Meet Ironhide

As I said below, if you have a car lover in your house and you ever get a chance to go to Ridemakerz, it is well worth the money.  Think Build-a-Bear for boys with more cars and car parts and different combinations than you could ever imagine.  Brett has been twice now and was equally overwhelmed this time as he was last time.

Start by choosing your car base - it's not as easy as you might think!

Then you choose the sound and the wheels and some basic customizations

Then you build!  And choose more things, and change your mind, and choose more things!  It's exhausting work!

Grandpa Glen

We took advantage of an unplanned day today and drove to Bartlett, Illinois (about 50 minutes from Rockford) to go visit Todd's Grandpa Glen.  He's had some health problems recently, but is maneuvering pretty well with the help of a walker.  His mind is still very sharp and witty, which makes for some comical conversations between he and Todd - mostly about the Cubs versus the White Sox.

We went to his favorite restaurant for breakfast, which is less than 5 minutes from where he lives.  The staff there clearly knows him well and enjoys giving him a hard time about everything.  One of them even wrote on the name tag on his walker - it says "The Worst Customer."  Glen enjoys it and dishes it right back! 

Friends

Yesterday our plan was to take the kids to Magic Waters, just like we did last summer.  It's a pretty cool water park about 5-10 minutes from Todd's parent's house.  It has a nice kid area and wave pool and Brett loves to go down the tube slides with one of us.  Kate wasn't as crazy about it last year, but now she's a year older.  Then we realized that the US Women's soccer team was playing at the same time that we had planned on going, so that was the end of that plan.  In all honesty, after all of the traveling and business of the last several days, it was kind of nice to have a bum day and let the kids just play.  Once the game was over, we took the kids to see Cars 2 in the theater - a big deal seeing as how we very rarely take our kids to the movies.  Brett absolutely loved it and Kate fell asleep at the end.  If you ask me, it was just ok - definitely not as good or as kid-friendly as the first one.  Considering that Brett was completely glued to the first Cars movie at 19 months old (he got it for Christmas from Aunt Erin), there is no possible way that an 18 month old would get this movie.  In fact, I think that most of it was over their heads - the whole spy concept was very James Bond-like.

Anyway, after the movie, we came home and let the kids rest for awhile until our friends came over.  Kerry and Manuel (along with Jon who lives on the West Coast and Jeff who lives 2 hours south of here) have all been friends since grade school.  Anytime we come into town for any reason, we try to get together with everyone.  Kerry and Manuel's wives were both working last night, so we told them to bring their kids and we'd order dinner here for everyone.  It worked out perfectly... there is an Italian restaurant here called Lino's that Todd loves and requests every time we're here, so that's what we got for everyone.  Their salad is de-li-cious!!  I could eat an entire plate, or two, of this salad and be perfectly content!   The kids all played well together, even with their ages as spread out as they are - Kerry has two girls that are almost 9 and almost 7, our kids are 5 and almost 4, and Manuel's kids are 2.5 and 14 months old, but the big kids looked out for the little kids and everyone had a good time!

Gabby showing us how she swings on the bar

Abree showing the little kids how it's done!

Layla did not want her picture taken, but I got it :)

Sweet girl... she even got to swing in a big kid swing!

Kate enjoyed being pushed by Abree and Brett just ran hard!

Weeeeeee!

Cutie Patootie Lucas - funniest kid ever!

The Dads and Kids

Lots of Lopez's

We just spent the last few days in Branson, Missouri... and yes, we drove there, all 16.5 hours of it!  We had the Lopez family reunion at the Thousand Hills Golf Resort.  We had about 8-9 condos for all of these people.  I can't vouch for all of the condos since I didn't see all of them, but our condo was awesome.  It was so spacious and we were able to spread out and really relax, which was key after spending two consecutive days in the car together!  We weren't too sure about the bedrooms when we first got there - each room had a king bed and we weren't sure how Brett and Kate were going to do sharing a bed, but they did great!  Todd made a barrier in the middle out of pillows, so they weren't kicking and rolling on top of each other all night.  Kate did a good job of not waking up Brett in the morning, which was a relief because that little boy is like his mama - he needs his sleep! 

