Summertime

Alan and Cooper (and Grandma Joan) worked at the water stop for a local 5K.

All of the cousins got together in Lyons around the 4th of July.  Popsicles:

Bubbles:

iPads:

This photo is titled Sweet Revenge:

Coop got stung by a wasp (his first sting!), so he and Alan eradicated the nest, which the wasps had built in the fence right next to our car.  Bad move.

Other random activities

Riding in the new booster seat (instead of a five-point harness!) with Woody doll.

Ice cream beard:

With Cooper Bear, a gift from Aunt Jill.  It's a talking, interactive bear from Hallmark that's actually named Cooper!  He comes with books that you read to him, and he responds to certain words and phrases.

 Coop loves him.  For the last month or so, he's gone everywhere with Cooper.  He rides in the car (with his seatbelt, of course) to school, sleeps in Coop's bed, and sits at the table with us for meals.

Playing with the dollhouse at Grandma Carol and Grandpa Jerry's.

Singing into Grandma Margaret's cane -- the perfect height for a stand-up mic!

Care to guess what this creation is:

It's Cooper's version of Joplin, Missouri. 

Coop and I took a trip to Omaha with our friend Carrie and her son Gus.  We had fun playing in the hotel pool and we really, REALLY enjoyed the Omaha Zoo.  It's fabulous.  The only picture I took of the trip, though, was this one of the boys in the bathtub:



Right brain activities

We played with sidewalk chalk.  Coop drew this picture of a person, and then he wrote his name.  Note:  He can properly write his name with all the letters facing the correct way.  But for this masterpiece, he was writing it upside down, and he still got it pretty close.  I was impressed.

A tractor:

Baking some sugar cookies:

Cross stitching:

Baking Grandma Farm's rolls:

Visit to the Lyons area

Cooper enjoyed a (belated) Easter egg hunt at Grandma Joan and Grandpa Cecil's.  (Prince was not much help.)

We went out to Grandpa's pasture to walk around and play at the pond:

Fish!

And then we visited Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farm in Nickerson, where we got to pet kangaroos:

Kiss giraffes:

And listen to the talking parrot: