Saturday, July 9, 2016

Midway United Methodist Church VBS

I have been hesitant to redo this post. Sometimes doing something again can make it better, but I know this will be worse because I can't remember everything. Oh well.

Seth was so excited. When I asked him about the first day he said, "It was the best day ever!"  He had a similar response each of the other days.

Anika and Emmy got to be in the same group.  The first day they were all excited about the rocks they got. They were plain on the outside, but if you broke them open they were beautiful on the inside. Like we might be 😊

Wearing their shirts! 
 I got a flat tire one day on my way to pick them up. Thankfully Kari was a good sport. Our neighbor, Mike, was able to come rescue us with his kids, Gabe & Elsye.

Singing and dancing. I bought the Bible School CD and surprised the kids when I picked them up by playing it in the car.

Anika really enjoyed it and Seth thought it was wonderful.

They learned about a different animal each day and talked about why that animal is unique.

Frog, YMCA. Sister Jacobs, Gack Dad, Fence

Sometimes the kids find these little frogs. During the summer we often see them on our window above the front door.

Emma and Kari at the YMCA 

Anika's water slide progression:

She was so excited that she did it! Several times!

Goodbye, Sister Jacobs.  She is being transferred after over 6 months serving in out ward.  Notice the fashion sense my kids have... They must get it from me.

Who needs a Gack when you've got Dad?

(Reference to Dr. Seuss)

Good dad.

Our broken fence after Nathaniel made it sort of stand up.  Bad luck and the HOA have been dictating which projects we work on and when 🙄

Fixing the fence.  Way to go, Than!

One of my kids took this picture...

Fun with Friends

Seth, Anika, Emmy and Rex eating Popsicles- Weir's turn to babysit. For our date, Nathaniel and I got sub sandwiches, made a pizzookie, watched some YouTube and then he read to me from his book (my request) while I did a little preschool and a gift thing and finally some more work on our baseboards. 

Seth, Anika and Emmy "performing " for us. Nate & Briana came in after their date to see it. The three acts included displaying and describing their magformer creations, Seth shooting his Captain America spinners into the air, and dancing.

The kids wanted to charge us to see their show. I wonder if that idea came from recently watching Little Rascals. They each earned $.50, a cookie and cookie dough.

A fun day with Maturas and Mortensens. Left to right: Anika, Liana, Jonathan, Eric, Ella, Louisa and Seth.

The Mortensens invited is over for fireworks. Bonnie helping light sparklers.  Seth kept trying to light other things like leaves and discarded sparkler boxes on fire. 🙄

After fireworks we went inside for a treat and all the kids ran around playing until we finally left at 10:30 or later, but Bonnie was still there.

Swimming at Bonnie's neighborhood pool.

Anika is doing better and better with swimming.

Seth wanted to wear the snorkeling goggles. Very stylish!

Friday, July 8, 2016

World of Coca-Cola

We went to the Coke Museum with Emily and Emma.  For a few days afterward, my kids excitedly pointed out every Coke symbol around; from trucks to vending machines to cups and bottles. It was pretty amusing for a few day, but I'm glad it's worn off now.

I think Coke tastes pretty good, but I rarely drink it. Call me crazy, but my kids (unknowingly) and I did not take advantage of our complimentary Coke upon entrance.  But my kids did get their other free Coke in a glass bottle at the end. I try to mostly not drink soda except a few times each year, usually when I can't pass up some root beer. So it's been awhile since I had Coke.  When I did finally drink some free coke, it almost made me laugh because it immediately reminded me of being sick when I was little. My mom would give us Coke sometimes if we had an upset stomach. It always seemed to help ☺️



Kari was a good sport. She wasn't happy in her stroller the whole time, but she made it a good while.


Coca-Cola has a very close relationship with the Olympics. Many past Olympic torches are on display there.  We decided to stop at the beach in Rio for a photo op.

Their open-mouth expressions are so funny. Also notice them sort of holding hands ❤️


See? They're looking at themselves in the mirror on the ceiling.


"The Vault" exhibit entrance.


Anika and Seth are having fun turning these wheels. World of Coke is not super exciting for kids, but it's not terrible either. Thankfully there were lots of buttons and flaps and knobs and such to help keep them entertained. Especially Seth.



This was pretty cool. I didn't get the best picture, but if you look on the right of the screen, a little above where it says "Coca-Cola," you can see a white spot in the pink. It's a reflection of Seth while being bubble-ized (or something like that). The vague darker spot to the left of the white spot is Anika.


Machines that move?! One of Seth's favorite parts.


Who needs a museum when you've got stairs and a railing?


Foreign Coke bottle decorations...


And some more with silly Seth.


There was a 4-D movie. Seth was terrified!!! After he scrambled over the seat to me, we stepped out early with Kari and waited for the others to finish. But the glasses don't worry him at all.


Coke Bear!


Two other cuter Coke Bears:



The funny guy who welcomed us to the museum and told us interesting facts.


The real vault where the secret recipe is kept.  This part of the tour was quite the hype.


Anika wanted to take a picture of me and Kari by this truck. Out of several pictures snapped you can see me and Kari...

And the truck.


The End. 
Just kidding. At the end of our mostly self-guided tour, we got to sip ourselves silly with Coke products from around the world. Notice the blue-lighted cylinder says Europe. Around it are Coke products from Europe...


... Including Lingonberry.


Africa had some fun ones. Of course my children were excited by the fact that they could choose drinks to try and push buttons.  Although I think that might be true for most of the people there.


Little Seth on the left, reaching to do it by himself.


Did you know Coke owned all of these other beverages? 


See the kids playing with the screens? Yep, they're mine. I'm glad there were interactive things like that throughout the museum, even though my kids rarely understood the information being shared.

Blog Archive

Leelou Blogs