4th of July in Rochester

We spent the July 4th holiday this year in Rochester with my parents and my brother and sister's families. It was a crowd of kids, but they all had so much fun playing with their cousins. Grandma and Grandpa had so many fun things for the kiddos to do in the backyard and we lucked out with some pretty nice weather, although it was hot! The girls were so sad to come home!

Morgan loves convertibles right now (and taxis-ha!). So, she was super excited to see Grandpa's convertible in the garage. She had to take a "test-drive". Avery was her navigator.

Cousin Nolan jumped in, too. And Avery played princess of the parade sitting on the back.

We stayed at a hotel since my parents house was packed full! Avery found the bible in the drawer and pretended to read stories from it to Daddy. She kept calling it her "book of prayers", but her stories were not prayers.

Playtime in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard was a highlight of the weekend. There were a couple of pools, a slip-n-slide, a sand-box, a tree swing and a zip line!

Did I mention there was a pear tree? Avery kept picking the "baby pears" to bring home to plant our own tree. :)

Grandma had some fun crafts for our budding artist, Avery.

Morgan spent some time playing with play-doh with her buddy, Beckett. She treats him like a little brother - it's adorable!

At the hotel, Matt got stuck with Morgan and I slept in a bed with Avery. I think I won that! Morgan kept scooting Matt closer and closer to his edge. Avery did sleep perpendicular to me one night with her bony little feet jabbing me in the gut. :)

What July 4th would be complete without a parade?!? The Rochester parade did not disappoint. We were right at the beginning and we got pelted with candy! The kids all came back with huge bags of candy! Santa even made an appearance in the parade and the girls went crazy!

After the parade, we headed over to Sparks in the Park, a carnival with a few rides and games. We actually got Avery to go on a couple of rides with her sister. She got to play a couple of games and win some prizes, too. And they got their first carnival snow cones!

We were able to sneak in a little swimming time at the hotel on Sunday morning. Morgan did laps back and forth in the pool (it was a pretty small pool!).

On Sunday afternoon, we had a BBQ at my parent's house and celebrated my mom and aunt June's birthdays. My dad made homemade ice cream - a July 4th tradition! Aunt Erin brought out a huge bucket full of squirt guns and the kids ran around getting everyone!

Grandpa measured all the kiddos on the door. Surprisingly, Morgan was the tallest by a half inch over Grayson. That girl is growing! I think she is now the same height I was at her age.

Grabbed a few more pictures from Brett...

Family picture

The kiddos had a water balloon fight while Matt and I were at the reunion

Looks like a ton of fun!

Watch out Uncle Ross!

Enjoying some homemade ice cream

Campout... rain delay

We decided to campout a few weekends ago because the forecast looked great (0% chance of rain and not a cloud in sight). So, Matt put up the tent (left off the rain cover, cause why would we need that with a 0% chance of rain?!?) and we got all the beds and blankets set up inside. We made hotdogs  and s'mores on the fire pit for dinner. We caught lightning bugs. Seemed like a perfect campout. Until around 11pm just as the girls were finally settling down to sleep, I feel a drop. At first, I didn't know what was happening, then a mini-downpour of rain happened. Just enough to get everything in the tent wet. I took the girls inside and Matt scrambled to get the rain cover on. But, the damage was already done. And of course, Avery refused to go back out in the tent after that. She was half asleep and just wanted to sleep in her dry bed inside. So, that's where we finished the campout... inside in our beds while our blankets dried out... because there was no more rain after that 5 minute shower. Someone really didn't want us to campout!

Avery with one of her carnival prizes

Playing inside the tent

Getting the s'mores ready

There is no easy way to eat a s'more

So yuumy!

Watching kindles and relaxing

Scary backyard monsters

The next morning - Matt said he put the cover on upside down and backwards - ha!

Carnival

A few weekends ago, Downers Grove had it's annual carnival. We took the kids up to check out the rides. They are now tall enough to do all the kid rides. Of course, Avery was much more interested in playing the games and winning prizes than going on the rides. And Morgan wanted to ride every.single.ride! I did take the girls on the big slide and when we got to the top, Avery wouldn't climb on it. The ride operator just picked her up and set her on the slide and down we went. Then, she cried at the bottom because she hated it. :(  Morgan ended up riding a lot of the rides with her cousins Grayson, Hunter and Beckett. They had a blast!

Getting SO tall

Catching up to her sister

Avery didn't mind this ride at all

Fishing for prizes

The fish are weighted - the heavier the fish, the bigger the prize

On the carousel, which went surprisingly fast!

Can't miss the lemon shake-up stand!

Morgan loved the carousel 

Riding the motorcycles with her cousin Hunter

Nature class

We went to another nature class at Lyman Woods through the Downers Grove park district. These are fun for the kids because they get to paint/decorate something and then walk around through the woods collecting bugs and "treasures". This particular class was all about toads and the girls got to make little homes for their potential toads. :)

Painting her toad home

Checking out the beetles

Posing in the woods

Setting the toad free

Coloring a picture of a toad

Happy Father's Day to two pretty terrific Dads!

