Summer

Summer is over on Tuesday and I'm not ready for it to end.  This summer flew by really fast.  It makes a difference when you aren't spending the whole time looking for a house.  We had a lot of fun and I'm not sure anyone is ready for school to start in a few days. We definitely aren't ready for the 6am alarm clocks! 

When Joel reads a book in the car he's very slow to get out of the car.  I love seeing him so into a book but we spent a lot of times waiting for him to get out of the car.

 Norah was so excited to have matching swim suit covers

 One day Stephanie and I tried to take all the kids on a bike ride.  You can't really see the baby on the bike trailer behind Stephanie in this picture.  We lasted long enough to get far from her home only to have her turn around and go get her truck.  Colin went with her and they came back for the rest of us. 

We did all go to bike night at the botanical gardens and the kids all redeemed themselves on the trails and we biked until it ended.  I think the cooler night also helped!

 Joel was always determined to bring home a ton of sand.  There was usually sand in the bottom of the bathtub for most of the summer.

 I think she took two naps this whole summer

 Mud pies in the making

 Slip-n-slide days were fun

 Joel was ready for the beach

 We didn't make it to the beach as much as I thought we would.  This summer the  kids would plan out elaborate sandcastles. Norah also loved to collect seashells and our backyard is covered in them now.  One day we were about to leave when Joel took off after Norah and tried to get a sea shell from her.  She got mad and threw it in the ocean. If she couldn't have it then she didn't want Joel to have it.  Joel was so upset because apparently he had been using that seashell as the king of the sand castle and now the kingdom was without a king. 

 This was her other nap of the summer...

 This girl is not going to know what to do without her boys around.  She would keep telling me she didn't want them to go to school until we met our friends at fun forest this past week.  We've loved our weekly fun forest playdates with the Fosters.  Laura and I can talk and the kids have the freedom to run around and play for hours.  Norah realized that once school starts she and Elsie will have playdates together without the big kids and that's all shes talked about.  "Boys when you go to school I'm going to play with Elsie."  And then Joel will tell her how rude she is being for saying that in front of them...

 Joel grew a sunflower in class and  planted it in the flower bed.  We just harvested the seeds

 
 Lots of mud pies, milkshakes and cakes were pretend eaten this summer

 We went to water country and the kids loved every minute of it

 Played a lot with our neighbors

 Card games were played.  One day it took about 90 minutes to finish one game of UNO and now Joel refuses to play UNO.  It takes too long according to him.

 We saw the baby tigers at the zoo

We also loved our playdates  with Holly and Heather at Heathers new house!  It was fun to have friends have pools in their backyard!  And Joel loved being able to see Becca again.

We had a lot more planned to do this summer but a lot of afternoons were just spent outside playing with the neighborhood kids.  The doorbell would ring and the kids would bolt out the door.  (well joel would go put clothes on.  His preferred clothes is none at all - he likes to sit around in his underwear. Its too funny how he sheds his clothes the minute he gets home)  Soccer games, kickball, nerf battles, basketball, playing with our neighbors new puppy, those afternoons were relaxing and fun and made me very thankful we moved into a neighborhood with so many kids. 

Goodbye summer!  It was a good one!