Summer Days

Do you remember lazy summer days growing up? Playing in the sprinkler and hanging out? Our kids don't seem to get much of that kind of stuff. We always seem to be pulled in so many directions and have so many plans, etc. So I had Tuesday off and decided to try and have f lazy summer day.

I thought we should ride our bikes up to the grocery store since we haven't done much of that lately. Casey wanted to ride his bike too, so I walked Max!! He was trying to "drag" me the entire way after Emily and Carter and Casey for whatever reason Casey decided to fall down a lot. The walk was quite the experience!! It was also hot hot hot!!! On the way home I also had grocery bags in my hands and there were dogs loose that wanted to come and get me, Casey and Max! Wow, when I told Al about our walk, he said, "That's why people like to watch you walk down the street..." I wonder what that is supposed to mean??

Casey wanted to make cookies...Pumpkin cookies of all kinds! So there we go!

We started out playing in the sprinkler cuz Casey never gets to do that kind of thing. Then we moved on to the pool and took the sprinkler with us!! Fun in the sun! We also made homemade pizza for lunch with everyone helping.

Since I had my camera, I walked around taking pics! That's my thing, I guess...

The day didn't go without frustrations. Three kids can't always get along I suppose. Those moments tend to stick out more for me than the kids...I hope it gets glossed over in their memories as they grow and that they only remember all the fun we had on a hot summer day in July.

Water Fun

We went camping the weekend of Father's Day down by Al's sister and her family. A good friend of mine that I haven't seen in quite some time also lives where we were camping. Her, her husband, and 2 girls offered to bring out their speed boat and give us all rides on their tube. We had a ball!!! The kids didn't want to ever stop!! We ended up running their boat out of gas!


My friend's little girl was soo cute and photogenic I couldn't resist!
Thumbs up meant faster and these two were thumbs up the whole way!!! (Em and her cousin Nicholas)
Carter was such a good big brother keeping his arms around Casey so that he wouldn't fall out.
Casey loved it and giggled the whole time.

On a side note: We did have several storms that weekend and we were all very tired of rain, but Saturday was a great day and we loved the boating!!

It's a Party!

Last night we went to a small town north of us for Emily's 3rd and 4th grade softball team to play a double header game. Each game is 1 hour and they don't really keep score at this stage in the game. She's improving each time we watch her and having a lot of fun. Carter begs to go to the "Confession" stand and buy something (candy!). I told him this time if he bought me a popcorn, he could have the change. He came back with 2 ring pops and my popcorn.
So here's my "baby" boys sucking on their ring pops that look like pacifiers! Here they are playing in the rocks under the bleachers...

And here's Carter when his ice cream was "melting". I told him I'd take a picture if his ice cream melted and he said look it's melting when it had a little drip down the side. Then, I said, I meant when it was dripping all over. So he promptly took his dilly bar and wiped it all over his face so that I would take the picture!!!

Dainty Emily!
Here's our party! Grandpa and Grandma came along to the game and we had supper at the DQ and Grandma told Emily it was a party! Casey was asleep in the van so he missed the whole thing.

Softball, ice cream, family, and nice summer evenings....What could be better?

Kindergarten Tee Ball

This is Carter turning around as I am taking his picture. He is waiting for his turn to bat.
This is Carter when he noticed (hence the nice pose) I was taking pictures while he is waiting for his turn to bat...

Here's Carter batting. He even hit the ball and got to run to 1st base!


And here is Carter in the outfied....Notice his glove....

Kindergarten Tee Ball....

Emily's first ever softball game

Emily decided that this year she wanted to try and play softball with her friends. We've had a few practices and then last week we had our first ever softball game. Since Ems had never played before, it's all been a series of little accomplishments. Her coach was so excited for her when she got up to bat because she hit the ball!!! It ended up fouling, but she hit it!!! She's doing better at catching and fielding too!! Most importantly, she's having fun with her friends and learning a new sport!!!

I remember playing softball when I was in elementary school, too. We lived out in the country and my dad would drive me to practice on his motorcycle. I also played catch with my grandpa (my dad's dad) and he used to say, "If you can touch it, you can catch it!" It's so neat to see Emily and Carter and Casey (soon) play and enjoy things that I did as a kid...