2015 Week Twenty-Nine | July 13 - July 19

This was THE most busy week of the summer. My family was ehre visiting and we took them to Splash Station, the Children's Museum, and spent time just hanging out around our house. Then there was the field trip with our library to the Strategic Air Museum (I could have filled this post with 30 pictures of that alone, actually, pretty much 30 pictures of any of the events from this week). Black Day launch party, birthday party, and Cub Scout Rain Gutter Ragatta and swim rounded out the weekend. 

Cousin fun at Splash Station. 

And then more cousin fun at the Children's Museum operating the crane in the ball room.

Most of the time, though, was spent hanging out in our pool. The weather was perfect.

The kids were willing guinea pigs for some PT students at Creighton. We've been doing this since Ian was 6 months old. 

On Friday we joined others from our library summer reading program at the Strategic Air Museum, where we had a picnic lunch under the wing of a huge plane. The kids had fun scanning QR codes from planes to collect parts, and then, using those parts, they tried to create an ideal airplane. 

Friday night there was a launch party for Black Day. Ian read the book for the first time, sharing it with Owen. 

The party was at a restaurant, where there was a DJ playing. Annaliese had fun rocking out. 

Saturday was Walter's 5th birthday. He had lots of curious fans during present time. 

While his brother got lots of love and squeezes. 

Ian's favorite spot at Walter's. We're pretty much guaranteed to find him there, especially when he's feeling too old to do the activities the other kids are doing. 

Saturday night was Ian's Rain Gutter Ragatta. He blew his sailboat to a third place finish. 

After the contest, there was swimming. Ian hung out with this friend the whole time. 

Luckily one of the scouts had a sister Annaliese's age that she spent the night hanging out with. 

They both spent lots of time jumping in the water as well. It didn't take much convincing to have Ian go off the diving board, but he only wanted to do it once, and then get back to his friend. Annalises and her friend would take turns jumping in . That is her standard form when jumping in. 

2015 Week Twenty-Eight | July 6 - July 12

Picnic lunches must be followed by walks in the park. 

Tuesday the public library had an event at the PD horse barn. 

We got to get up close and pet the horses and hear all about the training they go through. 

Then after we headed to Jones Bros. Cupcakes where they were hosting the minions for what was then the upcoming movie. 

And of course we had to buy some to eat... with more frosting on them than cupcake. 

Which is the way they taste the best. 

She slept pretty much every night of the summer in Ian's room, on a mattress on the floor. And then brother went to cub scout camp and she had to sleep in her own bed. Found her sleeping with all her friends in bed. Guess she didn't want to get lonely. 

Ian went to cub scout camp for the weekend. Darrin was able to go along (it was strongly encouraged for a parent to go) and a plus side of that for me was Darrin was able to snap lots of pictures so I can document his first camp experience. Here is was in the robotics portion of camp. 

Swimming at camp. 

And fishing.

And spending time with friends.

And boating.

And his favorite, archery.

While the boys were at camp, Annaliese and I attended a book reading of "Black Day" the book our friend Noah illustrated. 

And then we helped out at the monster cookie table (the book has Halloween costumes that come to life... they could be considered monsters).

Unknown to Ian and Annaliese, Grandma, Grandpa, Cara, and Oliver were coming to visit. They got in Saturday afternoon and surprised Annaliese, who I had strategically out in the drive waiting. Ian was surprised to see them on Sunday when he came home. It wasn't long after all were home that everyone was in the pool. 

2015 Week Twenty-Seven | June 29 - July 5

Ahhhh, a long 4th of July weekend. With the holiday falling on Saturday, Darrin had the day off on Friday, which made what can be a hectic weekend perfectly blissful. Plenty of time to spend just hanging out as a family, and spending the holiday with friends.

The week started with a visitor to our front porch. Darrin went out to sit after supper and found this little guy/gal. 

The fawn ended up curling up in the corner of our porch and spending the night. 

The fawn was gone the next morning, but came back to visit a two days later (or I suppose it could be a different fawn).

Annaliese checked out a cookbook from the library as part of the summer reading challenge, and it had princess wands in it. Ian refused to make one of those, but was just fine with making a Harry Potter wand. 

Boxes- the best toys ever. 

Family bike ride to the park where Daddy and Annaliese shared a swing. 

We tend to go swimming during the day while Darrin is at work, so it's always a special treat when we can swim at a time he gets in the pool. 

We started the 4th at Ian's best friend's house for brats and conversation... by the adults at least. The kids, well, they were tuned in to electronics. 

Annaliese loves to hang with Ian's best friend's sister, and she does a great job of humoring her. 

Later we headed to spend time with Noah's family. The adults had fun playing Phase Ten. 

Annaliese spent her time behind the wheel. She'd share it if needed, but really didn't want to get out of it. She handles it really well. I'm already worried for when she's 16... 

Ian sometimes struggles with being the oldest by 3 years out of all the other kids, and coming from his best friend's where he had tons of fun and things to do, it was a bit of a bummer in the beginning for him. 

Once the fireworks came out, though, all was forgotten and he was right in there. The kids loved walking through the smoke bombs and chasing the parachutes.

Best seats in the house. 

Sparkler fun. Ian was casting spells from Harry Potter with his. Annaliese struck lots of poses with hers. 

Summer Layouts

Nearly two months seems like a long enough hiatus... In late June, I caught up on project life through week 26 (even if not here on the blog), and then I lived summer with my kids; swimming in our pool, near daily trips to the library, bike rides to the park. It was the most relaxing and wonderful summer we've ever had. At the end of summer, while the kids spent a week with their grandparents, I flew out to Portland to spend time with friend scrapbooking. I had gone two years ago, and was so thankful to be able to make the trip again. Here are a few of the pages I was able to finish between laughing, eating, and chatting.

 I knew the minute she said this and I snapped the picture that I'd be scrapping this moment. I'm not sure she's ever been more right.

The opening page for our family vacation. The route we took each day is a different color of embroidery floss, with a corresponding color-coded key. The stars indicate stops on our trip. The large "go" is from one of Ali Edwards story kits- I stamped it with staz on and embossed it to get the aged wire look. 

 One of the story prompts for Ali Edwars story kits was roots, I used products from that kit and others to create this layout about the house I grew up in. One of my friends allowed me to steal some of her patterned paper, and the state one was perfect for this layout.

 This layout was inspired by this layout I first saw in the gallery for the story kits. I used many supplies to tell the story of July 8. I plan on doing one each season- I think back to summers before we moved to this house and how different they were. Wish I would have capture what they looked like.

 This final layout was one of the stops on our vacation- Enger Park.