Summer Time with the Joneses: Mini Vacation, Potty Training and Backyard Camping

What a fun summer we are having! And it's only the end of June, still! Heres a quick pictorial review of what we have been up to: 

A trip to the Brookfield zoo! 

Don't let all the cute pictures fool you.  For some reason, our little family struggles with zoo trips, but we keep trying them out. 

All-in-all, we had a fun dyad ate a delicious picnic where we thought we may actually be eaten by the geese inn the area, but it sure was exhausting trying to keep these two kids from running a muck! 

But despite the struggles, we still strive to build the family memories and have fun times together.  

And I think we have a pretty good time.  We all like each other a lot, so as long as we are together, we are a happy crew! 

Another fun event we tried out for the first time this summer is backyard camping! We would like to work our way up to the real deal and take a camping vacation, but with me being super pregnant, I think my desire to camp this year has dissipated. 

They all slept fine both times around, as you can see.... 

Happy as a clam! But me, on the other hand, I really struggled even on the air mattress the second time  around.  

But, we had a really fun time playing backyard bocce... 

...and just hanging out by the fire.... 

...and playing on the patio with our toys. We were glad to have easy access to bathrooms right inside the house, too! 

We made hot dogs, baked beans, fish and s'mores over the fire pit. 

and we went on a "pajama walk" with lanterns around our neighborhood before zipping up the tent for the night.  We really really had a fun time both times we pitched the tent.  

And this update has no pictures associated with it, but after I stopped working (part-time), we decided to give potty training a go with little Sarah Bearah.  She did great.  It was about 2 days before she got the hang of going pee pee on the potty.  Poopy was a little tougher, but we have made some great progress (and currently are already regressing, but I know it will pass - pun intended- in time).  We were so proud of her that she was able to make it through our whole mini Madison vacation without a single accident.  We were concerned about being away from home and how that would effect her progress, but she is a champ and exceeded our expectations.  Way to go, Sarah!!! 

And that is a good segue into our vacation! We took a 1 night, 2 days trip up to Madison, WI and had the time of our lives.  The girls LOVED the beach.  I think this was my favorite part of the trip.  We spent hours there digging in the sand, 

playing in the water, 

pretending to be mermaids and snacking on goldfish and quiznos sandwiches.  I can't wait to make another beach trip.  

We also checked out the Madison Children's Museum while we were up there.  It is super cute! They have this beautiful rooftop garden area that we explored. 

Maddie and Sarah really loved playing in the kitchen and making us pies and pizzas. 

And later on, in another area, Sarah discovered the babies spent tons of time changing their diapers and putting them to sleep.  She's going to make such a great big sister! 

On day two, we took a trip to the Madison Zoo and walked around for an hour and a half or so.  Remember how I said that zoo trips are diffficult for us? Well, this time around, after several warnings, we ultimately left due to the kids misbehaving: fighting with each other, running off in opposite directions, whining....   But, other than that, the zoo was really cute.  We got to hear a lion roar and were super close to all of the animals.  Overall, I think we all had a really fun time on our mini trip. 

Side note that I thought was funny: The reason we took the trip at all was because of our rule about our recently purchased mini-van: you cannot watch tv in the car unless we are on vacation.  Well, Maddie kept asking about it and I finally said I would talk to Phil about taking a vacation for the sole purpose of her being able to use the car's dvd players.  So, our trip happened all because a 4.5 year old wanted to watch movies while driving.  Well, I'm glad we went! 

The resto of our summer has been spent hanging in the backyard, building a garden fence that the local bunnies can't penetrate, playdates, VBS at various churches and tea parties.   

A friend of ours from church bought us some yummy pastries, so that evening, we decided to sit down and enjoy them all together with tea and hot cocoa. 

We invited the teddy bears, too, and had a really nice evening enjoying our little family. 

It's really been a fun few months.  this little trouble maker had grown by leaps and bounds.  We love listening to her quirky voices she makes when playing with her sister.  I wish you could hear her say, "Is everybody ready?" in her daddy pig voice (from the show "peppa pig").  when she agrees with something you've said, instead of saying, "Me, too" she says, "me one," and it cracks me up every time.  She is super tall, wearing big girl undies and already can recite her months of the year, count up to 20, knows all her colors and shapes and recites most of the words to her favorite songs (especially Moana).  She makes me laugh ALL THE TIME.  She starts almost every sentence with a gasp of excitement and "mama! you know what?!?!" Her expressions, are priceless, too.  This girl can show pure joy on her face on second and break your heart with her tears the next. She is so excited for her little brother and is always giving "Sho Sho" his and kisses. I just love her. 

And this little princess is so sweet.  Her smile is possibly the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen.  She gives the bestt snuggles, especially in the morning.  One day, she came into my room at around 7am and I was in the bathroom showering.  She was so sad I wasn't in bed and cried and cried.  I asked her why she was so upset and she told me it was because she didn't get to sleep with me.  For months now, the girls will come into my bed in the morning and we snuggle together for about 5-10 minutes before starting our day.  It is my favorite part of the day, but I hadn't realized how special it was to Maddie, too.  Well, we made sure to hop back into bed and snuggle that day to make up for it.  What a sweet, sensitive, kind heart she has.  She has a drive and desire to make people happy, she loves playing with her sister more than anything in the world (even if they do fight amongst the playing) and she is a great story teller.  She loves numbers right now and always wants me to tell her how to count to a specific number....usually a really high one.  Her courage continues to astound me as she tries new things all the time, like climbing trees and up the side of her bunk bed, going on new roller coasters at Santa's Village and jumping off tall platforms.  I could listen to her talk in her cute voice all day long, but most of all, I love her laugh.  She has the best laugh of all time and all it takes is the tiniest tickle to get it out of her.

 I am so blessed.