Yes, yes...this blog is still alive and well. Ok, maybe not well, it's been majorly neglected...but it's still here! :) It's been a rainy, but very fun summer so far, and I have lots to catch up on. The good news is, even with all of the rain, we've done a lot of fun "summery" things in the month of July, such as....
Lots of meals and cool treats outside:
Swimming:
Eating corn on the cob (while rocking a lobster shirt!):
Mini Golf:
Sparklers:
Going to get fro-yo:
Going to fun birthday parties that include a carousel ride:
And then sometimes falling asleep in the car after a day full of fun:
Soooo....that's a quick snapshot of our July so far! I'll post updates soon about the luau (it was fun!) and the treehouse (it's finally done!)....hope you're having a wonderful summer!!
I posted all about our few days in San Diego, but what about the kiddos? Well, they were having their very own type of vacation with Nana and Poppop!
I'm sure they might have missed us a tiny bit, but they were too busy having so much fun to dwell on it. In the few days we were gone, they went mini golfing, bowling, had lunch at McDonald's, went swimming in our backyard, and went fishing (twice!) On their first try fishing, Liam caught the biggest fish and Jake caught the most fish, so happy kids all around:
Even after our long and slightly disasterous flight home, we were so happy to see these two goofballs in the morning. I was so happy to see them, I even bent my rules and let them jump on the bed (dressed as pirates and cowboys. obviously.)
On Friday night, we went out to dinner at the Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe (in North Park, for all of my fellow Pittsburghers)....I highly recommend this place if you haven't been yet! Fun atmosphere (right on the lake...they have outdoor seating, but we quickly had to relocate inside when a storm blew through!), yummy food, and kid friendly (their food is served on frisbees!)
Playing bingo with Nana to pass the time
You can't take us anywhere.
That last shot is blurry, but I love it because it's so....us.
Thank you again to Nana and Poppop for making our kid-free trip possible...the kids had a blast and were exhausted, the sign of a good time!
We are really in the homestretch here; June just snuck right up on us and today is Jake's last day of school and it's only a half day! Let the summer camp shuffle begin!
Work on the treehouse has continued; I forgot to snap some shots of the actual updates, but I did get this one of the hard-at-work boys, doing their thing in the garage one day. We are hosting the end of the season baseball party at our house in just a little over 2 weeks, so Brian has set that as his deadline so that the team can enjoy the house. Fingers crossed!!
Speaking of baseball, Jake's team is really coming along. It seems like they have fallen into a groove as a team, and many of them are getting some great hits and making awesome plays in the field. For some reason this video is sideways, but here is a recent hit that Jake had:
As for Liam...well, there's only 2 games left :) I don't know, he really does a nice job once he's there (with the exception of some poor listening skills/attitude at the game last week) but he really seems to dread going. We started Jake in t-ball at roughly the same age (he was 4, but a few months older into the age of 4 with the way their birthdays fall) but maybe it was just too young for Liam. Oh well....we'll finish out this year and give him the choice again next year.
On Saturday, we were supposed to have our annual neighborhood outdoor movie night, but off and on all-day storms prevented that from happening, so instead I had a temporary lapse in my sanity invited over some of the neighborhood kids and moms for an indoor movie night in our playroom. We ended up with 10 kids, who were WILD when they first got there, but did settle down to watch the movie, so all was well.
Sunday morning, everyone was dragging due to the late night the night before. We had plans of going to church, but then I realized that summer hours had started and there was no usual 9:30 service so we'd either be rushing like crazy to get there by 8:30 or not going until 10:30. We decided to just skip it, and instead took the kids biking over at Jake's school (which is something he has been begging to do, apparently lots of kids at school talk about how they come there on the weekends!)
Earlier this week, Jake's class had a field trip to the Science Center and I chaperoned....I've said it before, but it's worth saying again....every time I'm in that classroom or around teachers, I appreciate them even more!! It was fun, but phew...tough to keep track of kids in such a crowded place! (his shirt has those boxes on it to block out his school name)
Jake had to go back to school to finish up his day, and then when I got him off the bus we decided to pick up Liam and take a little impromptu trip to the laser tag place by our house. Here was their reaction when I said where we were going:
We had a blast!!
We decided to keep up the fun by making a stop at our local library on the way home; they have a cute little play area in the children's section, so these two set up shop.
So that's been the last few days for us....Happy June, everyone!
