Bring Your Kid To Work Day

Our next field trip was to visit two of the dads' work places. The first was visiting a dad who works as a manager at Midas. He showed us several car parts and taught the kids (and mommies) how a car works. I learned a lot! The kids each got to take a new lug nut home--they thought that was the coolest thing ever.











Afterwards, we went to Davanni's (where Steve works evenings) for some pizza making. Unfortunately, it was too busy there for the kids to make their own pizzas, so we ordered lunch and the kids got to play with some plain dough and pretend to make their own pizzas. On second thought, this was probably the way to go with a mostly 3 and 5 year old crowd. The kids loved it and had great fun.

Summer Fun

Ahh...A day to stay home and do "nothing". The kids made finger puppets of woodland creatures on Monday.









While the glue was drying on the puppets, we decided to go outside and fill some water balloons. We had a ton of fun with these at the cousins' house last weekend. I quickly learned that the balloon filler is really the one who gets wet and should wear a swim suit. My sister did get a little wet filling them last weekend, but not soaked like me. I think I may need some tips.



M's favorite thing was to shoot baskets with the balloons and watch them splash onto the driveway.





D's favorite thing was to squeeze the balloons until they burst.





They then decided their favorite thing was to chase Mommy with a water balloon and squirt it all over me. We had a blast playing with them.

A nice way to end a fun day together--reading and relaxing. D loves reading books as best as she can remember them to M. Or sometimes she makes up new stories based on the pictures. Good times!

Lumberjack Weekend

Steve went up to the cabin Friday and Saturday and had a lot of help from friends, neighbors and family to clear the fallen trees from the driveway. We still don't have electricity, so the kids and I didn't go up. This was supposed to be a girls' weekend with my friends up at the cabin, but since it turned out to be a boys' lumberjack weekend, the kids and I went to my sister's house.

Here are pictures of my dad helping Steve out on Friday. Thanks Dad for all your help!


Our driveway is now lined with stacks of cut wood and piles of brush.


This just looks like an impossible mess to me!



The neighbor brought their jeep over to move some of the larger pieces out of the driveway.





Steve awoke Saturday morning to the sound of chainsaws. Three of our cabin neighbors had come over and finished clearing the driveway. We are so fortunate to have such nice and friendly neighbors!

We are also fortunate to have nice friends that came up to help on Saturday. Now that the driveway was cleared, it was time to start on cutting up the trees in the yard.






I never realized our soil was so sandy. Steve said it was like fine beach sand.












All the guys got a lot done, even though I know there's still a lot more work to be done. Steve was exhausted when he got home Saturday. I'm sure all the other guys who helped out were, too. Thanks so much to everyone who helped. We really appreciate it!

Swimming Lessons

The kids have been in swimming lessons for the past two weeks with their friends. They both have loved it and made nice progress on their skills. M was in the Starfish class and D was in the Angelfish class.

D learned to float on her back and tummy (with help) and how to go under water. Almost every time I looked at her, she was practicing going under water.









Last day of swimming lessons. Here are pictures of the kids with their teachers.




Here are pictures of D with her classmates, most of whom are also friends of hers. Here are the girls...


...and the boys in the class.


Here is M learning some skills. He totally puts his head underwater now. He wouldn't do it very willingly until the last couple days of lessons, and now I can't get him to stop. He stays under so long he makes me nervous sometimes.




The kids got to climb across the floating pads on their last lesson.

Happy 4th of July Part 2

Here we are shopping at Fleet Farm before heading up to the cabin last weekend. They looked so cute in their new outfits, I had to snap a picture. This little side trip probably saved us from arriving at the cabin in the midst of the storm.



M riding his "new" hand-me-down bike from his cousin that we got yesterday.



Doing sparklers at our annual 4th of July party--always a big hit with the kids.





The traditional walk through the woods to see the fireworks.



Why is it so cute when little kids hold hands?



Claiming our spot to watch the fireworks.





Watching the "pre-show" of fireworks behind the park.



And finally, the main event. Ooooh!



Aaaah!