4th of July

 On the 4th of July we went to see fireworks in Grandma H's neighborhood.  It's so nice to just walk down the street to watch fireworks. 

 The kids are all gearing up, ready to watch the fireworks. 

 Gorgeous fireworks!

 What a great fireworks show!

Mini Golf

Brady, Emma, Bridget, Elizabeth, Ben and Nick 

One evening in July with met our neighbors at the mini golf place near our house.  It was SO hot, but the kids had a blast. 

 A fun fact about this place, Tom and I used to go hang out here in high school!  It brought back a few memories. :)

 They also had water bumper boats - no one else was there (I guess because it was so hot) so they just got to ride as long as they wanted. 

 Next they did some rock climbing. 

 Ben kept climbing, stopping, and asking me to take his picture.  He's never been one for pictures so he must have thought he was pretty cool. :)

Last they had a blast with the bounce houses.  We had a really great time, it was fun seeing our kids having as much fun as we did when we used to come here. 

Father's Day 2012

 I have done this for a couple of years... Ben and Elizabeth in daddy's work and exercise clothes.  We like to give the picture to Tom to have in a frame at work. 

 Cooper and Jackson were spending the night the other day and Ben and Cooper were all cuddled up together!  The second the flash came on they unrolled from each other...but I thought they were still cute!

For Father's Day the kids made Tom this candy card that we found on pinterest.  My kids have such a great dad, he loves playing with the kids, and they love playing with him!  We had a great Father's Day!

Camp Read A Lot!

 Grandma B has given a love of reading to me, and she's helping us instill this love in the children!

 Mom has done a reading program with the children during the summer.  The kids got shirts and fun activities all summer.  They also recorded every book they read this summer on a giant caterpillar...I think they each have read about 150 books! 

 This is one of the simple activities - they painted a caterpillar on egg cartons and then had fun with shaving cream.  They loved it!

 Elizabeth had a great time, too!

 Jackson and Cooper getting into the fun!

 I found this fun book/game online called Once Upon A Time.  It slowly teaches the kids how to play chess using a book.  I don't know how to play chess either so we're all learning!

 Drew, Josh, Cooper and Jackson came to play and they all decided to play twister. 

 Crazy kids!!

Drew and Josh (and Janet and Chris) stayed with us for a couple of weeks after they sold their house...my kids are really missing them now, but we had fun while it lasted!

Swimming Lessons

 The kids had swimming lessons again with our same teacher at the beginning of the summer.  Both of the kids are good swimmers, but they pretty much never try to swim strokes, they mostly just swim under water.  I was hoping the lessons would get them both trying their strokes again, but that hasn't happened much this summer! 

 Elizabeth, Baylee and Josh were all in class together. 

 While Elizabeth's group was swimming Ben was having fun in the hot tub. 

 There goes Elizabeth doing the backstroke.  The girl is there to make sure the kids don't run into the rocks!

 There are all the boys, waiting for their turn at their lessons. 

 I guess he's not sharing much! 

 Elizabeth is working on her life saving skills. 

 There goes Ben, he really improved this year in lessons. 

 Elizabeth likes to watch me sew and she really wanted to make a project all on her own. 

 She decided to make a blanket for Jessica and Ryan's baby girl that they are adopting. 

 We headed over to my parent's house to celebrate my dad's birthday...

 and then Elizabeth gave Jessica her blanket!  She was so proud of all the work she did.

 My mom got my dad this fun projector that attaches to an ipad, the kids were enjoying it in the closet.

Happy Birthday, Dad! 

What a good sport! :)