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.

2015 Week Twenty-Four | June 8 - June 14

Our vacation around Duluth continued at the beginning of the week, then we did a bit of traveling through Wisconsin to see Emily. After spending time with her, we drove to the Twin Cities to chill with Darrin's best friend Matt and his wife. Always leave wishing we lived so much closer to them.

Monday we spent the day driving Old Highway 61 and exploring the state parks along the way. We had so much fun exploring the falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park. They were beautiful, and fell into shallow enough water we could step out into them. 

Another favorite stop on Monday was Split Rock Lighthouse. Beautiful lighthouse set high on the cliff. 

Tuesday we took a ferry from Bayfield to Madeline Island, where we rented bikes and rode the 7.5 miles to the state park to play at the beach... and then rode all the way back. Our butts were sooooooo sore. 

Wednesday we drove to Cable, WI, where my childhood best friend Emily works as a naturalist at the Natural History Museum. We checked out the exhibit at the museum, then headed to a nearby pond to learn about nature up close. 

Wednesday night we spent in the Twin Cities, stopping by the Mall of America to visit the Lego Store and ride a roller coaster. Thursday morning we spent time with Darrin's best friend and his wife, then headed home. 

 Saturday our town had its local celebration. Ian was in the parade for cub scouts, and after, the kids had a blast cooling down in the pool. We had friends over for dinner later, and the kids spent their time rolling and running down the hill in our backyard.

2015 Week Twenty-Three | June 1 - June 7

This was the week of the frog. I spent Monday working on opening the pool- cleaning out the debris, getting the hoses hooked up, fixing chem levels, etc. While I was working, there was a frog climbing the side of the pool, and later I found him in the grass by the pool. I went to take replace the brackets around the edge (many were damaged in a hail storm last year), and discovered three living under there, which resulted in Darrin getting a text that HE will be changing the brackets. The next day I discovered three or four in the skimmer basket, and Darrin got another text letting him know he'll be dumping it. I just don't do frogs/toads. They jump.

The rest of the week was some normal stuff around home, a trip to the zoo with friends, and the start of vacation in Duluth.

They look cute... but then they jump. Ugh!

This was gross! 

We went with Marlena and the boys to the zoo. Forgot how much longer it takes to see things with a toddler along. There's lots of construction going on there right now, and Henry was fascinated by all the tractors. And water bottles. Even though Marlena had one along for him, he preferred to drink from Ian or Annaliese's. 

We had cherries for the first time in a long time, and Annaliese loved them. She couldn't figure out how to put it in her mouth and then spit the seed out, so she held the cherry and ate around the seed... which was messy!

We've been reading the Harry Potter series, so we had one happy boy after a stop at Game Stop. 

Annaliese got a toy the same day, a Barbie made for the water, and she got used right away when we got home,
with the first dip in the pool. 

Supper on the scenic train ride in Duluth. 

Excited for the train ride to start. 

Big Manitou Falls in Superior, WI. 

Choosing the 'fun' route to the tower at Enger Park instead of the sidewalk. 

Feeling good about themselves after making it to the top and back down. 

Programming a flight at the Duluth Children's Museum. 

Having fun at Park Point in Duluth. 

2015 Week Twenty-Two | May 25 - May 31

Monday was Memorial Day, and we celebrated the holiday with some sprinkler fun (we hadn't opened our pool yet- darn rainy weekends).  But this weekend, the rain cleared and we were able to stain the deck on Saturday and Sunday, taking the cover off the pool Sunday night (I, thankfully, did not get a picture of what the water looked like under said cover). I had been saying to Annaliese for months now she needed a hair cut, and Friday of this week, I had finally had enough with trying to comb through her knots and managed her mane. An impromptu trip to Great Clips and six inches, and my frustration, were gone. We also signed up for the summer reading program at our public library this week and the kids read like crazy. Ian discovered if he read to her, they would both get credit for the book, and we spent a lot of time reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban aloud. 

They kids helped... Ian for about 15 minutes and Annaliese for about 30.

Spray it on and brush it to even it out- best method ever. 

First time having her hair washed at a hair cut. 

Before and After

It's great having a big brother who can read to you.

The porch is proving to be a favorite spot to read.