and Nathan quickly ran to the railing and said, "It wasn't me!" I went up and saw that Hannah was bleeding through her underwear. After cleaning things up, we drove to the doctor's office to make sure things were ok. While making the appointment, Hannah, you kept running after me, yelling, I don't want to go to the doctor. Once you understood (but didn't quite 100% believe me) that you would not be receiving a shot and that the doctor was going to help you feel better, you calmed down and agreed to go to the doctor.

It ended up being ok, and things will heal on their own. But in the meantime, besides hurting when you go potty, you are pretty much your same ol' self.

Did I mention that you guys have gotten really good at sliding down the stairs on your belly?

Things finally slow down this summer as we don't have anything scheduled besides birthday parties every weekend this month. I'm going to be sure the treasure the time we have together, because pretty soon your little sister will take over our lives.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy