Road Trip. Round 1

 I usually try to space out our trips a bit, but thanks to last week's rain, we have two rounds of road trips this week!  This morning we left for Enid bright and early.

 We met my friend Angela and her girls at Leonardo's.

 Alice was really looking forward to playing shopping.

 They have a big magnetic wall in the new tinkering area--you can even stick your child on it!

 Alice worked hard on building a tower.

 The kids and Angela racing their cars.

 Jack played on this reaction time thing all day and on his last try of the day he made the best score!

On the way home we took a detour through Stillwater and had dinner at Eskimo Joe's.  We got home at 9:00 and have one day to rest up before the second round of travels!

Ice Cream!

 July is National Ice Cream Month, so we've been having some fun with it!  Today we read Ice Cream: The Full Scoop.

 We made ice cream in a bag one day.

 Alice liked it!

 Jack's was more like soup, but it was still yummy.

 We also made ice cream playdoh.

 Checking the menu for the ice cream shop

Alice made me a sundae!

Click here for links to printables and activities!

The Creative One

 Alice's creative tendencies have always been noticeable, but lately she's picking up steam.  Where you may see some random material to be tossed in the trash, she sees the supplies she needs for her next creation, like this bubble wrap skirt.  As Jay said recently, she gets an idea and then seems to think she can just will it into existence.  Sometimes she's actually successful.

 With Jay's help, she made a tin can telephone to talk to Jack across the hall.  The same weekend. she had elaborate plans for a house she was going to build at Grandma and Grandpa's, complete with indoor plumbing.

 After she saw a picture of one of my friends in a cat costume, she decided she needed her own, so I gave her a bag of pipe cleaners.  She came up with the tail design and I helped attach the ears.

 She often gets ideas from cartoons, and one morning she asked me to help make a TV.  When I finished, she made a remote for it.

Today she made Baggy the Puppet.

Today you can also read about the Adventurous One at MetroFamily.

Spavinaw State Park

 One of the crummy things about writing a travel column is that sometimes you have to visit places out of season in order to meet a deadline, and it seems like getting back to some of those places at more appropriate times just doesn't happen.  Today, though, we went back to Spavinaw State Park (which is actually the Spavinaw Area at Grand Lake State Park, but the sign just says Spavinaw State Park), which we visited a few months ago when we were researching for the May issue of MetroFamily.  It was so cold that day and the kids really wanted to play in the water so I told them we would try to come back in the summer.  (I think this picture is of the same area that's shown in the first picture of Spavinaw on the March post, so you can see the difference four months can make!)

 We went with my mom and dad and my sister and her kids.

 The kids spent almost the entire day in the water floating and swimming and playing.

 The water never got past my shoulders in any of the parts we were in, so it was perfect for the kids.

 There were plenty of shallow areas that were just right for sitting and looking for treasures.

 Snails!

 Catching minnows--they wanted to bring them home!

Alice with her shell "akecktion"--she loved looking for these.

We are all exhausted but we had a great day!

Water!

 This summer has definitely been cooler than last summer, but we've still had some pretty hot days where we've needed to cool off.

 Alice was excited to try out her new snorkeling outfit at the pool.

 Our favorite splash pad also has smaller monkey bars and Alice was so excited to make it all the way across on her own this year.  That guy is sitting next to the most amazing feat and he doesn't even realize it!

 Jack likes to climb the light poles.

 The "island" is also a favorite.

 Last week my friend Rachel brought her girls down for the day to swim.

Last night was the annual Mom & Son Luau--we had a nice uncrowded pool and thankfully it wasn't nearly as hot as it was last year!

The Kiddie Park

 A few weeks ago I posted a few pictures from our trip to the Kiddie Park and now I'm finally getting around to posting a few more!

 The first stop was the roller coaster.  Alice was feeling pretty confident at this point.

 After the first half, she wasn't so sure anymore.  Eventually, though, she decided she liked it and they rode it again and again--rides are only 50 cents each, so you can ride a lot!

 Alice in the boat!

 Jack in the boat on our first trip to the Kiddie Park (in July 2006)!

 Jack was a good sport about riding things with Alice.

 He was too tall for a lot of the rides, though, so Sister had a lot more variety.

 He was a very good sport about it all, though.

 Turtles, 2013

 Turtles, 2006--They've grown just a bit!

 All the kids on the spinner!  (I shamelessly stole this picture from Rachel's blog.)

We had such a great time!  We're headed back again for one more night of rides before the summer ends!