Herky on Parade

As anyone who is friends with on facebook knows, we have been tracking down Herkys this summer. There are 83 of them, so it may be too ambitious to try to get all of them. It's been fun to try though! We've hit about a third of them so far, mostly just capturing them while we're out and about in town. We have hit almost all of the downtown and Iowa City ones, so we'll have to work a little harder to hit the rest of them. I'm including them here so we can easily go back and see them. (Feel free to ignore this post if you're sick of seeing them on facebook already!)

Iowa's Jazz Capitol Herky (Ped Mall, in front of Givanni's)

In the Paint Herky (Ped Mall, in front of Sheraton)

Checkmate Herky (Ped Mall, in front of the library)

C(Herk)itry (in front of Old Capitol Mall)

Baker Herky (Iowa River Landing, in front of Scratch Cupcakery)

Herky On-Call (Iowa River Landing, in front of UIHC)

RAGBRAI Herky (Coralville Youth Sports Complex)

Happy Little Herky (Scott Blvd & Rochester, sponsored by Regina High School)

Peking Opera Herky (corner of Dubuque St & Park Rd)

Wizard Herky (Coral Ridge Mall)

America Needs Farmers Herky (Coral Ridge Mall)

Wrestler Herky (Coral Ridge Mall)

Marching Band Herky (Kinnick Stadium, south endzone)

Lindquist Herky (Lindquist Center, Madison St)

Graduation Herky (Pentacrest, corner of Clinton St & Iowa Ave)

Herky's Community (Iowa Ave & Clinton St) 

Journey of a Warrior Herky (Iowa Ave)

Rough Hewn Herky (Iowa Ave & Dubuque St)

#Herky (Iowa Ave)

Out of this World Herky (Iowa Ave)

Cyborg Herky (Iowa Ave & Linn St)

Organic Herky (Dubuque St & Washington St)

Aqua Hawk Herky (CRWC, Madison St)

Drawing the Line Herky (Clinton St & Washington St)

Groom Herky (Washington St)

Daredevil Herky (Brown Deer Golf Course)

Iowa Granite Herky (College of Public Health) 

Student Herky (Old Capitol Mall)

UNESCO Herky (Clinton St & Church St)

Thumbprints of Hope Herky (Clinton St, in front of Currier Hall)

Summer Weekends!

Why don't the winter months fly by like the summer months? I cannot believe it's July already! We have been trying to take advantage of everything summer has to offer, including a weekend trip to Kansas City last month. We visited Uncle Scott, Jeanine, and Connor at their house on Friday night. I don't think Jack had ever seen so many Matchbox cars in one place! We spent Saturday at an indoor water park. It wasn't very busy since it was so nice out, and it was the perfect size for the boys. By the end of the day, Jack was brave enough to go on the bigger slides. He is taking swim lessons this summer, and we hope that it will make him more comfortable and confident in the water. After the water park, Jack and I enjoyed a long nap in the hotel room while Jeff and Lydia went to the store. Sunday was Father's Day, and Lydia and I made ourselves scarce in the morning so Jeff and Jack could sleep in until 8! We had lunch downtown with everyone before heading home. I have great memories of going to KC with my family when we lived in Des Moines for summer weekends, and it was so fun to do it with our little family. We can't wait for many more weekends like this. Here was the only picture we took. Liddy's curls were out of control in the indoor pool humidity!

We took the kids to Arts Fest and Jazz Fest in downtown Iowa City, and Jack had his face painted both times. It was quite a treat for Jack, and I don't think he knew what to think of how he looked in the mirror!

In addition to swim lessons, we took Jack to a golf lesson with a friend of mine at Brown Deer. Calling it a "lesson" is a bit of a stretch since it was really just hitting a few balls on the range, but he had a blast. This weekend he tagged along with Jeff and Grandpa Steve for all 18 holes!

I almost forgot--Grandpa Randy and Grandma Jane took Jack to Illinois in late May to see hummingbirds! Jane has a family member with a farm where they attract hundreds of hummingbirds. Every spring, a man with the Illinois Hummingbird Project comes to the farm to tag them. Jack got to hold several hummingbirds and helped the researcher carry them back and forth while he tagged them. It was such a neat experience and one that he'll never forget.

Here are a few more pics from our phones of the everyday smiles from our family:

Congratulations, Jack!

Our big guy graduated from preschool yesterday! He won't actually move into the Kindergarten Prep class at day care until this fall, and he still has another year before he goes to kindergarten, but it was a cute ceremony nonetheless. For those of you who read the blog post from a couple of weeks ago where I took video of him reciting a poem, here are the fruits of that labor. His class recited the entire Shel Silverstein poem "Sick."

They also sang "Wheels on the Bus." Then each kiddo had his or her name called and received a certificate from the teacher. We are so proud of our four-year-old!

Happy birthday, Lydia!

Happy birthday, Lydia! Our baby girl is one year old! She turned 1 on May 8, and we celebrated with a party at our new house last Saturday, May 10. We had a much bigger party than I think we will normally have for the kids' birthdays, but we also wanted an excuse to have a housewarming party. We had family from all sides, and the weather cooperated with a beautiful day! Not too hot, not too cold, no wind or humidity. It was perfect. We learned that our patio can hold a lot more people than we thought--which means we need to buy some more chairs! Thank you everyone for making our first party in our home such a success!

Lydia was the star of the day. She was happy and smiley the whole day, which was a nice treat. She has had her good and bad days lately because of ear and teeth pain. She's had an ear infection for several months straight now, and we have her scheduled to get tubes next week. We thought she might also be working on some teeth, and her first check-up at the dentist yesterday confirmed it. She's working on six teeth at once right now--her four molars and one each on the top and bottom in front. Poor baby! It makes her fussiness easier to understand.

But anyway, back to the party. It was perfect and both kids were rock stars. Lydia got a new swing to hang from the pergola over the patio, and she loved it. It even has a tray so she can eat while she swings.

By the time we put Lydia in her high chair for a cupcake, she was about out. Her eyes were closing as she drank her bottle right before we gave her the cupcake. When we first put it in front of her, she had this look on her face like, "Now what are you making me do?" She just put a finger in the frosting for her first few bites, and then you could almost see it click in her head that this was really good and she better wake up. Then the bites of frosting got bigger and bigger, and finally she picked up the cupcake and took a big bite! It was pretty fun to watch the gears turn inside her head.

By the time she was done with her cupcake, we figured she didn't have enough energy to open her presents, and Jack was more than happy to do the honors for her! He was a little bored with the cute clothes she got, but he was very polite and thanked everyone on her behalf. 

All in all, it was a fantastic evening, and we are so happy to be back home to enjoy more celebrations like this in the coming years.

Also, here are a few bathtub pics I took a few weeks ago. We gave the kids baths in the afternoon that day, and the skylight in the bathroom makes for some great natural light.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter a couple of weeks ago, with beautiful spring-like weather and lots of family. We started the holiday earlier in the week by dyeing hard-boiled eggs.

On Sunday we got all dolled up for church and then took the first family pictures at our new house.

We have a tree in the backyard that is perfect for Jack to sit in for pictures. We see many more pictures of the kids in that tree as they grow older and bigger. For now, though, we need an extra pair of hands to hold Lydia up next to Jack.

After pictures, we changed into comfy clothes and went to Grandma Sophie and Grandpa John's for brunch. Lydia and Grandma Janet had fun pretending to be the Easter bunny.