Star Wars Birthday

Tyson and his friend Zack had a joint birthday party star wars style. They had a great time.
Wish I had taken more pictures. All the boys painted their own galaxies and dueled with light sabers. Heaven, right?

Amy not only whipped up these Jedi outfits she also made this adorable little Yoda hat.

The light saber cake idea was taken from the Hostess with the Mostess.

We're so glad Amy suggested this fun little party for our boys because on the 30th Tyson spent his 9th birthday laid up on the couch sipping on Gatorade. We celebrated over root beer shakes. This tonsil experience has not been a fun one. Poor little guy. Recovery has been a little slow, but he's now doing much better.

The Magic House

As part of our library's summer reading program the kids get weekly prizes for so many books read. One of the prizes were tickets to the Magic House in St Louis. We've heard how amazing this place is. We were not disappointed. Tyson wanted to invite his friend Zack, so off we went, without little girls in tow. We had so much fun. You definitely couldn't do this place in one day. It's all hands on education for kids, babies to the big ones. The girls would love it. It was nice not to be pulled in a million directions though, and the boys got to do their own thing their speed. These pics only show a fraction of this place.

This beanstalk went up through all three floors.



Huck Finn Room, one of my favorites.

Life size Dollhouse and village including a restraunt, library, hospital, post office, bank, etc, etc.

Amy came to dispute her bill being charged $1,700 for some produce and a loaf of bread.
sheesh! inflation is a bugger.

This little path is an underground river where you can watch your catch swim back to their pond. Magnetic fish. Brilliant.

Construction site.

I was ecstatic to find that a year's family membership was a mere $75.

So so worth it.

And info unrelated... Tyson goes in to get his tonsils out tommorrow, and adnoids and drain his left ear. Two days before his Birthday. He is excited for the ice cream, jello and popsicles though. His grandma got him a snow cone maker for his birthday. Perfect.

kids and summer.

Despite sickness and stuff breaking, summer has been good. We stay busy with typical summery activities. A few very random pics.

We play many versions of this game.

We love the 4th of July. This is the only picture I could find.

And every summer we swim

and eat Popsicles.

Growing food.

Our first attempt at gardening turned a little wild. At first I was so meticulous weeding and upkeep. Then i thought, "upkeep, for heaven sakes that's why we opted for raised beds". So we let it go and found weeds still grow and pretty soon took over. So that and we haphazardly planted the seeds, with one look at it you'd know I have no idea what i'm doing. Quite a few plants died very quickly. We still got an abundance of tomatoes and cucumbers and few other things. The kids love to pick the fruit, which proves a real challenge to find.

Learning to ride.

Tyson has conquered the bike. Took only a few days, he caught on pretty quick. He was riding on his own by that second day. Of course there were a few good wipeouts and some battle wounds to brag about. Nonetheless he remained tough and optimistic. And now like he told us this week "I could be a pro!" Absolutely, we say, just keep that helmet on. And maybe some neosporine in your pocket. He named his bike, "wipeout".

A few pics from our camera phone. This is the second or third day. It didn't occur to me, use the phone. Our camera's gone missing this past month.

Nothing says summer like a boy and his bike.

We're so glad when Daddy comes home...

That little primary song is spot on.

Cub Scouts

We've enjoyed some scouting this summer.



Scout camp pictures. Top taken from friend Amy (Tyson top middle) and bottom from friend Gwen.

That ridge looks dangerously high but really that's where it ends. This trail was awesome.

Tyson earned so many patches this summer. A few favorite activities were shooting (bow and bb gun), fishing, hiking, woodworking, bottle rockets and just some fun with his pack.