Summer--Nature Center

A friend set up a time for a bunch of us to go to the Nature Center and have a tour.

More summer time on the lake

Birds nest and Rescuing a bird

This summer the kids found a birds nest that had fallen out of a tree. We took it home (let's pretend there weren't any germs from it) and loved to look at it. Around the same time my friend Alison had found a bird that had hurt itself and wanted to take it to a shelter. Before she took it to the shelter she brought it over to my house so that my kids could see it. We donated our birds nest to the sick bird.

Lemonade Stand

The kids had their first ever lemonade stand. Dave helped them make fresh squeezed lemonade--which was delicious! And Trevor helped me make yummy brownies and lemon cupcakes. The kids decorated the lemonade signs and I helped teach them about the cash box. We did it during a street wide garage sale and I have to say the event was pretty lucrative! :) Trevor had been saving up all of his money for a year to buy a Wii. All the kids were excited about it and after the lemonade stand (and the money he had already saved) he had enough money to buy one.

Did I mention we went to the Lake a lot? True story.

We spend so much time at the pool!

Trevor and Jaxson doing front flips. Trevor has done several back flips off the diving board--he is a dare devil!


Emma and Ashlyn

So cute!

One of my favorite summer activities

I love to get together with friends for food and fun during the summer. This is one of those times...so fun!!

My favorite Carol Nursery Peeps!

I have a group of ladies that I do girls nights and pool parties with. They are fabulous. Seriously. All of our kids were in the same preschool class together 3 years ago! We are still friends and still get together as often as we can. Here we are (a couple of friends are missing from the pic!)---

Our kids swimming in Lynne's fun pool!

Fun times with Marie

My kids are so lucky to have a friend that lives right next door. She is a year older than Trevor but they all play so well. They pick clovers (and eat them--thanks to Dave), they catch fireflies in the summer at 10 o'clock at night and Marie's mom gave us this fun jungle gym for the kids to play on.

Ashlyn's apron

My mom sent Ashlyn this adorable apron and I actually think she only likes to help me cook so that she can wear it! Every time I ask if she wants to help me cook she says, "Yes! Can I wear my apron?!"

Magic Show

Our friend told us about a magician performing at the local library at the beginning of the summer, so we hit it up! The kids LOVED it.

Dave (of course) found some berries off of a bush that he fed to the kids on the way.

The kids played on the park and rolled down the big hill after the magic show.

This is Kirtland Play

Every summer our Stake puts on a play that is called This is Kirtland. It is about the church history in Kirtland. People from our stake audition for the play and ward members direct it and make costumes for it. Two people who were not members of the church were baptized during their involvement with this play this summer. I'd be happy to share their stories if anyone is interested! We took a day out of our summer to help mend costumes. The kids came with me. Claudia Harrington was the mastermind behind the costumes this year!

4th of July

We had a ward breakfast where the kids rode bikes and ate food and I decorated all the kids faces with face paint.





We got together with some friends for dinner...



We had our own fireworks show in the backyard that the kids enjoyed...

and they were really loud...

Then we went and watched the city's fireworks show.



Dave had the 5th of July off of work and we spent the entire day at the Lake...seriously I think we got back at 1 in the morning--it was SO FUN! Fairport Harbor had another fireworks show that we sat maybe 20 feet from. It was so cool.