An Hour of Summer

My poor husband.  He has been working his tail off this summer!  I feel so bad that he goes and works for 8-10 hours a day and then comes home and works on our house for another few hours. 

With that in mind I have been trying hard to figure out ways to help him get a few hours of summer.  The other day after another three day weekend of working on the house I insisted that we make time to go to the lake.  We only managed to get away for an hour but it was just the medicine we needed to give Daddy a little break. 

We worked hard all afternoon, with the help of both our dads, and then packed a picnic dinner and headed out. 

It had been hot that day…in the 90’s which felt super hot after our very mild summer so as soon as we got there everyone was in the water.  S on the bottom left, T the speck in the middle, and K on the middle right.

The water was cold at first but T and I quickly warmed up to it.  The girls were another story.  K stayed in the water but both of them got so cold they were blue and shaking.  K desperately wanted to be in this picture but had to clamp her lips shut to keep them from chattering.  Boo’s little body didn’t stop shaking until we had her dried out and in the car.

We live in such a pretty place.  Love that view.

Bug has been getting braver about the water.  She will actually float in her life jacket without clutching on to any and all available limbs.  With the life jacket AND the baby floaty she is a swimming machine!  The phrase that goes with this face is “dog paddle! dog paddle!  I can do it! dog paddle!”

But she definitely likes a helping hand whenever possible.

What a perfect hour of summer.  Hopefully we can sneak in a few more before our fall weather sets in!

Friends with Babies

The other day I realized that two of our good friends are having babies soon so if we wanted to see them while they were still families of three we’d better go ahead and do it!  So I set up two “dates” to hang out.

Last Tuesday we met one set of friends at a park and had a picnic dinner.  The kids played on the playground and then found the water.  I knew Boo would be soaked no matter what I did so I went ahead and stripped her clothes off before she could ruin them.  Good thing I did because both she and K were fully in the water before it was over.

I’m really glad we got to spend time with them when we did because even though they weren’t due for a few weeks they had their baby last Saturday!  So excited for you guys V family!

The next day we had a playdate with our good friend E and his Mommy.  We met up at a jumpy place and the kids had a ball playing on all the inflateables. 

These next pictures are off my phone and not as good of quality. 

Boo is such a little daredevil.  She had no hesitation climbing the huge slides and going down.

She loved it and wanted to do it over and over again!

The three kiddos taking a breather.

After they worked up an appetite we headed to Sonic for some lunch on the patio.  We had a great time!  Thanks for meeting us guys!  We’re looking forward to your announcement any day now!

We are so thankful for good friends!  And for new little friends too!  Can’t wait to meet the new babies!

Fun in a Box

When I was little there was nothing more fun than a box!  My mom used to get me refrigerator boxes to play in and I thought it was better than anything.  Must be a universal kid thing because my girls love boxes too! 

We had a big box that our patio set had been in and it was just sitting in the garage waiting to be turned into a fun playhouse. 

Two weekends ago we when were pouring the concrete footings for the porch I needed something to keep the girls occupied while I helped the guys so I pulled out the box.

Cut a few windows and a door in it and they were pleased as punch to play happily while we worked. 

I made them a picnic lunch and they ate inside their house.  It was so cute when they held hands, without prompting, to pray before they started eating.

Pb&j and mandarin oranges.  The lunch of champions. :)

They spent hours in that thing!  It has now been dragged to the backyard and is a little warped after been hit by the sprinklers about twenty times but they are still getting some use out of it. :)

You can see that T put a “doorknob” on by screwing two wood plugs together.

Why buy fancy toys when you can give your kids a box?

Wordless Wednesday

Fair and Farm

Another busy weekend is behind us!  This one was a little more fun than our previous ones though.  For the first time since June, T and his dad did not spend the weekend working on our house!  Shocking, I know. :)

On Friday we got to go to the fair!  It was so much fun, as always.  Boo is at a much better age to enjoy it this year so we knew she would love it.  We had decided to go on Friday so since we were already going to be paying for tickets that night we went up for lunch as well.  It’s not often we have such a wide array of choices for lunch in our small town! 

The girls were very excited and wanted to do and see everything.  It was hard for them to accept that we were just eating lunch and we would do all the fun stuff after naps, but they were very sweet about the whole thing and we let them look at some puppies and kittens on the way out.

We also ran into some friends.  This little girl will be in K’s preschool class this year.

After naptime…and an accident in our green shorts thanks to Daddy sharing a few sips of fair lemonade during lunch…haha, we headed back to the fair, this time with Noni and Papa!

Our first stop was the kid’s area.

Papa did a little bit of juggling for us.  He has taught himself how to juggle just using YouTube videos!  The girls love it! 

There was a band playing just across from the kid’s area and they were really good!  K must have thought so too.

After she got her groove on we moved on to the animal barns.

Which I think was Boo’s favorite part of the fair.  She loved making all the animal sounds.  I thought she was going to bust a gut with her “Moooooo”. 

She was also a big fan of the “Qua quas!”

And this very friendly goat.  He must live inside or something because he was the only goat that was clamoring for our attention.  He loved having his head scratched.

I think Boo is starting to like animals a lot better.

Here’s Bacon, our friend H’s pig.  He (she?) apparently won the Grand Showmanship (I think that’s right?) but when it was time for the actual judging he got away and flattened the judge! He didn’t get high marks for that portion. :)

After the animals it was time for the rides!

Poor Boo wanted to go to but she wasn’t big enough.

K surprised me by wanting to go on the Ferris Wheel!  It looked huge but she really wanted to.  Papa was the only one who would go with her.  T and I have never been a big fan of carnival rides and neither has Noni.  Papa is going to have to be her roller coaster buddy in the future I guess. :)

Up in the air!

What a fun fair!

The next morning we headed out to the farm to spend time with all the cousins.

The guys spent their time sheet rocking the garage so it wasn’t that much of a work-break for T, but it was at least a break from our house.

The girls had a wonderful time, other than K getting stung by a yellow jacket and screaming the loudest I’ve ever heard her scream (and it was right in my ear), it was a wonderful weekend.

We ended it with a little shopping and dinner before we headed home.

Thanks everybody for the great time!

Backyard Baseball

One of Daddy and Bug’s new favorite things to do is hit baseballs after dinner.  She is getting to have quite the little swing on her! 

She missed t-ball by four days this year.  You have to have your birthday on or before May 1st and she is the 4th.  I was actually pretty happy about that because all our friend’s Facebook statuses sound miserable: “Another freezing night for t-ball.” or  “Standing in the cold drizzle watching the t-ball game.”

Sounds like a wonderful time.  Spring around here is not the warmest…or the driest.  But I know that both T and K are very excited about t-ball next year so I am going to have to start preparing myself. 

At least we don’t have to worry about her playing ability!  I’m sure by next spring he’ll have her in tip top t-ball shape!

But don’t worry, she doesn’t mind a bit.

Bears On Wheels

Here’s K reading Bears On Wheels.  The first time she read this book was just before she turned 4.  She is reading everything right now!  She loves to read signs and billboards when we are driving.  We have been picking simpler books at night so that she can read to us instead of us reading to her.  She is capable of reading a longer book but if it has too many words she gets frustrated and doesn’t want to finish so we are trying to keep them short as she learns.  My favorite thing by far, though, is listening to her read to her sister.  I will hear them in the nursery reading together.  It is so so sweet.  I need to get a video of that!