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If we're ever at 3479 N. Broadway in Chicago, we're definitely getting one of these. It is at participating Smoothie Kings, the nearest one is in Chicago.

They were going to the garden today, but we haven't gotten any pictures yet from the daycare app (ProCare).

Here we are playing with Picasso Tiles.

At the garden, Kai picked some sweet corn. Here is one of them that I made tonight.

They also picked green beans. The dark green ones are from our CSA, the bigger ones are from the garden.

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Today at school the firemen came to visit. We initially thought it was to teach fire safety, etc, but it kind of just ended up as a way to let the kids get drenched (if they wanted to).

Kai just stayed in the back and got misted a little bit and didn't need a change of clothes.

 

Sometimes I'm never sure if I'm going to get pictures of school, so I just take random shots while I wait. Dax and Everett are doing something with Kai before he leaves for the day.

When I pick up Kai, we always have a race to the car. The first person to the car wins. I took this picture in particular because Kai always tells us about the one time he had to go in the basement at Little Red. It came up in discussion at breakfast.

Heidi continues to work on her pizza. She used a little semolina flour on the bottom of the crust. It was supposed to help the pizza burn less on the bottom. We agreed it was a 15% improvement.

For doing reading, writing and math tonight, Kai put together this LEGO. It is of a man in a racing hospital bed.

Kai wanted me to take this picture of him filling up the bottle in the tub.

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I was able to get away briefly with my friend Tom today to do some hiking at Parfrey's Glen. Here is the car. Aloha is still there.

 When I picked up Kai at school, him and Dax wanted to show me their creations.

At home, Heidi is doing her best to get the yard cleaned up. It has been a tough year to get out with the heat and now the smoke. Things are getting overgrown.

Here is a caterpillar. Will this caterpillar predict a warm winter? I know it has something to do with the size of the brown stripe, right?

Finally, we destroyed the Wordlebot tonight.

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With it being smoky today, they are staying at Little Red. No use in driving to Cross Plains to be in the basement. 

However though, they did get outside for a little bit today.

Here are some highlights.

I noticed my car is 1/3 of the way to 100,000 miles.

When I picked up Kay, he wanted me to take some pictures of his LEGO creation. This is normally the last thing we do before we leave (taking a picture).

Heidi is doing her best to trim our plants this Summer. It has been a struggle. She is hoping to do two bushes per day. I told her to find a sign of autumn for me. Here it is.

After dinner, they were busy reading the book Kai got from the library. It is about a Hawaiian bird that went extinct. Kind of a sad story, but Heidi and Kai liked the pictures.

Here is the Wikipedia entry of the bird.

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After we got caught up on math homework and our reading/writing, we got to watch a little bit of James and the Giant Peach again. Here is the peach growing out of the tree.

In the meantime, Heidi is working to perfect her pizza. It is the first time she has used the pizza oven, so we're busy reading the manual. To use it the first time, let it run empty for 30-minutes or so to burn off whatever is from the manufacturing process.

Now busy prepping the crust.

Here she is removing the pizza. It only took a few minutes in the oven.

the finished product

The hummingbirds seem to come out in August at our place. Here is a nice picture.

Ardro came by wanting to play, but he found out he had to leave, so Kai and I played frisbee.

Then we went up to the playground to kill the hive of wasps. I count seven dead wasps here.

While up at the playground, Kai noticed Claire, Emma and Oliver up there. I just let him go and play with them while I stayed on the swing.

Here they are walking back to our place. Kai always likes showing them things in our garage and some of our outdoor toys.

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Kai wasn't too excited about swimming this morning, but we made it there a few minutes after 11AM. The reason we needed to get there was today would be the day we got a recommendation for what to sign up for next.

Here is the action in the pool - only the two kids again today.

Here is some front crawl...

 Here he is diving for rings...

And to our delight, Kai graduated from "Sailboat". We kind of thought he would. The next level up is now "Ski boat."

Here are some hot, fresh zucchini muffins for lunch.

Summertime in the evening is all about playing, sometimes the games have a real purpose, other times it is just hanging out like this.

Later on, Electronic Theater Controls was holding a 50th anniversary party. It is a very short distance away, so I biked there.

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They were able to get outside for a little bit today, but most of their activity was inside. Here they are baking cookies.

Kai's friend Audra is across from Kai

Trying to get a few of the pictures of everyday life. Normally Heidi is not there for pickups, but she actually did pickup for three days this week (maybe four). We are leaving the upstairs.

It is near the end of the Middleton Library Summer Reading Program. Today was the day we redeemed our reading list. Kai got a stamp on his list (see big black stamp on his reading list) and a list of prizes to pick from.

He picked the Eugster's Farm as his prize. It is free admission for certain times over the upcoming year. It is one of our favorite prizes - one that we have picked a few times over the years.

He also picked out a free book.

After dinner tonight, I continued reading "James and the Giant Peach." I picked up the DVD at the library tonight, so the with about 50 pages left, we finished the book tonight. Here are some of my favorite illustrations from the book. 

We'll find time to watch the movie this weekend to see if we liked the book better (or the DVD).