End of Summer Wrap-Up

Alrighty, it's time to just wrap up the summer.  I'm so far behind that I have to squeeze it into one post.  Ha!

We had our bigger outings at the beginning of the summer (beach, Austin), so the rest of the summer was more low-key...busy, but low-key.  And we love low-key!

ROLLER SKATING LESSONS:

This summer the kids really got into roller skating.  They're finally getting the hang of it, so they're enjoying it more.  We decided to let each of the kids have a skating lesson.  They loved it!  It was awesome because the kids had the rink all to themselves!  Besides learning how to skate better, Eli and Evie learned how to stop and get up safely.  Elina learned how to skate faster.  She also tried to learn to spin, but it was too hard.  They all had a great time, especially since B's parents were there to join them!

Evie went from this--
to this--
Amazing!!
SIX FLAGS:
We went to Six Flags a few times and had so much fun!  B and Elina went out to Six Flags one Wednesday night and rode a bunch of the big rides a few times.  The lines were so short that they rode the new Batman ride!  (Although they said it wasn't as fast and exciting as they had expected.)  Then they even rode the Iron Rattler 3 times!  Elina was in heaven.

We also went to the water park a few times.  We even went with B's parents and had a blast!

FIREWORKS:

We're lucky enough to live 5 minutes away from Six Flags...which means we get to have a fireworks display in our backyard almost every night!  One night we drove out to the outdoor mall by our house, sat in our camping chairs, and enjoyed an amazing fireworks show!  The kids loved it and so did we!
SCHLITTERBAHN:

We made another trip out to Schlitterbahn and had another fun day!  This time Elina and B did the surfing ride, too.  We were impressed Elina wanted to do it...and she loved it!   We are thinking of getting season passes next year!  Woo-hoo!
PLAYDATES:
I think this was the summer of playdates, too.  We took friends roller skating, to the Witte Museum, to lunch, to Incredible Pizza Company, to the pool...now that Eulee is a little bit older, it's more manageable to pick up other friends to come play with us!  I just always look like a crazy lady walking into establishments with 5-7 kids in tow.  It's great!

DINO EXHIBIT:

 

We took the kids to a visiting dinosaur exhibit recently and it was just ok to me and B.  The kids, on the other hand, had a blast!  We saw lots of animatronic dinosaurs...the kids "rode" a dinosaur (Elina really was a little too old for this part)...

played dino mini-golf...and jumped on some dino-themed bouncies.  It wasn't a stellar exhibit, but the kids had fun.  I guess that's all that matters.

BUG CAMP FOR EVIE:

This year Evie got to participate in a bug camp and she was thrilled!  It was only for 2 days, but she had so much fun.  She caught some cool insects, put them in a kill jar, and even learned how to pin them in her own bug box.  How neat is that?  She also got to hold a snake!

But my fave bug camp picture is Evie wearing the "compound eye glasses."  It's the best, right?!

THE RIVER AT NIGHT:

This year we really wanted to try to see the meteor shower because Evie had mentioned that she wanted to see a shooting star when we talked about New Years resolutions.  So we took the kids to the Guadalupe River at night to try to catch it.  Well, the weather had been clear and hot for weeks and weeks.  And on the day of the meteor shower, it was cloudy AND it rained!!  What are the chances??  Seriously.  We still went out there, but there were too many clouds to get a good view.  I saw a small one and B saw a huge one when we walked back to the car.  But the kids didn't get to see a thing.  Oh well.  We'll try again next year!

OVERNIGHT TRIP TO AUSTIN:
We went to Austin for one night so that Elina could participate in the Bring Your Kid to Work Day at V's office.  It was a Lego theme and Elina had so much fun!  One of the interns there actually has the title of Master Builder!  He builds these huge replicas of superheroes in 3 months and WITHOUT planning it out!  Amazing!  He was in charge of the event so there was lots of Lego building.

Elina also got to see some of the things V works on and she just loved it all!  What a great experience for her!  Thanks, Uncle V!

So while Elina was doing "work"...the rest of us were out playing!  We checked out the Austin Nature and Science Center and had a fun time learning about pond life and seeing big and little critters!

Then we HAD to do our mandatory Sno Beach trip afterwards.  Of course!  (I love that in the picture, Eulee is smiling at her sno cone rather than at the camera!)

What an AWESOME SUMMER!!