Summertime Flowers!

Now it officially seems like summer -- we have no school, lots of sun, and flowers! (* sigh *) This is the life.

So many of our flowers are starting to bloom and everything is looking so nice! The kids and I went shopping and picked up a few flowers to add to our perennials around the house too.

We got some hanging baskets for the back:



We got a hot pink, white and reddish color -- very pretty! The kids highly approved of these.



Our hydrangeas are coming up VERY nicely -- we've had them a couple of years now. They are getting fuller every year. We love those plants that come up on their own!



Just starting to get some color...




Then we had three pots around the deck area to plant some flowers in -- and Delaney spotted these beautiful flowers and everyone heartily approved:

It was such a colorful set of flowers, which just HAPPENED to go perfectly with our hanging pots back there.

Then in front, most of the plants just come up on their own, with one hanging basket.



We have an individual hanger up front, so we can easily add a hanging basket.



The day lillies, as always, came up BEAUTIFULLY.

Just lovely...




And last, but not least, on the side of the house the tiger lillies came up too!

I think this turned out to be my favorite picture:

Enjoy!

Dani

Summer Fun!

It's hard to believe, but summer vacation is finally here! We're all glad to have a break from school and all the routines associated with it, but we're missing a member of our family now. Delaney went on a vacation with her aunt and grandpa to Cancun, Mexico. She left the last day of school for a week -- she'll be back this Wednesday. While we're all missing her (she's having a blast), we've been enjoying the summer schedule and doing fun things with Kyle.

We've been eating out a lot, playing Monopoly Deal tournaments (I can't seem to win one lately), playing board games, and OF COURSE video games -- and we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took Kyle miniature golfing a few days ago. He had a blast!



I even started out with a bang! My first shot was a hole-in-one.

I ended up getting three holes-in-one, but it wasn't quite enough to let me win. :-( Kenny was the miniature golf champion of the evening.



And Kyle snapped our picture together, didn't he do a good job?



And here are my two favorite guys in the whole wide world!!!



Afterwards we let Kyle play a few games at the arcade. He loved being "in charge" and playing Deal or No Deal.



He even won 50 tickets! :-)



Kyle and I played some ski-ball...



And Kenny and Kyle got to go racing!



All in all, it was a GREAT evening out with Kyle.

Last night, Kyle got to go spend time with his Grandma -- while Kenny and I got to go out on a "date night"! Woo-hoo! We got to do a little shopping, eat out, and go see the new Star Trek movie. I know it's been out a while, but we haven't found the time to see it yet. In fact, we can't remember the last "non-family" movie we got to see together before this one.

Kenny is working his summer schedule, so he has long days Monday through Thursday -- but then he has Friday off and we have him for three-day weekends! It was an awesome weekend, and we're so sorry to see it end. We can't wait for Delaney to come home this Wednesday and to enjoy more of the summer!!!

Dani

Back to soccer again!

Yes, I realize that many of our posts are about soccer -- BUT, that just seems to be the norm at the Benich household. Last Saturday both kids had a soccer game. Kyle's was at 9:00 in the morning while Delaney's was at 5:00 in the afternoon.

Kyle's game was pretty chilly. The rain pretty much stayed away (THANK GOODNESS), but jackets were definitely required.

It's such a different game watching the 5-6 year olds play vs. watching Delaney's team play. But they sure have a lot of fun!



Kyle is learning to dribble, pass and kick the ball where he wants it to go. And sometimes he does still have the occasional tumble (but NOTHING like last year!)

And Delaney's spring season is officially over. Their last tournament game was oh-so-close, but they just couldn't quite seem to make the win.



Same day as Kyle's game, but by the late afternoon the sun had come out and it was VERY WARM!



The girls were hustling, passing and playing well. They just couldn't get the ball in the goal. Not for lack of trying though -- there were quite a few attempts! :-)



And there was a lot of direction coming from her coach! LOL

And Kyle wasn't the only one heading towards the ground as Delaney didn't give up on getting that goal!

The final score was 2-1, with that second goal scored by the other team RIGHT before the game was over. Tough loss!

Kyle still has a couple more games, and then we're off to summer activities!

Dani

Beautiful weather!

Everyone in the family has been enjoying the beautiful, sunny weather. We're all ready for school to be over, for it to be even warmer, and just enjoy the summer break. I think the kids have something like 15 or 16 more days of school. (* sigh *) Can't wait!

Kyle has been using his scooter he got for his 6th birthday, and HE IS LOVIN' IT!

I'm sorry, I know I'm biased, but HE IS SO DARN CUTE! LOL Our little guy...

Away he goes...

Dani

Family Trip to Chicago Fire!

This past Saturday evening, we took a trip up to see the Chicago Fire play. It was the first time Kyle and I had attended a game, but Delaney and Kenny were old pros at watching them.




Kyle loved all the fireworks!




The weather left a little to be desired, it was pretty darn cold. So much for warm May weather, it felt more like March! UGH! We all had layers of clothes on, gloves and blankets!!!

The kids belong to the Chicago Fire Kids Club and got these awesome hats at the game!

Everyone had a great time, we'll definitely have to make another family excursion there. I just vote for MUCH WARMER WEATHER!!!

Yep, soccer again!

It's really hard to have a family blog without many of the posts concentrating on soccer! I posted after Delaney's first soccer game, and she's now up to her 4th game of the season while Kyle has had 2 games so far. To keep things "fair" between the kiddos, here's Kyle's first goal of the season shot too:

And he's been having a blast playing - he was so jealous of Delaney playing indoor. Next time somehow I guess both of them will be playing indoor!!! Aaaaaah!

His second game was a downpour! UGH! The spring soccer weather really leaves a lot to be desired at times. And it was so windy, that I just gave the camera to Kenny and tried to hold on to the umbrella!

You might be able to see the rain in the background. The kids were completely wet -- that is a drop of rain dropping off his nose if you can see it! LOL

And now moving on to Delaney's games, here is a picture from each games 2-4.

Game 2, making a move getting away from a defender (successfully, I might add!):

Game 3, running hard with the ball:

Game 4, kicking another goal in:

Crown Point Lady Bulldog Fusion is currently: 1-2-1.

That's pretty much it for now, as it seems as if we've been doing nothing but soccer lately! :-)

Nice weather + fire + family = great fun!

We were celebrating my mom's 60th birthday last night. It was a blast! The weather was just perfect. The kids cooked their own hot dogs and marshmallows. Mmmmmmm!

They had so much fun! Kyle and Parker seemed to be the main marshmallow cookers. LOL But everyone was able to eat some.



We're all having fun enjoying the fire and hanging out together.





And Aunt Danah is always multi-tasking -- we caught her texting while we're relaxing.

It was time to celebrate -- the cake came out and everyone sang Happy Birthday!

What a great evening! We all stayed up too late, and it was hard getting out of bed for Kyle's first soccer game of the season at 9:00 this morning. More pictures to come from THAT later...