Splashy fun and friends

Our week was busy, but full of great things and people.  We got to spend time with many of our dear friends, we rocked out to King Me at Breakwaters (and rocked out at home), went berry picking, and spent a day at the Smuggs water park and Ben and Jerry's factory.  Phew!

Noah watched Matt for an hour and a half at Breakwaters and drummed along the whole time.  His practice drum set at home isn't quite as cool as Daddy's!

This is the only way we can get him interested in sitting on the potty!

We only lost Noah briefly while berry picking.  Yikes!

I was lucky enough to win free tickets to the Smuggs water park, which afforded us this great family day.  It was such an awesome time for everyone, the kids were on great behavior, and we capped the day off with a drive through the notch (reminding us of St. John), and Ben and Jerry's for dinner.  Yes, dinner!

 

 

As I look back at the summer and try to summarize how we spent our time, here are our top 5 favorites:

1. Heading to the pool on hot sunny days with a wagon full of kids, lunches, towels, etc. and swimming for hours.  Evie jumping into the deep end and Noah cruising all over the pool with his Puddle Jumpers.  And all the friends and cousins that have joined us for swimming fun.
2. Hearing the ice cream truck, and the joy on the kids faces when we have actually caught up to it and gotten a treat.
3. Family bike rides.  Whether it's with the tag-a-long, the old Sunchaser with a baby seat on back, Evie on her bike with training wheels, or on our own bikes, we have loved being able to bike as a family this year.
4. Creemees.  'Nuff said, but maple is our favorite!  (Good thing we love our garden, too).
5. Camp.  We had two great trips to Shadow Lake with my family, and the cousin time, beach time, and general love of camp were awesome.  I love that this tradition is part of every summer for my kids!

And, because I don't tend to sugar coat things, here were the 5 biggest challenges over the summer:

1. Evie missed the structure and stimulation of school.  She was much better behaved on the days when we were busy, and tended to act out when we were at home too long.
2. And she missed her friends!  We did play dates, but it wasn't the same.
3. I often felt like I was drowning in the mess of my own house with both kids going in opposite directions, needing snacks, getting out every toy from the play kitchen, legos, 100-piece puzzles, crazy sand, and markers, glue and glitter, all in the matter of an hour.
4. My only time to do the bills, email, etc. without interruption was at 10pm.
5. Late bed times!