The Lopez Reunion 2011 - Branson, MO

Friday night we all got checked in and went down to Branson Landing to eat dinner at Garfield's.  We had several tables outside by the river and enjoyed catching up over dinner and multiple pitchers of beer with live music in the background.  The service was less than desirable, but the company was great.

1-2-3 JUMP!

Saturday morning we took over our complex's private indoor and outdoor pools and hot tub and let the kids get some energy out.  After showers and lunches we all headed to the Talking Rocks Cavern, about 30 minutes away.  While the name sounds a little cheesy, the cave was very cool.  I wasn't sure how the kids were going to do climbing these narrow little steps, 100 feet below the surface, but they were during the hour long tour (during naptime).  At the end of the tour they turned off all of the lights and set a low key light show.  Kate was not a fan, at all.

Happy Birthday!

After the caves, some of the group went to check out a local winery while we headed back to the condo for a little while so the kids could have some downtime.  All 25 of us met up at a seafood restaurant for dinner that night.  My brother-in-law will appreciate that there is no such thing as "good" seafood in the middle of the country... the shrimp were ok, but I definitely learned that I'm spoiled when it comes to seafood, and our seafood 2 hours inland isn't even comparable to what you get at the beach.

Happy Anniversary, Tom & Connie!

Anyway, after dinner we ALL headed back to our condo to celebrate my birthday and Todd's aunt & uncle's anniversary.  Vivian (my mother-in-law) made a cake and cookies.  Some aunts and uncles brought ice cream and beer and wine.  I'm sure our neighbors were not thrilled with the noise level :)  Everyone stayed pretty late - the little kids fell asleep watching movies while we all chatted.

Sweet, sleepy girls watching "Tangled"

Sunday morning we headed to Panera (Sunday tradition in this Lopez household), then went to the pool for awhile.  After showers and lunch, our kids took a nap.  Some of the family went to an amusement park (Silver Dollar City) and others went to the Butterfly Palace.  After naps we went back to Branson Landing to RideMakerz.  (Those pictures are in another post.)  If you have a boy who loves cars as much as Brett loves cars and ever get to check this place out, it is SO very cool!  There are only five or six locations across the country... for you Carolina girls - the closest one to us is in Myrtle Beach.  After we finished there, we went back to the condo to enjoy a little downtime and let Brett play with his new "Ironhide" - that's what he named the new truck that he made.  Then we met all of the Lopez's at El Charro (Mexican restaurant) for dinner. 

Silly second cousins at dinner

They had BOGO mixed drinks... depending on who you ask it was buy one get one free or buy one get one half off.  Either way, they were good.  The food was good.  The service was good... finally we hit the jackpot with restaurants that could handle 25 of us!  Yay!  After dinner we hung out in one of the other condos, enjoyed some more drinks, and crashed hard.  Monday morning came too early for many of us, I think!  Monday morning we all checked out and headed home.  Well, we headed to Rockford, IL with a stop in Saint Louis to see the arch.  I had never seen it before (except for flying over it), so it was cool to see it up close and in person.  We took the ride to the top in the little egg-shaped elevator, which was pretty interesting. 

Gateway Arch

I was impressed with how much character the downtown area had... I really liked the cobblestone streets!  I don't know about the rest of the city, but the part that we saw was pretty cute and enjoyable to walk around.  I think the 80 degrees and low humidity helped too.  It was nice to be able to break up our 8 hour car trip that day with a couple hours to get out and explore the city.  Now we're in Rockford, so who knows what this leg of the trip will bring?!  I see Magic Waters, Wrigley Field, Cars 2, and a trip to Milwaukee in our near future!

I'll post more pictures later - stay tuned!

