Fourth of July and Dinosaur Fun!

As June came to close, Austin finished off his soccer season.  He had so much fun playing soccer this year, and he's actually quite good at it for his age.  His ball handling skills have developed a lot and he is making progress in sportsmanship as well (working on being a gracious winner and not a sore loser). He had a great coach this year, who really taught the kids a lot and helped them develop more team play skills like passing and setting up assisted shots on goal.

I had to work during his last game, but Nanny and Grandpa and Auntie Michelle and Uncle Brian joined Daddy, Sarah, and Trevor for game time.  

 Trevor snuggled in for his nap on Nanny's shoulder.  Soccer is tiring!

Afterward, Sarah helped pick some of our beautiful peonies to share with Nanny and Michelle.

For the 4th of July, we enjoyed some family time at Nanny and Grandpa's house...

Play time!

 We set up the kiddie pool and the water table to play with outside.

Trevor did NOT like standing on the grass!

 But we added a towel for him to stand on and he was much happier.

 Pool fun!

Trevor was hesitant to go in the kiddie pool at first, but when he sat with Nanny, he was happy to play in there all afternoon if we had let him.

There seem to be a lot of photos of my children with beer bottles... (and Steve and I don't drink beer).

Sarah thought this was a fun pool toy.

Especially for dumping water on Uncle Brian.

Taking a break for some bean bag toss.

So happy hanging out splashing with Nanny....

Trevor was in the pool for so long that his little feet looked like this when he was done...

Kettcar racing (with a little assist from big brother).

Grilling time on the porch.

Yes, the photos of my children with beer bottles continue...

Trevor thought a beer bottle was a perfect teether!

No Grandpa, I want that back!

After a delicious dinner, we headed outside for fun with sparklers.

Little Lady Liberty

Then we headed home just as it was getting dark.  We saw a few fireworks along the drive home, then enjoyed sitting out on our neighbor's driveway to enjoy their fireworks.  Austin and Sarah loved watching them and the neighborhood kids were all laughing and squealing with delight.  Trevor went to bed and I brought his monitor outside with me, but the big kids were outside for the show.  We put bug spray on them, but they still got eaten up by the mosquitos.  They both got some bites on their faces and we put some cortisone cream on them to help them not itch so much.  They went to bed doing fine, but when they woke up, poor Austin had a HUGE swollen forehead, bridge of the nose, and puffy pink eyes.  He didn't even look like himself!  He didn't seem too bothered by it, and we gave him Benadryl intermittently over the next few days to help with the swelling.  It gradually improved, but he definitely had a few days of a puffy face.  On the bright side, he loved the Benadryl and kept begging for another dose, so getting him to take it was no trouble.

Lately, the kids (especially Austin) have been into dinosaurs.  We got a book at the library a while back called "Dino Football" and Austin LOVES it!  We have requested and checked out 4 other books in the series as well (Soccer, Hockey, Basketball, and Baseball).  He has been really into sports lately, and now, with the combo of dinosaurs and sports, he is extremely excited about these books.  We thought the kids may enjoy seeing some dinosaur displays at the museum, so last Saturday, we headed to the Science Museum of Minnesota to check out the dinos!

Sarah wasn't so sure about the big white bear by the stairs...

Trevor had fun bopping around in his stroller.

And the dinosaurs were a hit!

Here is Sarah in front of what she calls her dinosaur - the Triceratops. (She calls it hers because the name contains "cera" which sounds like "Sarah").

Austin chomping a big T-Rex head.

Austin and Grandpa listening to the info on diplodocus. 

Austin posing in front of (part of) the diplodocus.  It is HUGE and it is one of his favorite dinos and one of his favorite characters in his dino sports story books. (P.S. If you zoom in on this photo, you can see just how swollen his poor face is! And this was 2 days later!)

Trying to assemble a dinosaur from the individual sections of bones.

An attempt at getting Mommy in a photo. Sarah didn't want to cooperate. 

Studying fossils with a magnifying glass.

Hopefully this is the closest Austin will ever come to a tornado!

Lots of fun with air currents...

Trevor hanging out with Grandpa.

Austin learning about sound waves. This had a light that shone on the string and then through a magnifying glass so that the shadow fell on a mirror and projected on a screen.  It was fun to see the different sound waves produced by bowing, strumming, etc.

Checking out the light refractions...

A fun day was had by all, but it definitely wore out the kiddos.  They slept well that night!

Other random fun...
Trevor is really into opening cupboards and drawers lately!  If Mommy or Daddy wants to go to the bathroom, brush hair, or anything involving being near our bathroom, Trevor loves to crawl in and open the bottom drawer (containing Daddy's boxers) and proceed to throw them all over the floor.  We have to be super vigilant about him getting into drawers and cupboards, because he still isn't very good at keeping his fingers from getting smashed or pinched.  Little stinker!

Steve and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on July 9th.  Nanny and Grandpa came over to babysit so we could enjoy an evening out.  We had a nice, quiet, delicious dinner at Melting Pot.  It has been a while since we've had a meal without children trying to talk over each other, joke about poop, fuss over the food or which cup their milk is in, or a baby spitting and throwing food.

And last but not least...some cute videos of Trevor! He is changing and learning so fast, we are trying to catch little bits of his personality and development on video as we go.

Trevor has learned how to clap and it is really cute to see him spontaneously start clapping and smiling!  Here, we got him on video showing off his new skill.


Ever since Trevor first started to coo and giggle and make noises, he has been a growler! Here we caught a little bit of his growling...


Trevor is really close to walking on his own! He has taken a couple steps now and then, but really isn't super interested in walking. He does, however, cruise around the coffee table really fast (especially when there is something on the other side that he wants) and he can walk holding on to a push toy (like in this video with the Pooh train).


And in honor of Great-Grandpa Brintnall...Wuzzer! Trevor has learned "wuzzer"! Whenever I start wuzzering, he giggles and squeals! In this video, he was a bit distracted by the camera taking the video, but still shows us his cute smiles and giggles with wuzzer tickles. I know Great Grandpa is looking down from heaven and smiling!