Loads of Summer Fun

Yogurt on a hot day...well a warmish day as we really haven't had any hot days!!   Both kids always want sprinkles and gummy bears which in my opinion don't stand up to my hot fudge with cocoa covered almonds :)  Who wants a frozen solid gummy bear...not me...!! but anyone under the age of 10 seems to love them :)   It is a special treat to get to go to the 'ice cream' store. 

This is the bakery that I will soon be working at....!! Yes you read that right.  One of my running friends opened this adorable vintage bakery, Oh So Sweet, in Davenport about a year ago. I"ve had my eye on possibly working there since she opened but the timing hasn't been quite right. But, with Maddox going to kindergarten in the fall and Kennon to preschool 5 mornings a week I felt like it was time to make a go of it. I"ll start the week of Labor Day just working a couple of hours a couple of times a week.  Tiphanie is the owner and she is a fabulous creative sole. She and I agreed to be open with each other and I assured her ( and myself and Eric) if it becomes too stressful for our family then I'd wait a couple of years and call her when BOTH kids are in school and I have little more time.  We high fived each other after that agreement.  I will be her task master...filling tarts, making ganache, making salted caramel, frosting cupcakes, doing dishes etc.  It sounds absolutely FUN to me and I can't wait to start.  I'm not quite certain how I'm going to juggle the VNA gig. I'm planning to keep up with the audits for sure but as for the training of new physical therapists they hire we'll have to see. 

This was her free sample table at her one year anniversary. She does wedding cakes too and she advised that on Saturdays she might have me be involved with setting up the dessert table/cake table actually at a wedding here and there!!! How FUN! 

Maddox adores the place and Miss Tiphanie....our favorite treats so far are her ginormous cinnamon rolls as well as her red velvet cheesecake cupcakes...well I suppose those rank up there with her salted caramel brownies!! YUMMY!! ( I"m going to have to keep up my running if I'm going to work there!! ) 

After Oh So Sweet's one year anniversary celebration we headed to the museum as a family of 4!! I take the kids to the museum weekly by myself but it is always nice to have Eric along with us.  This day they had just opened their new traveling exhibit for the summer...A Visit to the Rain forest. 

You get to pull yourself up in a tree through a pulley system. 

Despite the terribly cold, rainy spring we've had I've managed to get some of my flowers a bloomin'.  The beautiful pink rose is from Grandma Doris' garden. It's specific name is 'Tournament of Roses'. I have taken a liking to roses since this beauty started blooming and we'll be adding a couple more bushes to the two that Eric and his brother Bryan were able to save from her house last Fall.  They are gorgeous with ruffled light pink petals, a light yellow center and they have the most yummy aroma! 

The Saturday of Father's Day was the Quad City Triathlon. Eric continues to graciously devote his entire Saturday ( and the Thursday and Friday before) to setting up, tearing down, etc.  This is the first year I felt like Maddox and Kennon could come out to be a spectator. We set up shop along the run course ( near a potty and a park) with our Casey's donuts and water bottles,  so as to be able to cheer on a lot of my triathlon buddies and the rest of the participants. Eric is specifically in charge of the run course so the kids got to ride along with him in this gator! We all had a great time...and I got the TRI bug back again.  Resurrected the old light blue Cannondale, bike shoes, and helmet :)  

A couple of Fridays ago the kids didn't have any camps and we had just picked up Kennon's new big boy bike so I thought we should go for a ride!!  We asked Priya to join us. We ended up biking on what was a VERY hilly ride with the end result being a park and lunch. ...well the park and lunch was half way...we had to trek home after the break for calories!! There was a fair amount of whining, tired legs and one mild crash by the time we made it to the park so luckily Priya's mom was able to cut the trek a little short for Kennon and gave him a ride home.  Priya, Maddox and I made back it in one piece. Note to self...5 miles with rolling hills feels like a 100 mile mountain climb to a 4 and 5 year old!!  Although I will credit Priya ( who really just learned how to ride her big girl bike well this Spring)..was lightness and joy and did not complain one iota!!

ooops. out of order..Kennon getting his turn to climb the rain forest tree. 

Kennon took a bit of a spill last Sunday while on a bike ride with Eric and Maddox. Seems we have a little learning to do about keeping our distance from the rider in front of us...  But in reality both kids are doing really well on their bikes!!  They are getting better at bike safety and just keeping a little space between the two of them. It certainly helps that in the evening and weekends we can go bike over on the road in the new subdivision which has NO traffic and nice rock free pavement. 

Maddox and Priya attended Princess Dance Camp at the Museum this past week. They both enjoyed the activities which consisted of dancing to music from a specific princess Disney movie each day, making a cool craft and eating a really nice thoughtful sugar filled snack :)  This was the first day and it was Snow White day. Tuesday was Cinderella, Wednesday Tiana, Thursday Elsa and Anna and today ( Friday) Ariel came for a special visit.  Both girls seemed to really enjoy themselves. 

Kennon got in on this picture but he too had camp this week...but at Our Savior. He learned about the jungle and Peace.  He came home on Monday with this absolutely heart melting definition of Peace. 'Mom its like when you are just all calm inside and God is in your heart'.  Man buddy...so eloquently spoken. Thank you to the teachers at Our Savior for being in this young man's life. 

We don't have swim lessons this week but I am so pleased with how both kids have been perfecting their swimming skills in the last couple of weeks. Both have developed so much confidence it is really amazing.  Maddox is working on basic front crawl and Kennon is FINALLY comfortable with putting his face in the water and even working towards paddling towards the side.  This teacher that Kim found is just amazing with both of the kids.  We have a couple more lessons left but then there is talk of extending her time out with us through the end of the summer which I am all in favor of. 

