Layla Comes to Visit

At the end of June, we met Lindsey and her kids in Sacramento for the day. We spent a couple hours enjoying the sites of Old Town Sac and the Train Museum. We love that place! There's so much to see and learn.

 We grabbed lunch at ChickFilA and then headed to a free splash pad (which had above-ground slides!). Boston had an absolute BLAST! He could have ran around that place for hours and hours.

 We had lots of fun playing with our cousins and Aunt Lindsey! It's nice that we can drive a couple of hours and meet up for an adventure together.

 We brought Layla home with us for several nights. We got several crafts and things to do during the week. We found these fun shirts at the craft store and the kids had a great time coloring them.

 Matching girls. 

 I signed Logan, Grace and Layla up for a canvas painting class. They had a great time making their own masterpieces at The Red Wagon. Another friend was in the class too (Kyle Kambourian).

 Watching the American Girl "Grace" movie.

 Swimming with the Croshaws

 All those tan limbs!

 I took 2 Croshaw girls, Grace and Layla to do some free bowling! They had fun and also got to spend some time in the arcade earning a gazillion tickets for prizes.

At the end of the week, Dan and Lindsey and the boys drove up to hang out and sleepover for the night.

 We had a BBQ dinner, played yard games, and hung out until super late.

Hot dogs and s'mores!

 On sunday morning, we hung out and let the kids get all their play time in before the Montagues headed home. Dan and Layla spent a good while working on this very detailed pikachu perler bead picture.

We're so glad the kids were able to spend this time with their cousins! Thanks for coming, Layla.

Summer Bucket List

This summer has been a busy one for us, but it's been perfect. It hasn't been overly so, or too quiet either. But just right. Having my kids get older means we have to stay active and keep them doing, moving, creating and learning throughout the summer. Making our summer bucket list has helped us for the last few years to focus on particular goals and memory-making so we can look back and say "Look at all the fun stuff we have done!" Here are a few things that were on our list and a few that weren't.

Somehow we conned Ryan into letting us buy a trampoline. hehe! We love it!! 

 We *tried* to make rock candy... it didn't really turn out like we thought, but still a fun experiment.

 Ate freshly-picked cherries at our friends' pool!

 Lots and lots of swimming! Thank you, Croshaws. We sure love you guys!

 The kids have stepped up their "imaginary play" these days. I LOVE when they putt their heads together and create something out of thin air. Sometimes it lasts 1-2 hours, and sometimes only a few minutes before they're fighting. But this time they played "restaurant" for hours. So clever and fun!

 They worked out their summertime school booklets.

 Had friends over for lunch and trampoline sprinklers. (the Miller girls)

 Took our new kayaks out to Paradise Lake!

 More friends and trampoline time. (Jack Croshaw this time)

 A little service always feels good. (surprise house-cleaning for a friend)

"Trying a new restaurant". We took the kids to Crepeville. IT'S SO GOOD! 

 Then we hit the Chico fountain on our way back to the car and of course the kids got soaked. It was a really fun night out as a family!

 Matchy-matchy.

 Playing hard = crashing hard. Logan falls asleep like this 90% of the time these days.

 Gymnastics! Grace and Logan each took an hour class, twice a week for 6 weeks of summer. They love gym and I love watching them. I think we will continue to stick with it in the fall as well. 

 And of course there is plenty of relaxing in our cool basement with movies. It's just so hot in the afternoons, and we have been trying to keep our AC off during the daytime hours. Downstairs is the only comfortable place in the house. I just love my little cubs and how they can hang out and play together. I truly don't want summer to end so soon!