Mid August Happenings

Here is the latest and greatest from mid-August. Lucy was invited to her friend Isabelle’s birthday party! The girls made slime and got to go to the salon for manicures, pretty much the best day ever! ;)

Happy 7th Birthday Isabelle!

We finally reached that remarkable window of late summer when all of the mosquitoes are gone! Yay! We are back to our evening hikes and bike riding.

Speaking of birthday parties ... we did some prep work for Roman’s 5th Birthday! He requested a pirate party this year. Here are the treat bags we made! Just couldn’t resist a good pirate pun. ;)

 

Roman made blue cupcakes for the big event. Did you know that there is such a thing as a blue velvet cake mix? I didn’t!! It was a big hit with the 4 to 6 year old crowd! 

Grammy Sharon assisted with the cupcake mixing.

Lucy started her fall semester of dance! She is taking ballet and tap this year (back to back classes). This girl loves dance and was pumped to see so many friends in her class.

Happy August!

A New Storm!

We had a big day last week - our entire crew packed into the ultrasound room at the clinic to see pictures of our newest family member - coming in December!

Lucy and Roman can’t wait to meet their new baby brother or sister! Although they did start to get pretty restless towards the end of the scan ... I think that they thought it would be more movie-like or interactive! Hahahaha! 

Daniel and I are so grateful that our new little guy or gal is healthy and strong! We will keep you posted in the coming weeks as we anticipate this great gift coming our way this holiday season. :)

Just like our other kids, we will be having a delivery surprise with our latest baby! At our most recent 22 week visit the heart rate was 154 bpm. Any guesses as to whether baby Storm is a boy or a girl? 

Storm Family Vacation

We had our Storm family vacation in Mondovi, Wisconsin this summer. We rented a cabin on the beautiful Buffalo River.

 

 

The kids love hanging out with their sweet baby cousin Neal!

 We played lots of games.

 

 

We made a trip to the local swimming pool in Mondovi. And, yes, my kids could do La Croix commercials! They love this stuff. Hahahaha!

 

Here we are enjoying the pool. :)

 





 

James splashed around with us too! Lucy and Roman loved seeing their Uncle Brad and their Dad do some jumps off of the diving board.

 

 

We spent our mornings lounging!

 

 

We visited the zoo in Chippewa Falls. :)

 

Just look at these cuties!

 

After seeing the animals, we spent some time in the playground. Lucy and Roman thought that this spider web climbing toy was the coolest.

 

 

We did some swinging.

 

And had a fun picnic in the park with our crew.

 During our vacation we made a quick stop at Claire's so that Lucy could get her ears pierced! Lucy has been asking to get her ear pierced for a while ... her cousins Abby and Anna have their ears pierced and she loves looking at their earrings! She has been dreaming of this day but when we actually arrived at the store Lucy started to get a little panicked about the process. Good thing that she brought her beloved stuffed kitty and had mom, Grandma Nola, and Auntie Amelia on hand to support her!

 

She had to build up her courage but was a trooper and was so happy to have shiny new earrings when it was all over!

 

Lucy chose her birthstone - topaz - for her initial earrings but we went shopping afterwards for some cool new jewelry for school. I haven't been to a Claire's in probably 25 years and - wow! - this store is perfectly designed for a 7 to 12 year old girl. Hahaha! It is full of sparkles, rainbows, emojis, and unicorns -- all good things.

 

Our happy girl with her sparkly new earrings!

 

Back at the ranch the kids played in the sandbox,

 

 

we had a family game of croquet,

 

and we had plenty of snuggle time!

 

On Thursday we headed to the Children's Museum in Eau Claire. The kids absolutely loved it! On this day, the museum held a vote for the kids - they needed to vote for bees or against bees. Lucy voted in favor of the bees and she was exasperated that her brother actually voted against the bees! She couldn't believe that anyone would vote against a pollinator. It was a valuable life lesson at age 6 that we don't always understand the way that other people vote. Haha!     

 

Roman loved this little hand chair.

 

He also enjoyed building

 

 and was over the moon when he saw that there was a digestive tract that he could run through!

 

The kiddos painted their own faces!

 

 When we returned to our cabin, we celebrated the birthdays of our August boys - James and Roman!

 

 

 Look at this fun cake decorated by Amelia!

 This year Roman is 5 and James is 2!

 

 

 

James dug right into his cake! No silverware required! ;)

 

I love this guy so much!

 

Roman was so pumped to get some prehistoric mammals from his family! :)

 

 

 

 

 We spent the evening playing corn hole, listening to live music, and eating pizza outside!

 

The next morning we went blueberry picking! 

 

It was a sunny day and the berries were delicious!

 

James thought that it was the best outing ever and ate maybe a pound of blueberries!

 

 

These three love picking berries!

 

 

 It was a perfect way to end our vacation!

 

Thanks for a wonderful vacation together, Storm family!!

 

We love you guys and can't wait to get together again! :)