Maddox and Kennon with Kennon's new bike.  This bike didn't come with a kickstand because it came with training wheels to hold it upright instead.  Kennon had the training wheels on for about 12 hours and then ditched them.  Eric took him last Saturday to have the bike shop put on a kickstand.  He was SO PROUD of the kickstand ( and really the bike still too) . Priya's grandpa was in town last week and Kennon yelled over to Grandpa John when they got back from the bike shop  'Hey....I got a new part for my bike!!' He did it with this adorable pride filled smile.  It was so cute. He is REALLY proud of his new bike. I am quite certain the neighbors are probably getting tired of him telling them that he got a new bike!!  He is just so excited about it. So cute!!  'Hey Miss Kim...I got a new bike'....I think I've heard that phrase at least 10 times!! But Miss Kim ( my good neighbor friend and the pool we go to for lessons) of course reacts just as excited each time!! A kind sole she is. 

With the often rainy weather we have been doing some indoor activities and what better way to get your energy out than with a dance party. Both kids enjoy it and it keeps them busy and me laughing for a fair amount of time.

It was two years on June 27th!! I can't believe it. Time really does fly.  Kennon and I visited the grave site last week and freshened up Mom's flowers and flag for the summer.  Kennon was practicing his American Ninja Warrior moves, climbing all over Grammy's box!! I'm sure she enjoyed watching him from above. He is super into ANW and there is talk of building a small course in the basement of The Planning Center.... if the thought came to your mind of 'what DON'T you all do in the basement of The Planning Center??'  you are right!! We'll see if that comes to fruition.

These pictures were taken by our great neighbor friends Lee and Lori, to the North of us.  Lee and Lori treat Maddox and Kennon just like their very own grand kids. They are empty-nester's but their children haven't married...YET....and so they LOVE to have Maddox and Kennon come visit and hang out a bit. Lee and Lori have a tomato garden and a little black dog named Jack and they let the kids have free reign over both!!  This particular day Lori had invited Maddox over to make cupcakes with her.  Of course Maddox had a ball and brought home  a huge plate to share with us.  She even got to bake with Lori's future daughter in law, Anna, who seems to like hanging out with Maddox as well.  Lee and Lori offered to watch the kids last Thursday so Eric and I could have a date night. We chose to run the Bix at 6 together instead of an actual dinner date night. It was great fun getting to run together as well as with some of our running buddies.  The kids cried gang busters when we arrived to take them back to our house...they didn't want to leave. I'm quite certain they get fairly spoiled when they go to Lori and Lee's...but that's ok!!

Maddox and Anna

A few more pictures from Princess camp. On the last day, Friday, they did a little performance for us and showed us all the things that they learned in their camp.  Maddox was beaming from ear to ear during the entire performance.  She really does a beautiful job.

This is a new friend Maddox made at princess camp...although sort of an old friend. Katlyn was in Maddox and Kennon's swim lessons at the Y in April. She is closer in age to Kennon and will actually join him this fall in a special literacy class that I managed to get him into at the museum ( no waiting in a line out in the cold but I've been on the wait list since mid January!!...always a debacle getting into programs for pre-school aged children around here) . She is a doll and I have come to be friends with her mama and grandma.

Maddox and 'Aeriel'

Maddox's Princess camp program 

Last night the Millage family invited us over to their pad for a pool and pizza party.  The kids quickly got in the water and started practicing some of their moves from swimming lessons!!  Perfect!!  Kim and Tim's pool is salt water and really beautiful with a diving board.  They also have a trampoline...just in case you get tired of swimming!! Quite the fun activities in the Millage backyard.  Hudson is their youngest and Maddox adores him...although he is 1 and on the move so he doesn't like to be snuggled much, to Maddox's dismay.   He is always a smiley guy but of course Maddox was holding him hostage to snap this shot so no grins for this one. There is something really special about the 4th child...he just toddles along right behind the big kids and gets right in the mix.  He chowed down a piece of pizza like he had eaten it 100 times before.  Observation of his older brothers and sister is how this little, big, guy keeps up. Before the night ended we had a raging game of kickball going.....Between the 6 Millages' and the 4 Kies' we had almost all the positions covered.  Great summer time fun!! Thank you to the Millage family!

We are gearing up for a big week in the Kies house. Maddox will attend Challenger Soccer Camp and Kennon will go to Barnyard Tot Lot  Camp ( in reading that....it sounds like poor Kennon got the short end of the stick...but have no fear Tot Lot is amazing fun and he LOVES it!!) The Challenger camp is a traveling British soccer skills camp that is run by coaches from England.  It is just a 90 minute skills class each day this week and happens to be down the road at one of our many parks.  The cool thing is that Eric and I, after much deliberating!!!, have decided to host one of the coaches. So tomorrow at 6pm I'll pick up Tom from Birmingham, England and he'll be staying with us until next Sunday!  Quite out of the box for the Kies family, or rather myself specifically, but I thought it would be a good lesson of generosity for Maddox and Kennon as well as for the kids to be exposed to someone other than a Bettendorfian!!  He doesn't like carrots, sprouts or baked beans and he is allergic to cats and has mild asthma...so I thought he'd fit right in to our family...HAH!!  He is 23 and has a large amount of experience coaching children in the UK on his Coach Profile.  ( We got to pick which one we wanted from a couple of profiles...I have to admit that I stalked them all on Facebook before deciding).  We have some activities planned to do with him in the evenings as he only is slated to work about 6 hours per day.  I'm hoping the kids will pick up a thing or two about England and more specifics about soccer.  Hoping it goes well! Stay tuned for pictures with Tom:)