Memorial Day - Bring on the summer fun!

 Both kids received a summer starter gift from Grammy Kerschen in the mail this week...new sandals!

 Clowns thru and thru!

 Elise's birthday party with Daddy - at the Butterfly Pavilion.  Mommy had to work.

Both kids held Rosie the Tarantulla...how many Rosie's have there been over the years I wonder...

 We took a little nature walk around The Pond, during a break from the rain.  Our neighbors clematis is the healthiest, most beautiful clematis I've ever seen in Colorado! Rain's good for something!

 On Sunday we visited the Nature and Science Museum with Keira and Casey! Putting our membership from Grandpa Kerschen to good use!

 Hissing Cockroaches - this girl has no fear!

You can almost see the gears in his head rotating too!

 The ball machine had a ball stuck, so Lillian took it upon herself to report it to the staff.  She sure is a take charge kinda gal!  When the repair man arrived, Jak offered his assistance. He sure is a mister-fix-it like his daddy!

These are the biggest slabs of petrified wood I've ever seen.  Of course, we sent Great Uncle Tom a picture!

 I had to work Monday, Memorial Day too, unfortunately.  So I brought both kids with me, they were so well behaved during Sit and Fit and they loved listening to the piano music in our Alzheimer's Unit.

 Jak went home with Daddy for naptime, but Lillian stayed all day.  She was an excellent assistant at bingo and she excelled at serving ice cream sundaes.  We only had about 10 residents come for ice cream, but Lillian chased down an additional 40!  The residents enjoy seeing my kids so much and I love to show them off. 

 Lillian drew a picture for Ryan, our Marketing Director, so Ryan decorated her in butterflies...haha!

Lillian made me so proud today!

Euchre Anyone?

A good majority of the Lerch's came to town this weekend for a wedding on Pat's side of the family.  And we benefited by seeing all of them on Sunday.  The plan was to get together for lunch at the Colorado Kerschens house then meet over near Casey & Rob's house for an outdoor concert after naptime.  But the weather turned iffy, and rained (surprise, surprise) and a few of us had a few too many drinks to want to drive to far, so, instead of concert going we ended up playing Euchre all afternoon and ordering pizza!

 Ian and his god-mother LeeAnne...Mom couldn't have arranged a better pair!

 Rick and Becky - their kids befriended our kids instantly!  Lillian still asks when she can see her friend Samantha again.  We've shown her on the map where North Carolina is in comparison to Colorado, but she insists we get together again soon.

 The kid table needed a couple additional seats for lunch today!

 Shawn and Keira swinging

 The Fella's

 The Ladies (minus Kim who had taken the kids to their first summer swim meeting).

Mike and I   :-)

 Soaking up some good sunshine!

Dad's N' Daughters - they walked home from "The Pond" like this!

Samantha and Lillian - Fast Friends!

 Rick wrestling the 2 year olds!

Lillian photo-bombing Grammy and Opa's picture!  Unfortunately, they all flew home on Monday, even Grammy and Opa.  The house seems quite now - time to get back to "normal" I suppose!

Rain, Rain Go Away....

We are exhausting our indoor activities these days!  We haven't been able to plant our vegetable garden or our flower pots yet.  It's rained and rained and rained!   Mom and Dad are visiting - and they're missing 80 degree sunny days back in Indianapolis.  What a bizarre twist.  Thank goodness Grammy is like Mary Poppins and always has a few tricks in her bag:

 Grammy playing her new Autoharp with the kids.  They sounded pretty good actually!

 Crazy Eights with Daddy

 A new puzzle with Grammy.

 And Opa introduced Jak to golf.  I wish I had a video of Jak cheering, "Get it in the hole!".

The grass is wet and heavy but it needs to be mowed in between rain showers.  It was 18 inches tall in some spots!

 This picture is a little blurry but sweet none-the-less.  When Lillian saw what Grammy was wearing for the day, she ran upstairs to change so they could match.

 Grammy bought Jak a new book about Bailey the dog - only in this book Bailey discovers dinosaurs at the Nature & Science museum just like Jak has recently.

 Another blurry but good picture.  The kids are enjoying the old classic, "Singing in the Rain" lately.  We decided to run out and play in the rain just like Gene Kelly!

 Kim and Ian hosted the whole crew again for a night, when Pete was in town from Wyoming.

 As you can see, the kids enjoyed a break from the rain and loved playing outside.

 Opa snuck in some good hugs and silly time!

The next morning, we half heartily participated in the Stapleton Garage Sale.  We sold a bunch of little dollar items and Casey and Rob unloaded some bigger stuff. Again, the kids just had fun being together!