Sunday School Kick Off Party

Last Sunday, I was in charge of our Sunday School's Kick Off Party. We filled the Sunday School hour with crafts and singing and then after late service, we had a picnic in the park. We had about 20 kids come to Sunday School and about 40 total people at the picnic! It was a success! The kids had a blast playing with their friends. Alden & Papa McKnight played soccer before the picnic began.

Labor Day Weekend

Doug & the kids went to his parents house on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend. I went to a movie with a girlfriend of mine and then went out to their house. The kids had a fun afternoon because their cousin Shaely was there with a friend. The water in the lake was already cold, so Doug took the kids on a paddle boat ride, which they thought was so much fun! They had supper and cleaned up and then played inside for the rest of the evening.

On Monday, Doug & I took the kids to Mahoney State Park to play on their huge outdoor playground. First we climbed the lookout tower. The kids thought that was fun, although Samantha was pretty scared when the tower started moving in the wind. Alden loved to look at the trains from above and liked breeze blowing through his hair. After my 81 steps to my seat at the Husker game, the steps up the tower were pretty exhausting for me! But, I made it! After the tower, we drove to the playground and the kids had a good time playing on all the stuff. Samantha decided to be brave and went down the big slides over and over. Alden followed her up the steps, but then decided he wasn't brave enough when he got to the top. There were quite a few pieces of equipment perfect for Alden, so he mainly stuck to those. After they were exhausted from playing, we drove to Gretna for lunch at McDonalds.

Spray Park Take 3

We went back to the spray park last week to play. It was our 3rd trip there this summer! The kids just love it and the best part is - it's FREE!! :) We stopped at Target to grab some stuff for sandwiches and had a picnic when we got there. It was a very hot day, so the water felt very good to the kids. I wanted to run through the water, but didn't bring my swimsuit! Samantha has gotten very brave at the spray park and will now run through all of the water features! I think it even helped in the pool a little bit. I'm sure it will be a frequent place for us next summer.

Omaha Riverfront

The day after Doug's triathlon, we spent the morning in Omaha walking along the riverfront and also walking across the new pedestrian bridge for the first time. It was awesome weather to go for a walk! Lots of sun and hot!! We realized the bridge was actually quite large when we started to walk up it, and we decided to make it our goal to get across! Well, we did that and then decided to drive a few blocks back and walk around Heartland Of America park and see the fountain. Alden was only concerned with seeing the ducks and almost chased one right into the water!! That's when we decided to strap him in the stroller for the remainder of our walk around the lake. It was windy and the fountain sprayed us with yucky fish/duck water, which was not very pleasant! It was a fun day with the family and a great way to get a little exercise on a Sunday morning! (If you are wondering why Alden isn't in many of these pictures - it's because he would NOT cooperate at all with us to take pictures of him, so we decided to take advantage of Samantha's unusual cooperation and great smiles! :)

Sand In the City

Once we got back to Plattsmouth, on the day of Doug's triathlon, we drove the kids up to Omaha to see the Sand in the City event. The kids thought the sand castles were really neat! Alden wanted to play in it and Sam didn't want to get dirty - just like normal. They voted for their favorite - Alden's was the one that looked like the College World Series and Samantha liked the big Teddy Bear one.

Falling Leaves

Last Wednesday, Sam, Alden, & I went down to Rylander Park and played in the leaves. It was the last warm and dry day we were supposed to have for a while, so we took advantage of it! As soon as naps were over, we drove down to the park. We walked straight to the ball field area because I knew that's where the most leaves would be and I was right! Samantha started picking up leaves right away and I tried to stand Alden up next to her for a picture, but he sat right down and started crawling in the leaves! We covered Alden's legs up in leaves and would kick his feet and giggle. Then, I had Sam sit down and I covered her up too, but she didn't like it and got up right away. We walked around a little more and we were going to go up in the woods to the trail, but it was getting dark and there were lots of werid sounds that Sam didn't like too much. Instead, we walked back to the playground and Sam and Alden rode on the swings for awhile and Sam went down the slide a couple of times. It started to get pretty dark at about 5:15pm, so I convinced Sam it was time to go. She started pushing the stroller back ot the van, and it started sprinkling a little bit and then all of the sudden it stared pouring! And it was a very cold/hard rain, so we started running and Sam ran as fast as her little legs would carry her! When we finally got back to the van, she was freaking out because she got really wet.