Our Summer So Far 2012

I can't believe how busy this Summer has been!  It's been flying by!  We've been trying to get out and enjoy the nice weather between the terribly hot days...and the kids have even enjoyed the hot days:

At the beach with a little friend of Blake's from preschool.

Checking out a new water toy.

Playing in the sprinkler.

Playing at the brand new Splash Pad in our town!  So exciting! :-)

We even got our little pool out to cool off on the hot days.

Playing in Daddy's Father's Day present...he looks a bit like a pea in a pod :-)

Morgan looking all cuddly.

Rich fenced off the hay field to make more pasture...now I can watch the cattle from the kitchen window as I wash dishes!  (Picture taken from window.)

Our garden about a month ago.  It's SO dry that we've been watering almost every night.  I also had to put a fence up around it since our chickens are free range...I didn't want them to eat up my garden!  We' started to get cherry tomatoes, TONS of zucchini, summer squash and even potatoes!  We don't usually dig potatoes until September!!  We also are trying to grow sweet potatoes this year.  I'm really excited about them!  I've been loving my zucchini too!  I've made zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, blueberry zucchini bread, pizza zucchini boats, fried zucchini, zucchini fritters and zucchini relish.  Something new I've tried is zucchini chips...I just slice and salt the zucchini and then throw the slices in the dehydrator...they're great to use instead of chips and crackers for dips and spreads and barely any calories! :-)

Rich started painting the end of the barn he fixed up last fall.  The kids decided to help...I was still trying to recover from the flu.  The kids were sick too, but they bounced back way quicker than I did!

We've had a couple unwanted visitors.  This one really upset our dog as he came in the garage to hide in the middle of the day.  When Bear finally left him alone, he decided it was safe to leave.  We've also had skunks wander through at night and have had to close the windows...unfortunately Bear decided to check them out a couple nights ago and he is now being 'shunned' because he stinks :-(   Then last night a bat made it into our house.  To me that's WAY worse than the groundhog and the skunk.  I DO NOT scream.  NEVER have...until bats came into our house!

We've been taking bike rides on cool nights.  Here the kids are just practicing in the paved part of the driveway, but we've been going down the road too.  We're hoping the training wheels can come off by the end of Summer.  (If you look real close, you can see Morgan in her new glasses...her eyes have actually improved and she may not need them in another year or two!  YAY!)

We took a little trip up to the drive-in.  We made a night of it and got Dairy Queen in the nearby town, then headed to the drive-in to see Brave and Madagascar 3.  Since we were early, we threw a frisbee around and Blake practiced batting.  Unfortunately it starts so late, that we only made it through Brave and went home before Madagascar 3 started.  The kids were WAY too tired :-/

Morgan and Blake have been involved in a couple Summer programs.  They just finished up a Summer Rec program at the school last week.  They went for an hour 3 days a week for three weeks and did Arts & Crafts.  A couple of their favorites were making a clay volcano and making it erupt and making what they called 'Goo', but I think it's actually Flarp.

They're also in the Summer Reading Program at the library.  We've been making it to the library probably twice a week for books and they've already gotten through all the prizes, so now they keep going and earn more entries to win tickets to the zoo!  The library also has other fun things going on through the summer like a cake decorating class.  Unfortunately I couldn't take them since I had a dentist appointment, but my mom watched them for me and took them.  They were the only kids that had signed up to actually show up!  I couldn't believe it!  Look what all those kids missed out on making:

The kids got to make ALL three and LOVED it!  I think they may have liked eating their cupcakes even more ;-)

This past Friday we went blueberry picking.  The kids love these cutouts.  Their were blueberry ones, but they insisted on a picture with the pumpkin :-)

Riding out to the blueberries.

The snake Blake almost touched as he went to pick one of his first berries...I couldn't believe it was IN the bush!

Having fun picking!  Morgan LOVED picking blueberries!  She only ate 2.  She tried the first one and said she gave it a "Thumbs Up".  Then she told us she ate another...Blake then asked her if it fell into her mouth.  I couldn't help but laugh.  He really knows his sister!  She is a very picky eater and it's a fight to get her to eat fruit (and veggies), so I'm sure he couldn't imagine her choosing to eat another :-)

After a busy morning of picking berries, we went for lunch.  The kids very rarely get to play in the McDonald's play area, so they were really loving it!  All smiles and giggles. :-)

That's our Summer so far, along with bowling and the circus, camping out in the backyard and various other things, like parades, fireworks, an open house, visiting with friends, the kids staying the night and their grandparents, ect.  Busy, busy! :-)

I hope you are all enjoying your Summer so far as well! :-)

A Day of Bowling and the Circus!

At the beginning of July, my parents, brother, neices, Morgan, Blake and I got together for an afternoon of fun.

We met up a restaurant attached to the bowling alley for lunch.  The restaurant happens to be along a river, so as we waited for our food the kids were able to watch the bridge go up for a boat to go under.  It was the first that Morgan and Blake had ever watched a bridge go up and they were very intrigued! :-)

After lunch, my brother took the kids out to the river to feed the leftovers to the ducks.  Being that there was no railing, then a huge drop to the water, I was really on edge and holding onto Blake's shirt...they're usually really good, but one little slip and they could have gone right over!

Once our bellies...and the ducks bellies...were full, we headed to the bowling alley were the kids played 2 full games with the help of the oldest cousin, a bowling ramp and bumpers :-)

When everyone finished up with their games, we walked across a couple parking lots and we were at the circus!  It had been forever since I'd been to the circus.  This one was just a little one, with one ring, one clown and many of the same people over and over again, but the animals and acrobats and stunts were pretty awesome still and the kids LOVED it!

I took a bunch of pictures, but my camera doesn't take good pics in the dark, so I won't make you try to look at a lot of blur ;-)

Morgan doesn't look too excited, but she really is...maybe just a little tired from all the excitement :-)

After the busy day, my parents stopped for ice cream (we had rode with them).  It had been really warm at the circus, so ice cream just sounded good.  It was a great end to fun afternoon with family :-)