the great outdoors

Olivia, Violet and I went camping with my parents this past weekend. My parents have their camper parked for the summer in a campground area of a resort. The resort was really nice and had a lot of things to do. The weather was pretty hot, so we spent a lot of time at the beach. The girls loved going down the waterslide. Olivia also loved collecting shells and Violet had a blast making a big pile of seaweed. They also played a lot at the playground, in the sand, in the camper, and we also went on a hayride Saturday night put on by the resort owners. Violet loved the hayride and didn’t want to get off the trailer! The girls made some new friends that they played with which seemed so weird. Hard to believe they are old enough to introduce themselves and meet new kids. They have become a little braver, but they still had plenty of fears and worries (afraid of rain and campfire just to name a few). We all had a great time, and the girls loved spending time with Granny & Grandpa. All weekend Olivia kept saying, "I am going to stay here forever and ever."

Last night, we told the girls about our upcoming trip to Orlando. We bought some wheeled Cinderella suitcases with the girls’ names on it, so Jamie sneaked out the garage and put those outside the front door along with a printed invitation from “Cinderella” inviting them to have breakfast at her castle. He rang the doorbell and ran back into the house through the garage. The girls looked out the front window and said, “Somebody left their backpack!” When they opened the door, they were thrilled that the backpacks were for them and shouted, “They have our names on them!” They were so excited about the backpacks that they didn’t really listen fully to Daddy reading the invitation telling them we are going to the castle. Violet finally realized what was going on and got pretty excited. She started shoving stuff in her backpack right away. I asked her what she thought she should pack for the trip and she said quite frankly: “Animals and art stuff.” Once Olivia realized what was happening, she got pretty excited too. I asked her what she was going to do when she meets the princesses and she said: “Give them all a hug and a kiss!” Then they were really concerned about how Cinderella got away so fast without us seeing her. Must have been Fairy Godmother magic! We leave at the end of August, so we have some time to prepare them for the things we are going to see and do. We made a paper chain calendar where we will tear off one chain per day, and the last chain left is the day we leave! It should be a lot of fun to hear their excitement grow.

Violet & Olivia with their suitcases from Cinderella: Olivia playing at the resort playground:
Violet burying her feet in the sand: Playing on the beach with Grandpa: Going down the waterslide: Olivia: "Catch me Grandpa before my head goes under the water!"Violet going down the slide: Violet riding in her own little boat: Olivia collecting shells:

fun fourth

We had a fun fourth of July weekend. On Friday, we went to Chelsey's play "Seussical Jr." at the AAAA Theatre in Alexandria. The play spun together a couple of Dr. Seuss stories, the main one being Horton Hears a Who. Olivia and Violet sat very well in our front row seats, and loved every minute of it. Whenever a scene appeared that Chelsey wasn't in, one or both of them would ask "Where's Chelsey? When is she coming back?" Chelsey did a great job and we were really happy we could see her perform!

On Saturday, we spent the day at my parent's farm. All of the cousins were there. Granny planned many fun activities: lawn games, water balloon game (which turned into a water balloon fight), hayride, supper, bonfire and fireworks. Olivia and Violet each took a turn driving the tractor with Grandpa during the hayride. Granny also had two pools for the kids to play in as well as a motorized car and tractor. Olivia and Violet loved the water shooters that were in the pools. They ran around squirting everyone (especially Grandpa) and had a blast. However, they didn't like it too well when Grandpa gave them payback!! We also took our third annual fourth of July cousins photo. It was our best one yet, but we still couldn't get all of the kids to stand still and look at the camera all at the same time! The weather was beautiful and we had a great day.

Sunday morning, we went to church with Jamie's family and then headed to the Suchy farm afterward. After lunch, we went to Evansville for the parade. Olivia and Violet missed their nap so I wasn't quite sure how it would go. However, they were extremely excited for the parade this year! Olivia loved running out to get candy. She was more determined than Violet and would get her share of candy along with the other kids. Violet was more laid back and would let the other kids pick up the candy first; then she would get upset that there wasn't any left. I tried to tell her that she had to be aggressive to get her share, but as my sister pointed out, this probably confused her more than anything since she's been told so many times to share! Grandpa marched in the Color Guard again this year and there were a lot of new floats in the parade.

After the parade, we went down to the park area for more festivities. The girls loved the petting zoo and they also went on a pony ride. Violet loved the pony ride and wanted to go again! Olivia liked it until the ponies started walking faster and then she cried to get off because they were going too fast. We let the girls play at the park for a few minutes, then we encountered a lack of nap meltdown and decided to leave.

We spent the rest of the day at the Suchy farm. It was a beautiful day so we spent a lot of time outside. We played bean bag toss, picked strawberries, fed the chickens, chased cats and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We also had a bonfire in the evening. Unfortunately, since the girls missed their nap, they weren't able to stay up late enough to go to town for the fireworks. I was a little disappointed because they would have enjoyed them this year but it wasn't worth pushing their sleep limits!

Olivia and Violet kept singing this song the whole weekend (to the tune of London Bridge):
Fireworks go crack, crack, crack
Snap, snap, snap
Crack, crack, crack
Fireworks make me clap
On the fourth of July

We headed home on Monday morning. We are all still trying to recover from the busy weekend but we really enjoyed spending time with our families!

Cousins Olivia, Chelsey, Violet & Claire after Chelsey's play:

Our third annual Thronson cousins photo (Maya-8, Emma-5, Alex-5, Evan-4, Olivia-3, Violet-3, William-2, Owen-2):

Getting ready to leave on the hayride:

Olivia & Violet with their water shooters:

Olivia & Violet before the parade:

Olivia riding her horse with Grandpa: Violet riding her horse with Daddy:Violet, Claire & Olivia walking around the Suchy farm:
Playing bean bag toss:
Picking strawberries with Grandpa: