Summer Miscellaneous

We had a lot of fun this summer!  In no particular order here's a look at our summer happenings.



We got our free donuts from Krispy Kreme.

Alexander and Henry had swimming lessons.

We tried to stay cool in the summer heat by playing in the water... but it never lasted long.  It was just too hot!

Henry decided the tree out front was good for climbing.

We swam when people were generous enough to share their pools.  (Including our old next door neighbors!!  They were the best neighbors!)

We ate lots of popsicles.  I was lucky enough to catch this sweet scene of James sharing his with Lydia.

The boys played board games all summer long!

We were constantly busy picking fruit in the backyard.

We tried to read often.  I read "The One and Only Ivan" and "The Hundred Dresses" and "The Little Prince" aloud to them and they read books to themselves.  Sometimes they even read to Lydia. It always makes my heart happy when my big kids read the their siblings.

The boys have been wanting to go to IKEA for breakfast since it opened... so we made sure to cross that off of our summer bucket list.

I try to avoid taking all of the kids shopping if I can (the older boys seem to have forgotten how to behave in a store!) but we had to take advantage of free popcorn at Target while we looked for new school clothes.

Alex said he didn't want this shirt... but it's like it was made for him!  He loves bacon any time--day or night.

James learned how to make energy balls and made them several times over the summer.  They are our favorite snack!

We can't go a summer without getting some Shaggy's Shave Ice.

After watching a Studio C skit about the Oregon Trail, the boys really wanted to play.  Rich found a way to download it and the boys couldn't get enough of it!

It didn't happen often but some evenings were pleasant enough to sit outside in the hammock while the kids played.

One morning before the heat was too intense we rode our bikes over the the gas station for a quick treat.  We'll have to do it again once the weather cools down!

William (and Alex) really got into the Origami Yoda series.  It was fun to find all William's little creations set up in his room.

Rich spent a rainy week at scout camp. (Nothing like spending a week of your vacation in a tent in the rain, right?)  He came back with some good stories and a scruffy beard.

We set up a lemonade stand one afternoon and then again one morning.  We set the timer for 1 hour so the boys wouldn't complain too hard... but it was really hot.  They ended up making a decent amount of money and hopefully learned that they could do hard things!

Blowing bubbles helped us fill the time one afternoon.

We even pulled out our snow cone machine and made a cold treat.

Every summer we try to take the opportunity to have lunch with Dad.

Lydia especially loved the free ice cream.

This summer we even went bowling with Rich as well.

One early evening at the end of summer we were just sitting down for Family Night when a huge thunder storm rolled in.  Most of the rain we get is just light sprinkles but this one reminded me of the storms we got in Oklahoma and North Carolina... so we took the chance to run out in the rain.

 We made sure to head to the Springs Preserve a few times.

One of the very last things we crossed off our bucket list was to make a fort.  It was a pretty awesome fort--until Lydia destroyed it!

 Our summer was a perfect combination of trips, visitors, play, and unstructured fun.