Our Summer Thus Far

Summer is flying by! Here are a few highlights of what has been occupying our time this summer:

Our doorbell has been ringing non-stop with kids wanting to play. We are lucky to live in a neighborhood with kids Owen's age, and two 12 year old girls that love to play with Sydney. On the morning of the 4th of July, at 8:30 a.m., Darth Vader rang our bell. Owen of course had to don his costume as well. What better way to celebrate our country's independence than having a light saber battle at 8:30 in the morning?


Later on the 4th of July we had our friends Kyle and Laura and their two daughters Bella and Mia over for a BBQ. Check out how cute these girls are:






Owen is finishing up his 3rd week-long swim class. He has been loving it and begging me to sign him up again after each session, so I've been riding that wave while he's interested. I'm really amazed at how far he's come.

Here he is going off the diving board for the first time

Listening to the teacher

Owen's arm in upper left



We broke out the slip n' slide...though not as often as I thought we would this year. Summer isn't over yet!



We've been going to the library most Wednesdays for their summer reading program events, including a magician, a science show, and today we got to see Curious George (Sydney was not a fan).


Owen started taking a few piano lessons from a friend of a friend, and here he is trying to teach his sister how to play Old Macdonald:


The kids have helped me water our garden every day and what started as this:

now looks like this:

which we used to make this:

I would say the garden was not a complete success, but also not a complete failure. I had no idea my marigold border (which I planted in the hopes of keeping bunnies at bay) would get so big. Most of the things I started indoors from seeds (green beans, green peppers) didn't survive the transplant. The lettuce I planted turned out to be some strange form of mustard greens with a spiny texture that I didn't want to eat. The strawberry plants got consumed by the bunnies before they ever stood a chance. But, we have more tomatoes than I know what to do with, and a few good stalks of basil giving it a fighting chance!

And finally, Owen has apparently been playing around with my camera when I'm not looking. I love seeing all of the things he takes pictures of, including the walls, his feet on the carpet, his teeth, and so on. But I did find this gem:


And there you have it!