Picnic at the Park & DUCKS!!

I feel as though today, while windy, in many ways kicked off the beginning of summer for us Harnisch girls.  We were outside the majority of the day and checked a few items off our summer "bucket list".
Well, I haven't yet made said "bucket list", but if I had, I know that picnic at the park and feed ducks would have been high on the list!  :-)
I shall make a separate blog-post another day listing out all the fun (and mostly free) activities we can do this summer, a few examples off the top of my head would be (and in no particular order):  1) Splash parks! 2) tour the new TD Ameritrade stadium - CWS  3) visit Wenninghoff farm 4) Great Grandpa Salisbury nursing home visits 4) Woodcliff! 5) crafting at Create 6) library story hours 7) Old Market 8) Fremont Antique Shopping 9) Plays at the Rose Theater 10) Art/music festivals & fairs 11) Estes!  12) see the Ocean 13) volunteer or at least be a "fan in the stands" at various Special Olympic events...I think you get the idea.  I want to do some more research and investigate various going-on's around town throughout the summer, there are TONS of resources on-line of which I still need to give a "fair-shake", before finalizing our "Summer of 2011 Harnisch Girl bucket list".  :-)  I am super-duper excited about what this summer has in store for us!
****
Anyway - back to today...

After pre-school, the girls and I met up with the Elsaessers for a little picnic in the park  :-)
First we had to swing by home and grab our picnic basket.

 McKenzie thought it would be fun to bring Toby along.

 And funny to put him in the picnic basket

 Toby...not so much...but he's a good sport that's for sure  :-)

 She was being such a goof-ball!

 "okay, Toby has exited the basket, our lunch is packed, let's GO!"

As I was unloading the car, I set Macy down on the ground.  I turned around for 3 seconds and all the sudden she was literally surrounded by ducks.  YIKES!

OOPS.  As you can see, Macy was not prepared for this just yet and did NOT know what to think.

 "shooo, go away" she said in her own little baby language  :-)

 enjoying our nice little (windy) picnic lunch by the lake.

 Macy, Lyndsey & Evie making a mess!

 McKenzie and Lyla are done eating and start to plot out how to best feed the ducks.

 Once the big girls left the blanket, the little's hustled over to their abandoned food.  Yep, Macy did not waste any time shoveling Kenzie's "big-girl" wrap into her mouth.

 And, in the background, you can see Evie scooting over to try and steal a drink of her momma's Pop.  NOOOO!  Kids don't drink pop silly  :-)

 "I'm gettin' the heck outta here before those strange 4-legged things come back!"

 Macy, although appearing to be on the run once again, really did get a kick out of our feathered friends.

 Evie did too!  She would wave, point and laugh at them  :-)

 Ha!  That duck stole the whole slice of bread out of Lyla's hand!

 As much fun as it was to watch the ducks, it was way more fun to watch the girls watch the ducks  :-)

 Macy waving!

 "whoa"

Little stinker-butt Macy pulled our Evie's oxegyn a few seconds after taking this shot. ugggh.  How will she ever learn that is not how we make friends?!  But, I must say little Evie does a fine job of holding her own  :-)

It was quite a sight to see all these ducks running around with Cheese-ball remnants all over their beaks.   bahaha!

 loving the "wind-blown hair" look.

 If these pics could speak, you'd hear Evie telling us about how excited she is to finally have those casts off.  These stylish braces are so much more conducive to playing by the lake  :-)

 Run!

 Before going home, we of course had to go play at the park for a bit.  Macy felt right at home in this big blue baby swing.  The girl LOVES her some swinging!

 She LOVES feeling the wind in her hair and dangling her pretty little toes to and fro.

 If this face doesn't just say it all  :-)  HEAVEN!

 Our girl is down-right FEARLESS on the swing.

 uh-oh, I'm afraid we've got a little dare-devil on our hands.  We may be in for some trouble with this one.  I have a feeling she is not going to be as cautious and careful about everything like her big (often scaredy cat) sis.

 Lyla and McKenzie "playing catch" with Macy.

 "wee - go Higher!"  She'd say if only she could  :-)

 ooopsie-daisy.   Getting a little too high for my comfort, but Macy really doesn't seem to mind one bit.  In fact, the higher and crazier the girls push her, the louder and crazier her giggles get.  eye-yie-YIE!

Fun, FUN afternoon!   :-)

We are looking forward to spending a fun day in Lincoln with the Masin's tomorrow.  We are going to snap some One-Year pics of cousin Harrison, yipppeee!  But I seriously can't believe a whole has already gone by since this little man graced us with his presence (9 weeks too early I might add).