My parents were up in Downers Grove this weekend to babysit the girls while Matt and I went to a friend's house for dinner. They brought up my old piano in a trailer. It took four guys to get that thing in the house. Just as they were setting it down for the final time, Matt somehow pulled a muscle in his back! Not the best way to spend Father's Day... in pain and not able to bend over. We're hoping it heals fast, so he can bend down to put socks on again soon! :(

The girls were happy they got to celebrate Father's Day with both Daddy and their Papa!

On Saturday night, Mama and Papa took them out to dinner at Steak-n-Shake. Definitely a fave! Matt and I had a great time with our friends at a "grilling party". Everyone had to bring a small plate to share, but it had to be something grilled. Matt brought these shrimp boil foil packs for our shared plate. He also grilled peaches to have as dessert with ice cream - delicious! We had some really good food... and drinks! :)

On Sunday morning, the girls gave Daddy and Papa their Father's Day gifts. Both Avery and Morgan had to open the cards they got for Daddy for him. They wouldn't let him open them because they were so excited to show him their cards! :)

Then, the girls had swim lessons. This was the first week Avery was in her new class and back with Morgan! I was a little worried that she wouldn't want to do all the new swimming moves they do in the next level up. The other kids in Morgan's class have all been in Level 2 for a little while, so they are all pretty comfortable with the Level 2 swim strokes. But, Avery did amazing! She had to watch Morgan do a few things first before she would do them, but she tried everything and kept up with the rest of the kids in the class. She had the biggest smile on her face when she finished the swim lesson.

Just in case you were wondering how great of a Daddy the girls have, here are some things about Matt that the girls would like us all to know.

Question: What is your Daddy's name?
Avery: Matt Earle Plothow
Morgan: Daddy Lee Plothow Matt

Q: How old is your Daddy?
A: 20 years old
M: 10 years old

Q: How tall is your Daddy?
A: as tall as Mommy
M: this tall (showing me with her hands)

Q: What color hair does your Daddy have?
A: No hair
M: None!

Q: What color eyes does your Daddy have?
A: Brown
M: Brown

Q: How much does your Daddy weigh?
A: 20 pounds because he's 20 years old
M: 100 and 1,000,000

Q: What does your Daddy do at his job?
A: Just works
M: Works in a seat on the train

Q: What is your Daddy really good at?
A: Cooking
M: Cooking

Q: What is your favorite memory with your Daddy?
A: Coloring with Daddy
M: Cooking marshmallows with Daddy and our family dinners

Q: What is your Daddy's favorite food?
A: Steak
M: Hamburgers and hot dogs

Q: What is your favorite thing to do with your Daddy?
M: Super kicks in the air

Q: What makes your Daddy happy?
A: When I do good things for him

Q: What does Daddy always say?
A: He loves me
M: Sure!

Q: If Daddy could go on a trip, where would he go?
A: Florida
M: Amazon to get us a toy (she's talking about the website Amazon here, not the jungle)

Q: What would he take on his trip?
A: Me!
M: All of us, like a field trip!

Q: How are you like your Daddy?
A: Because I stay in the lines when I color

Q: What is something you really like that your Daddy does?
A: Cooks me mac-n-cheese because he knows I love it
M: Gives me Eskimo kisses and he makes the goodest dinners

Q: If you could get your Daddy anything, what would you give him?
A: New cooking supplies, a recipe book, gardening supplies for all the things he likes to do (which is actually mostly what we did get him)
M: A new blanket (no clue where this came from!)

And, I always knew that Papa was a good Dad, but he's turned out to be quite an amazing grandpa as well! The girls love him to pieces!

I asked the girls a few things about their Papa and this is what I found out:

Q: What is your Grandpa's name?
A: Papa Stan
M: Papa

Q: How old is Grandpa?
A: 21 years old
M: 50 years old

Q: What color is Grandpa's hair?
A: Light color and no hair on top
M: Whitish grayish

Q: What color are Grandpa's eyes?
A: Blue
M: Black

Q: What is Grandpa's favorite food?
A: Celery and peanut butter (this is just one of the random things we tell the girls that Papa puts peanut butter on, so that's what Avery remembered)
M: Hamburgers and hot dogs

Q: What does Grandpa like to wear?
A: Hats
M: Sweatshirts

Q: What does your Grandpa like to do?
A: Come to our house
M: To see us

Q: What does Grandpa do that makes you happy?
A: Tease me and say silly things
M: Plays in the basement with us at my cousin's house (by the way, Morgan rarely actually says "Grayson" when talking about him... she always says "my cousin")

Q: Why do you love your Grandpa?
A: I love him because he teases me
M: Because I just do

Some other pics from the past week...

Just some other things that happened in the past week...

Picnic in the backyard

Ready for field trip day at school

Eating spaghetti-o's spelling out her name

Tried it, but was not a fan

Fun times at the father's day bbq at school

Meeting baby Calvin

The girls got to meet baby Calvin this past weekend. Morgan could not wait to hold the baby! Avery just wanted to touch him, but wasn't too jazzed about holding him just yet. :) Calvin got A LOT of attention!