Father's Day Weekend

We had a great Father's Day weekend just hanging out as a family.  Saturday, we got up bright and early and the boys and Kate got their hair cut.  Well, Kate's was trimmed, just barely, because that was the only way she'd agree to a hair cut.  Then we went out to Bruegger's for breakfast.  Then I had a VBS meeting at church, and then we met some of our friends at Blue Jay Point.  Our friends had never been there before and neither had Todd, so the kids were excited to be the tour guides and show them how to get down to the water.  We ate lunch down by the water on some large rocks, but then the boys wanted to go back up to the playground so they could run around.  It was SO hot that day, but everyone still had a good time.  After we left there, we ran home and put on our swim suits and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, showing daddy all of the cool things the kids learned during swimming lessons the last two weeks.  It is amazing to see how far they've come in two weeks.  I think we'll definitely sign up for one more session this summer, and then hopefully retain some of it for next year :)

F

A family was having a party at Blue Jay Point and gave our 4 kids 6 balloons.  Kate had the last balloon remaining after all of the other ones popped.  She didn't want anyone to get near her in fear that they'd pop her balloon!

The Alley

Kids Bowl Free is a national campaign designed by local bowling alleys across the country in an effort for them to give back to the community and provide kids a fun, safe environment to spend some time during the summer months. Each registered child receives vouchers for two free bowling games every day, all summer long.  The only one participating near us is the old bowling alley across from NC State, but it is awesome!  Three moms showed up with our seven kids about 15 minutes before they're regularly open.  He not only let us in, but looked genuinely excited that we were all there and ready to bowl!  They were super friendly and went out of their way to help us make sure the kids had a good experience... setting up the bumpers for us, telling us where the light-weight balls were, telling us about the ramp for them to push the ball, etc.  All you have to pay for are shoes (whether your child wears them or not, FYI... ask how I know that!) and parking - which is $1 per hour on the street.  I found rock star parking today and managed to parallel park my big @$$ SUV into a pretty tight space - I was proud of myself.  So proud in fact that I texted my husband to brag about it.  I'm sure that's what he cared about in the middle of his work day!  Anyway, what you really came to see - the pictures!

One of our sweet friends, showing the boys how it's really done!

Brayden is ready to go!

Watching Kate pick up and carry the ball is pretty comical - it is a fifth of her total body weight, after all.  How easy could I carry a ball that's 25 pounds?  Oh weight - I do - her name is Kate and she is a ball full of energy :)

Oldies but goodies

How cute does she look in her plaid shorts and bowling shoes?!

Little Z, blowing his ball down the lane!

This was the only picture I got of this funny boy - every other shot, he was behind his sisters or his mom!

Bowling is better with sparkle shoes on!

Once she figured it out, the concentration was pretty intense!

She had quite a few tries where she almost got a spare!

Trying to slow them down by making them stop for a picture... I tried to get sweet Caroline in there too so that we could have our three Kindergartners together.  Yeah, guess how fast the boys bolted?!

Big sister with the little brother hiding close behind!

Sleepy girl

Cutie patooties!

I love this smiley face!!

After bowling we loaded all the kids up and headed to Mellow Mushroom for lunch.  We had 3 tired mommas and seven tired kids... lunch was a little bit of a train wreck but we completely demolished the large cheese pizza on our table!  De-li-cious!  Thanks for the suggestion girls!  

Well check

FIVE!  That sounds so old right now, from this seat!  I can't believe I have a five year old - an elementary school kid.  And as I was informed the other day, I am the parent to THAT kid in the play area that was being too rough and trying to "shoot" all of the girls with his friends.  Yes, I was informed of this the day after it happened.  You see we met our friends at Chic-fil-a for lunch and let the kids play on the play area.  The next day I took Brett for his well check (more on that later) and as soon as we walked in we saw this sweet little girl with white blonde hair and blue eyes and she just looked at Brett.  Then she said (loudly), "YOU are the boy at Chic-fil-a that was trying to shoot at me!  Your Kate was nice, but you were not!"  Clearly, Brett made an impression on this child and she felt the need to announce it to everyone in the waiting room at the pediatrician!  Lovely.  I especially like that she said "Your Kate" instead of "your sister" because she and Kate hit it off nicely and played in there together for an hour or so, that is once we stopped the boys from fake shooting them, of course.  Geesh.


