Cramming

The past couple weeks have been a blur of cramming in all the summer fun we could manage before school starts.  We connected with lots of friends for swimming, play dates and ice cream.  

Favorite summer flavors!

We have loved our time with Godcousin Caroline this summer!

Swimming at Maple Street Pool

Chillaxing

Summer relaxing at the pool

Our first trip to ECHO since pre-Covid days.  It was fun to be back!

Building LEGO cars for a race

Love these kiddos!

King Me returned to the stage at JCAT!

An awesome evening of live music

My dates for the night

Evie competed in her first Feis (pronounced "fesh") for Irish Dance, and she was proud to come out with two 4th place medals.  She was a little nervous beforehand, but when she got out on stage, she said she felt great!  The whole experience was much more fun than we expected, and we are hoping that it will be safe to travel to a couple more competitions in neighboring states later this year.  (Unfortunately, videos are not allowed during the competition, so we only have some before/after photos).

Getting ready for the Feis

Evie's group of competitors

Noah had fun at the photo booth

Evie and her dance buddy Ella

Congrats Evie!  We are so proud of you!

Immediately following Evie's Feis, we squeezed in another long weekend at camp since the weather was forecasted to be perfect.  I swam in the lake for the FIRST (and last!) time this season, we floated with the neighbors, and Matt wowed everyone with an amazing Happy Hour delivery on the lake.  The kids caught a bunch of fish, and Noah finally joined in on the tubing fun!  Bonfires, badminton, puppy play time, and cousin time all added to the experience.  It was a short but sweet trip!

Grandpa Zeke loved having the dogs all in control like this!  He gets the award for dog whisperer!

Some friendly badminton competition

Frankie wasn't so sure she wanted to share with Ellie

Cute pups (and Evie's feet)

Summer in a cup

Remind me of this moment in January!

Last trip to camp before heading off to college!  Waaaaaah!

Aunt Pea and Evie snuck off for a nighttime swim.  It was very chilly!

Noah's first tubing adventure

Noah settled into tubing very quickly!

Family and neighbor float party

Happy Hour courtesy of our cabana boy

Special delivery

My parents and The Culvers - the absolute best camp neighbors!

After Happy Hour, Grandpa Zeke hitched a ride to shore with Noah.  Ha ha!

Awesome luck with fishing!

Fresh perch appetizers

Cousins

We came back from camp, unpacked, and headed off to see Jason Mraz in concert all in the same day.  It was an outdoor concert, so we brought the kids along to experience their first big concert.  They LOVED it!  Evie wanted to go up as close as we could get to the stage, and I was happy to oblige.  We have used a couple Jason Mraz songs for the kids' birthday videos, and it made me a little misty-eyed to hear those songs performed live with the kids next to us.

Noah's buddy Jack was at the concert, too! (Pardon my mouth full of food in the background)

First family concert

Jason Mraz was AMAZING!

Hanging out close to the stage

Since then, life has been a bit quieter and the gears have been changing toward school prep mode - shopping for back-to-school supplies, attending Ice Cream Socials, planning lunches and snacks, and trying to get bedtime back to a reasonable hour!  The Covid Delta variant is adding some anxiety for us (luckily the kids seem to be feeling fine about things), but we are hopeful that the schools will do everything they can to keep the kids safe, as they did last year.  We are praying the vaccine will be approved for their age group soon!

Helping with compost drop-off (yuck!)

Daddy playing the DJ

Noah's band

Loving all the garden-fresh veggies! (Thank you Aunt Pea!)

Just like a teddy bear

Back on the school playground

This rainbow was just the sign we needed this week!