August

In early August, we spent the weekend with good friends at their cabin in SoDak.  

Gwyneth is 4, Henry is 5, and Olivia is 6, so these three just play so well together.  Sometimes the girls fight over who Henry's "best friend" is between the two of them :)  He's learning at an early age that it's hard to please ALL the ladies, ha! 

It was a beautiful weekend.  The kids literally did not come inside from 9am until it was dinner time - boat rides, tubing, fishing, swimming, jet-ski rides - it was a great time!

Not a single fish was caught :(

Then there's Lydia and Reese, little BFFs, they're 1 month apart :)

Just like at the Dells, Henry and Olivia probably jumped off this dock about 400 times a day!

National Night Out is always the first week in August.  Here's the crew on our block.  Lydia was baby #31 (she's the youngest on the block), and since she was born I think we've had about 8 more kids move in.  

Oh my, Henry has sure gotten good use out of his car this summer.  He knows a clean car is a happy car :)

One night when Phil was gone, I gave them free rein to make a pizza as they wish.  They did it all, I just handed them the toppings - they spread the dough, sauced it up, dumped one big pile of cheese in the middle, and then loaded it with pepperoni :)

One Sunday night, we went to Running Aces for family night with a few of our neighborhood friends.  We placed our bets on the harness horse racing, the kids got their faces painted, we had dinner, and also did a little trout fishing (we came home empty handed there).

In late August, one of my bestest friends and roommate from college, Teri Ann, got married to a nice guy named Jamie in New Smyrna Beach, FL.  It was a HOT one in FL in the summer, wow!  Molly and I left our husbands at home for the long weekend - it was girls only!  It was so much fun to see all these ladies for a few days - it's been way too long!  Here we were at the house Jamie grew up in the night before the wedding - a beautiful view of the water. 

Here's Molly and I before the ceremony started. 

I gotta get a photo every time at the Children's Museum!  Look at their faces, checking themselves out in the mirror, ha!

We have had such nice days to play at the park in the afternoons around here!  Let's hope they continue for another month :) 

We made our annual trip to the Tamarack Nature Center (and crossed another item off our summer bucket list).  What a great place for kids to just explore the land - they can dig in the sand, play in the water, climb on the rocks, build a fort with sticks, water and weed the gardens - it's great!

When you really want to play hard in the dirt, just tuck your dress into you "unnies," right?!  The girl thought that every item of clothing that went over your feet were your "unnies" :)  In this case, her "unnies" were simply her cute little bloomers under her dress!