"See why I have to play when they're not around?!?!?

The boys LOVE baseball cards, and thanks to Aunt Ruthie, they have lots of them:).  Since Ali has been mobile, they have gotten much better about picking them up (they have been told that if they leave them out and she gets them, it's not her fault:).  On a rare occasion, they forget to put them up, and she finds them immediately!!  Here she is hard at work on a lucky day when the cards were within reach:

                                      Turns out, Ali loves baseball cards, too!!  

"Look, Mom!!  They left out the cards!!  How long do you think I have before they notice where I am??"

                                 "Ooooooo........there's so many!  Where do I start?"

"Is this a Cardinal??  I think it is!!"

"Uh-oh!!  I hear them coming!  I'm in trouble!"

                          The boys swoop in to "save" their cards.  Poor Ali:(.

                                         Working together to block her out.

          "They forgot about this one.  Maybe I can check out this bag!"

                              "Foiled again:(!!  This makes me want to cry:(!!"

                                                                        So upset:(.

Luckily, she forgets rather quickly and moves on.  But watch out, boys - she's watching for you to forget again!!

Queen on the mountain

                                       My sweet girl, hanging out on top of the pile of boys:)

                                                   She wants to be anywhere that they are:)!

Love sweet Brock's face in this one:).

Not sure where the celery stick came from, but she's definitely in the stage of wanting to eat anything that we are eating, including celery:).

I'm pretty sure that this picture is telling - she's going to have them all under her control - just like any good little sister/daughter should:).

When the cats are away, the mouse will play!!

As I think I have mentioned before, Ali loves the boys' toys.  Last week I put out a whole bunch of the boys' old toddler toys for her to play with.  The boys were SO excited about the "new" toys, and they played with them for days - literally:).  Ali - she could have cared less about the new toys.  She was super excited that the big boy toys were left unattended and she got a chance to work them over:).  She also loves to play with their stuff when they're not around.  Here are some pics of her working the room with no interference from her brothers:):

"Yes!!  Larry's down!!  Now watch out!!"

"Come here, Larry!!  Let me give you a hug!!"

Now, on to the miniature version of Larry:).

"Today, I will play with their Mega Blocks!"

"Hey!!  Who emptied out this wagon on me??"

                                                      "Oh well. This is pretty fun on it's own:)."

"I guess I should spend some time on my own stuff, too.  It's not so bad:)."

Quite the predicament

Ali is getting much more adventurous, and with adventure comes predicaments:).  Here are some pics of one of them:

Brothers to the rescue!!  Thank goodness for them - all Mom does is take pictures!!

Ahhhh......this is how it should be:).

Random

Here are some random pictures taken in July:

The boys' new favorite game is Slap Jack.  Ali likes this game, too!!  

Silly boy!!

Ali's last ride in the swing - I can't believe how quickly time flies!!

Kyle and Ali - she doesn't look so enthused, but his facial expressions crack me up!!  Love that I captured these on camera:).

Daddy & Ali time!

It's a good thing that kids have Daddies - who else could be so silly with them:)??

  Love those chunky thighs and cheeks!!

funnies

The boys had so much fun watching the Olympics.  They loved to watch, no matter what the sport or who the teams were, and it was so cute to hear the chants of "Let's go USA, lets go!!"  from the living room when they were watching.  One afternoon last week, Brock was watching some Olympics.   I went into the living room and asked him what was on, and he answered, "Water polo.  It's the USA vs. the ambulance guys!".  Ambulance guys???  I had to go investigate and saw the flag for Switzerland - a red flag with a white + in the middle:).  Love how his little mind works:)!!


While waiting for the oil change on the van the other day, Kyle turns to me and says:
K - "Mom??  Did you know there was a place where all my wishes will come true??"
Me - "No, I didn't."
K - "Yep.  There is.  I saw it on TV!!  Can we go there??"

I'm thinking that this may be his way of asking to go back to Disney World:).  And here I didn't even think that he knew what his "wishes" were:).



I took the boys with me to Cub foods on Sunday to pick up a few things before dinner.  They always love to look for a "special cart" (like one that has seats for them to ride in while we shop), We only needed 2 things, so I didn't even look for a cart, and wouldn't you know, as we turn down the second aisle, there's a little boy riding in a car cart.  They begged me to go back and get one, but I was almost done shopping, so I said no.  Brock stops in the middle of the aisle and turns to me - very seriously and emphatically:  "Mom, I'm not having any fun on this shopping trip to Cubs!!  I wish it was Cardinal foods instead!!".  That boy thinks about
baseball and the Cardinals continually, even when we don't realize it!!

Candy Land at the Library

Let me just start by saying we LOVE the Bloomington Public Library!!  The summer reading program has been wonderful this year, and we've had so much fun!!  One of the fun events that they did was a life-size Candy Land game.  It took about an hour to play and was so cool because the boys totally understood the game and could put it into action.  Not only that, but at each candy stop, they got a treat.  They LOVED it!!  Here our some pics of our candy journey:):

Here they are at the start - Cupcake Commons:).

Our first stop - Licorice Lagoon!

We fished in the lagoon  for - you guessed it - licorice:).  

Waiting for Mom to pull the next card:).

Brock at the Gummy Bear stop - can't remember what it was called:).

Lollipop land - notice Princess Lolly at the right:).

Making Lollipop flowers - so cool!!

Ali just took it all in:).  She was along for the ride!

Next up - Ice Cream Slopes!

Here we made Ice Cream cone balloons.  Funny from Brock at this station:  When she asked if they would like a vanilla or chocolate (cream or brown) cone, Brock replied with "I'll have a twist, please:)."   Love that boy!

The finished product - along with their sucker flowers.  Love how Ali's eyeing their treats!

Bowling with Queen Frostine.  She's the boys' favorite Candy Land character, so this was quite a treat!!

The prize here was a certificate for a free ice cream cone at Carl's - yummy!!

Headed to the Chocolate mountain.  

Here they got to do a cake walk.  The prize was a mini-cupcake.

Brock patiently waiting for his number to be called.  Good thing that everyone was a winner.....eventually:).

On the last turn towards the castle!

At the end with the King Kandy.  Kyle's question on the way home was, "Can we come back and do this again tomorrow??".  Maybe next year, buddy!!  Maybe next year!  Thanks BPL for a summer of fun activities!!