Pre-trip Picture Share (June 23rd-27th)

I have many, many pictures to share from our trip, but I will start off with some pre-trip pictures and then probably break the trip itself into parts.

Thomas had his friend Ian over for a bit.  Thomas was so excited to see Ian.  Thomas has seen Ian much less frequently since school has been out (I watch Ian a few times a week during the school year).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIla and Thomas driving pretend cars:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe all went over to the neighbor’s house for a water party to celebrate Ian’s 3rd birthday:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThomas found a cup and kept filling it up and then chasing me and pouring it on me, it was his favorite activity:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Thomas did such a great job soaking me that I sat down and gave Isaac the camera so he could capture it for me.  Ila joined in as well:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABubble solution was mixed with water for foamy fun:
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI LOVE this picture of these two little friends!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThey served an assortment of snacks that was highly appealing to Ila since it included several of her favorite foods:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIla and Thomas were having so much fun playing in water, that they continued their water play when they got home:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIsaac took this picture.  He liked Thomas’s creative idea of placing the cars underneath to move the structure:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIla and Thomas like to crawl on Isaac:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThomas crawled into Isaac’s bed at night.  Thomas was very excited to share a bed with his favorite brother.  They read books for awhile and stayed up way too late:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I spent most of the week preparing for our big trip.  Here are the snack bags I created to give the kids each day.  They were mostly successful, but I discovered early in the trip that one of my children needed a little supervision with her snack bag!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI also spent a lot of time making binders full of activities for each kid.  They were so excited for the things that I had prepared, that they could hardly wait to get in the car.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERACharlotte used dress-ups to make monkeys.  Nicole found the monkeys and decided to play cards with them:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Charlotte told me that the monkeys were in Love and then she decided to marry them.  She made everyone in the house decorative handmade invitations to the wedding:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAShe set up chairs:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAShe made paper rings for the monkeys and walked them down the Isle to present them to the monkeys:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

When she got up to the monkeys, she pulled this paper out from under the pillow and read it:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThen she served cake:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Meanwhile I was busy packing.  This was our “go bag”  I packed clothes for the trip so that we wouldn’t have to get our suitcases out at our motel stops.  Each kid had a grocery bag of clothes with a colored ribbon to indicate whose bag it was.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThat was the last picture I took before we left.