Midsummer

This school thing makes summer go by way faster than necessary... 

Michelle and I took our kids to Fritz's one afternoon.  Cecily is not shy, but she is afraid of swimming in the deep end without her life jacket.  

 Cadence thought the diving board was great!  But she didn't want to actually go under the water; she  just jumped on top of me repeatedly.  Emmy was more interested in their swings. 

 That evening we invited our street over for Root Beer floats and snacks... the girls were soooo excited.  They helped me set up without complaining.

 I get so nervous about these things.... 

 Impatiently waiting for our guests to arrive.  

 The big girls wore themselves out with G and S and Cadence wasn't too jealous of Savannah using her swing.  

 I really enjoyed the evening- the weather was perfect, the bugs weren't too bad, and the company was great.  We like our neighbors.  :)

 Bob dumped the cooler ice out into the bathtub, which they loved.

 Breakfast of champions... she found her bowl of leftover snacks... Puppy chow is no worse than cereal right?  ha.  

 Cecily and Emmy were super excited to go to Kids day on Friday.  This year they had some big inflatables and a dunk tank; it looked like so much fun! 
I'm not ready for school- the flowers are still blooming!  

 "I want to make unicorn ice cream for my snack!"  

 Grandma Lydiann turned 90 years old.  (Apparently the bread slicer was invented in 1928 so... she's the best thing since sliced bread!)  

 They had a party for her at the condos Sunday night.  The girls loved the balloons and the cake.

 And ice cream.

 The conversation is always excellent too...  hehe.  

 Sooooo..... we have this very territorial cardinal that has been attacking two (just two) of our windows all. summer. long.  I am so tired of it.  We've tried all of the humane methods to discourage the dumb thing.... soaping the windows, the windsock, silhouettes of predators.... they will work for a few days and then he ignores them and is back at it again.  We've moved on to less humane methods; cardinal silhouette to draw him in to the mouse traps on the window ledges (he set a couple of them off and lost a few tail feathers, but now he just hits the top of the window), strips of clear packing tape sticky side out (not effective so far), but nothing has worked for more than a day or two.  Help! I am so tired of dirty windows and constant thumping!  

 We were down to the last few days before school started so we went to McDonald's just for fun.

 Chocolate milk and chicken nuggets, don't mind if I do!

 That evening was meet the teacher night (it's too soon!!) and we got ice cream afterward.  

 We attempted to get Cadence's 2 year pictures taken at the mall.... she didn't cooperate so we shopped a little bit.  

 The girls think it's the coolest thing ever, and every time we go in an actual store and the begging starts I resolve to never shop with them again... 

 Thursday morning the weather reflected my mood.... she was a little nervous for first grade, but excited too!  

 These two did better without her home than I was expecting.  

 I bought a turkey on sale last thanksgiving that I finally remembered to thaw... roasting it coincided with me needing to can a batch of tomato sauce so the kitchen was sooooo hot.  Summer time, and the living *isn't* easy.... also, I love fresh produce, but I'm ready to get my fridge and counters back.

 Saturday we went to the farm.  They rode the jeep, swam in the cow tank... 

 Played with Nina and Aunt Renee...

 They played this super involved detective game.  

 A little bit less intense activity...

 Right before we left we played a really fun game called "Bring Your Own Book."  We all grabbed books off of Mom and Dad's shelves and had to find words or phrases out of the them that fit the prompt- best one got a point.  Bethany was winning when I stopped playing.... I should have picked Family Circle magazine and not Picture of Dorian Gray, I guess.  
We got home a little late, but it was worth it.  Oooohhh look who has new tractor jammies!  (Varage sale find- from my cousin Mindy, randomly).  

 So Chicago Shakespeare theater did a free performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Glen Oak Sunday.  Mom and Shelly and Donna and Joy and I went after church.  It was so hot.  But, it was delightful!  It's my favorite Shakespeare play to start with, and the adaptation was really great.  Puck was rapping some of his lines.... and they were in and out of the audience... Puck even sat on the grass by me for a while, and now I'm regretting not getting a picture with him.    All I've got is a picture of my lovely companions.  :) 

Blessings.