Anyway, back to the well visit, it went well!  We just had his well check on Friday, so here are the new stats.

• Height - 47.5 inches (greater than 97th percentile)
• Weight - 45 inches (75th percentile)
• Vision 20/20 both eyes
• Hearing - passed

Seriously, who's kid is this?!?!  He was the tallest kid in his class this year.  Have you seen us?  We're not tall people, at all.  If he didn't look exactly like Todd, I'm pretty sure that I'd be accused that he wasn't really related!  Obviously, he is very healthy, including the CBC and urine test that they did in the office.  We also had to complete the 5 year old ASQ and he passed with flying colors.  Here is a quick highlight of some of the things he's currently doing:

• Easily follows 3 step commands
• Talks in full sentences, paragraphs, etc. - easily, usually using the correct tense (-ed words)
• Enjoys throwing and catching a large ball; we're working on throwing and catching a softball too - he's doing very well so far!
• Hops on one foot at a time with ease
• Runs, fast, always
• Continuing to work on fine motor skills - tracing lines is a difficult task, but he enjoys drawing people (very detailed - fingers, fingernails, shirts, pants, socks, shoes, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc.); he enjoys practicing writing his letters; he can write his name easily
• Recognizes all numbers and letters (uppercase and lowercase)
• Can use scissors, but would rather not
• Will proudly announce that he's in the "100 club" (he can count to and past 100)
• Able to feed himself and will eat almost anything that's given to him, although pineapple and kiwi are NOT favorites!
• Able to dress himself and likes to pick out his clothes himself - he'll even ask to make sure it matches!
• Able to brush his own teeth (we go back and brush again though)
• Enjoys trying to wash his own hair and clean himself
• Knows full name, birthday, address, and phone number

He is truly a sweet sweet boy and is a good friend to his classmates.  He loves to help and he loves to be recognized for a job well done.  His feelings are easily hurt if he is scolded for inappropriate behavior.  He is super-excited about Kindergarten at TFS and can't wait to be with the "big kids."  His favorite toys are Transformers, with matchbox cars and Legos close behind!  He'll stop anything for a chance to watch an episode of the 1980's Transformers on TV!  We love this sweet funny boy (even if he does try to shoot girls on the playground)!

A frog in the bog field

I love the summer time.  I love that nothing has to be done in a hurry.  I love that we don't usually have the next day planned out to a "T" (even though my friends would beg to differ).  I love that we get to do spur of the moment things more often.  I usually love that Todd gets to play softball two nights a week, but I truly love that every now and then we get to catch up with good friends while he plays.  Tonight was one of those nights.  Our sweet friends, the Mericles, are due with baby #4 any minute now... actually, to be fair, she was due about 8 or 9 days ago, but in true Mericle fashion, she is going to 42 weeks it looks like - again, for the fourth time.  Bless her heart.  She is truly the most radiant pregnant woman I've ever known, even at 41+ weeks, so I guess it's good that it is her that carries all of her children to 42 weeks until the doctor posts the eviction notice... a nice IV of pitocin.
Anyway, I had pretty much accepted the fact that they would not be at softball games this summer.  I mean, who in their right mind wants to bring a 7 year old, a 5 year old, a 2 year old and an infant into the sweltering heat of the summer.  Thankfully last night, they did!  It was such a treat to get to catch up, and it makes me realize that we don't do a great job of trying to catch up more often.  Their oldest, the 7 year old, is usually the ring leader of the group and last night was pretty much the same... she found a tiny frog.  This frog proved to be entertainment for this group of 5 kids for the entire softball game.  At one point, us moms noticed that the frog was no longer trying to jump out of the kids hands... it just sat there, like it had accepted its fate.  Or maybe it had been paralyzed and couldn't jump out of their hands anymore.  Either way, the kids had a blast chasing this poor little frog all over the IBM fields and the moms got to enjoy an entire hour of catching up!  We were so sidetracked that we didn't even notice the game had ended until we saw our husbands walking almost back to the parking lot! 

