Golf with Dad

To practice for his upcoming 5-day golf trip, Jeff wanted to go hit balls on Sunday. He invited Alex to join him the night before, which Alex was VERY excited. He ran into our room very early on Sunday morning while we were still sleeping and asked, "Jeff are you ready to go play golf now?" It is still a bit surprising that Alex calls his Dad "Jeff" the majority of the time! Before heading out to the driving range at Brookshire Golf Course, Jeff made Alex a breakfast of champions.

Alex did a great job putting and hitting buckets of balls with his dad. He looks like a natural on the course. The boys had a great time together.

Elena and Mom had some special girl-time together while the boys were out playing. Elizabeth gave herself and mani and pedi, and Elena insisted on also getting her toenails painted. She demonstrated her happiness for this by smiling for the camera!

Playdate with the Robinson Girls

After a busy week getting ready to go back to school, we had a lazy morning at home on Friday. The kids helped to make blueberry muffins and cinnamon rolls from scratch that morning before Aunt Melinda stopped by with her girls. It is so nice having them live just down the street! Ellie was not interested in the baked gods, but had fun tasting some different toys.

Yummy Refrigerator MagnetsElena showed Ellie how she plays mommy with her dolls. Ellie was not too interested in that game, perhaps because she has her own baby with little Maddie at home.

Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the BedThe kids turned on the music in Elena's room, climbed in the crib and danced together.

Babysitter in Training?Elizabeth and Melinda were busy sharing decorating ideas upstairs and lost track of time. Luckily, Alex snuck downstairs and watched over baby Maddie. He is such a good cousin!

The Indiana State Fair

This is the second week that kids have been home without a babysitter waiting for school to start back up. Everyone was well-behaved at Elizabeth's doctor's appointment early on Tuesday morning, so afterwards we headed to the Indiana State Fair.

Moooooo!
Our first stop was the animal barn. Alex jumped right in with feeding, petting and milking the cows, but Elena was a little more hesitant."I heard there were deep-friend snickers bars here somewhere. Why are we wasting time with these cows?" -Elena
We stopped at Pioneer Village, but our bag of popcorn was the only thing that interested them there. Thankfully, the farm equipment and trucks got a better reaction. The kids ran around climbing into the scoop of a bulldozer, touching the diggers, naming all the colors, counting the tractors, and making friends with anyone in a 5-mile radius."Ummm so this is fun and all, but how about those deep-friend snickers bars?" -Elena At another barn, there were lots of baby animals with their moms- chickens, cows, sheep and pigs. We saw a baby cow named Jeffrey, which the kids had a huge laugh about. See any resemblance? After our fun time at the Fair, we surprised Jeff at his office to eat lunch and share our adventures. After running through the office, Alex burst into the conference room filled with the doctors and drug reps and shouted "Where's MY Jeff?" which got a big laugh from everyone. Alex took this photo of his Dad while they were lounging together on the floor after the delicious drug rep lunch from Qdoba.

Nap Time!
After a trip to the bookstore, it was time to head home for a nap. Elena, our little fashionista, settled in for the drive home with her movie star sunglasses and elephant purse on.Of course Alex has sunglasses too, but he insisted on wearing his scuba goggles and snorkel instead. He is definitely in swimming mode after swim lessons last week!

Goodbye Logan, Hello School

Elena will start preschool at the BJE with Alex next Wednesday. Elena is lucky to have Mrs. Zawadski for her teacher. Alex loved being in her 2s class so much that during the first few weeks of Mrs Halt's 3s class, he still insisted on going back to her classroom across the hall to use the potty. Even now, Alex still runs up to hug her whenever he sees her. Elena will have a great year with Mrs Zawadski!Jeff and Alex played golf at home while Elizabeth and Elena attended the little welcome back to school ice cream social together for the 2s class. Elena insisted on wearing her new pink elephant purse that matches Mom's purse to complete her ensemble. Inside were her sunglasses, an old cell phone and an extra hair bow. She was quite prepared for settling into the perfect chair on the playground and digging right into her vanilla ice cream with extra sprinkles. Elena soon began shoveling the ice cream in without any help from or sharing with Mom. It is still a nightly struggle to get her eat dinner, but ice cream and other sweets are no problem!After making a few friends at the party, we went home to get Alex and stopped by to say our goodbyes to Logan.

Carmel High School starts back up on Tuesday, so our Summer of Fun with Logan is over. Alex bought some special golf balls "just like the ones I hit with Logan in the backyard" and the kids made thank you cards and drawings to give to Logan. Although Logan will still come over on the weekends sometimes, the kids will miss his daily presence. He has been a much loved extended member of our family this summer, and the kids will be sad not to see him as often. Hopefully he will return to us next summer!