Livin' like the fish

Ah, the swim lessons.  I did not overly enjoy swimming lessons as a kid, but I am glad that I do know how to swim.  I think everyone needs to know how to swim.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to the pool in the summer and I want to the kids to love it too, so, yes, swim lessons are a must.  However, I totally remember the drama around Brett's swimming lessons last year.  I tried to get him into the class where I wanted him to be, but it filled up really fast, so he took private lessons with the swim coach at the pool.  I have no doubt that she is probably really good at teaching older kids the strokes and how to perfect them.  I don't think she really had a clue where to start with a 4 year old who had no swimming experience.  So, this year I was on it like white on rice... I got both kids in the same beginning swimming class through Raleigh Parks & Rec.  I still had pretty low expectations for what they were going to accomplish with a group of beginning swimmers.  I figured the first class would be 40 minutes of "blow out the candle" to teach them how to blow bubbles in the water.  They did so much more than that!  The kids were divided up and the teachers were great.  Kate's teacher had them jumping in and going partly underwater by the end of the class.  Both kids were all smiles at the end of class and excited about their next class tomorrow!  Yay!!  I'm so relieved that they are enjoying it and learning!

At the end of class we ran into some friends from school, so we set up a pool play date with them for later this afternoon.  It gave us just enough time to eat lunch (at McDonald's - kids' choice), take my mom to get her car (she came with us so that she knows where to take the kids tomorrow), and go take Brett to try on his school uniform.  Yes... kindergarten, school uniform... still can't believe he's going to Kindergarten.  I know, I think I've said it every single post for like a month now, and I'll probably keep saying it, so get used to it :-P  Anyway, he was really excited about trying on his "big kid school clothes" and now I feel a little more prepared for the Uniform Swap tomorrow night.  It's like a consignment sale, but it's at the school and it's all uniforms - a very cool concept.  They've also added Lands End for uniforms for next year, which I'm super-excited about.  I like the quality of Lands End and I like that they run deals all the time.  So, I'm ready to stock up on navy shorts and navy pants and a year's worth of polos... oh, and some PE uniforms too :)

Then we headed to the pool and met up with our friends, the Moffett's.  They are super sweet and so much fun to hang out with.  Emma and Brett were in the 2 year old and 3 year old classes together, and they were across the hall from each other this year.  I would love it if they're in Kindergarten together next year, but we'll have to wait and see!  The kids had a great time playing in the pool, again!  They were all sad when we said it was time to leave.  I really think our kids would've been perfectly happy playing in their swimsuits all day today :)  Maybe tomorrow kids - we'll see!

Update: Swim Lessons, Week 2
Lessons are still going well... both kids will go under water, not willingly, but they will do it, and they don't pitch a big fit about it.  We've worked on some of our swim lessons skills at our own pool and they're doing pretty well - jumping off the edge and going under with help, pushing off from the edge, blowing bubbles with their whole face in the water, kicking with a kick board or noodle, etc.  Here are some pictures from today's lesson (Wednesday, June 15)

Kate might have an easier time swimming if she looked where she was going :)

The kids' favorite thing to do in lessons is to "choo choo" along the wall

Brett's teacher is very good too - she's persistent, but not pushy and she doesn't let them chicken out of a skill

Each skill they have to do for the same number of seconds that they are in years - Brett is 5 years old, so he has to float for 5 seconds (with help)

"Flying" to the edge

Getting ready to take flight again - that little girl in front is a trip and she is always smiling!

Fun with the Flanagans

She went down once by herself, with no hesitation, then refused to go down again without help - hence Todd's persuasive stance!

This boy L-O-V-E-D every single second of it - the sliding, the water, and the touch-down-dancing!

Cutest Godson EVER!  He loved the slide too and insisted on getting me to help him up, even though I was fully clothed and he was very much so soaking wet.  He would laugh and fall down and get right back up again!

 

They had a great time playing!  Thanks for having us over!!  I can't wait to see what Baby Leah does with this crowd soon!!