Swim Lessons

With no school or babysitters this week, we were on the hunt for fun things to do. Shelby offered to host swim lessons at their pool for anyone interested, so Alex signed up for one-on-one lessons five days in a row. Rob Myelin, the son of Elizabeth's high school science teacher, was a terrific swim coach. Although Alex had made great progress working with Jeff and was already an above average swimmer for his age, the concentrated lessons made a big impact. He can now swim the length of the pool, flip over mid-way and do the back stroke, swim like an arrow while just kicking his legs, jump off the diving board, and do forward and backward rolls underwater. He especially loves the deep end now.

On Your Mark...

Get Set...

Splash!

Newspaper Delivery Girl

Alex has been "pretending to be Logan" in the morning this summer while we wait for him to come over. This game involves him running out to the mailbox to get the newspaper, bringing it to the door, ringing the doorbell to let me know it has arrived, and then hiding somewhere until I come find him. How this is Logan-escapes me, but it is a favorite game. This morning, Elena beat him to it! She was so excited about her success, she refused to give the newspaper up and browsed through the sections of the Wall Street Journal on the driveway while we waited for Logan to come over to play.

Backyard Fun

The kids love to play in our backyard. They could spend the entire day out there digging in the sand box, watering the flowers, playing hide & seek, or doing somersaults. After hitting some of the special new orange practice golf balls they bought at the golf store that afternoon with Jeff, and watching Elizabeth do cartwheels, they took a much needed break to roll down the hill and pose for the camera.

Golf Goggles

Every good golfer knows that practice and a few superstitions are they key to a good round of golf. Alex has been diligent in practicing his golf swing almost everyday with a little help from Dad and Logan. He even brought his clubs over to his "my-cation" at the Rosenbergs Friday afternoon. When he returned, he decided that goggles are a necessary accessory for hitting the golf ball super far. He searched around the garage and found a pair of Jeff's swim goggles that seemed to do the trick.

"Hmmm... what could make my game even better?"

"These might do the trick..."

"Looking good!"

Beautiful hit!

A quick survey of the course with new binoculars will help with the next putt.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Jeff turned 37 on Friday. Elizabeth was out of town at a work meeting Thursday night and Friday morning, so the Rosenbergs gave him an awesome present- a kid-free birthday! While the kids were with the Rosenbergs on "vacation," or as Alex called it "my-cation," Jeff played golf, took a nap, and then met Elizabeth for dinner at his favorite restaurant- Ruth Chris. To top off the perfect day, the Rosenbergs had Alex and Elena sleep over so Jeff and Elizabeth could sleep in on Saturday morning. Alex and Elena had a great time on their my-cation, and were sad when it was time to come home on Saturday. We had a belated family celebration of Jeff's birthday on Saturday evening. Alex picked out the yummy chocolate fudge cake since Jeff is such a chocoholic.

Swimming Like Fish

We always ask the kids if they plan to swim like fish before we head to the pool, but there is no need to ask. The kids have become wonderful swimmers this summer.

Elena takes a minute to decide whether she is ready to jump in.

Meanwhile, Alex is already swimming laps. Elena quickly overcame any apprehension and began to do crazy jumps off the side of the pool. She will jump whether or not anyone is there to catch her. She will even jump off the diving board. She has no fear! Alex is brave enough now to dive into the deep end and go all the way down to touch the bottom. No hands necessary for our little mermaid in her floaties.

Jeff has been patient and consistent in teaching the kids to swim this summer. They even go some evenings when he gets home from work as late as 7pm.Doing flips in the air is the best part of the pool. Alex likes to see how high up he can get, and makes Jeff do it again and again, giving him a pretty good workout in the process.
Again, Again!
Elena's turn to fly!

Elena took a drink break from all the flying.

And then practiced her modeling walk in Dad's huge shoes.

The boys head out from the pool to get dried off.Alex took a minute to look cool in Jeff's baseball cap.While drying off, the kids spotted the cell phone in the pool bag, and both wanted to play it immediately.
Elena did not react well to having to share, so hit her brother. She may be a small little girl, but she knows how to get her point across. Alex was a little sad, but didn't hit back. He is such a good big brother! Elena saw his sad face and quickly apologized. All was quickly forgiven. We packed up to head home for dinner, but we will be back again soon!

We Love Costco!

We took a quick trip over to Costco after the gym on Thursday morning. The kids LOVE Costco, and since it is right next door to the gym they frequently request that we go. They were fairly well behaved this trip, although certainly not quiet. I think the whole store heard us singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Old MacDonald." The kids are almost too big to sit next to each other without invading each other's space in this cart now. They are getting so big!