It's beginning to look a lot like....SUMMER!!!

The sun is shining...the alarm clocks are off....games are being played...we're in our pajamas at 10:00...it must be SUMMER!! The kids got out of school two weeks before I did so Gramps and Gramma came down to spend time with them so Chris had a fighting chance at getting any work done. They had a great time together!

Alli says it's porch sittin' weather!

And rollin' in the grass weather!

When you can't find a bookmark....you use a spoon!

Owen enjoyed a birthday party for a classmate at the Bounce house!

 The kids practically finished their summer reading program for the local library in their first two weeks off!

We are sooooo sad that our neighbor Jacob and his family are moving. They sold their house in 7 days!! He and Owen (Canton too!) have had such a good time playing together. I seriously prayed for whoever would move into that house when our previous neighbors put it on the market and was so grateful when the boys became good friends. I had visions of them growing up together!! Now we're on to praying for the new neighbors. Thankfully the offer they have on a house is in a neighborhood nearby. Owen wrote this sweet note for Jacob:

 We've been dreaming of having kayaks for a couple years now and took advantage of a boat sale at Dicks to make it a reality! We're super excited to get them on the water for the first time soon!

 This will not be the seating arrangement ;)

Hopefully the loading and unloading will be(come) a smooth and easy process ;)

Owen has really been in to games lately and I'm all for it!!

Alli likes to join in too!

 We enjoyed getting to see Hannah's end-of-year dance recital! Check her out here, here, and here. 

We enjoyed a pizza dinner afterwards. The kids did great playing together!

Owen came over for snuggles...

so Hunter wanted snuggles with Uncle Chris =)

Willow and I got shorter summer cuts. Here's the "before:"

and "after:"

 Willow learned cursive during the summer before 2nd grade, so I mentioned it to Owen. He wasn't super excited about it but has entertained me by working through the first page of the packet so far. 

His "excitement" level:

Willow's excitement at the same age (7):

Willow had her sweet friend Elena over for a playdate. They enjoyed doing Just Dance

While Elena was over (the day before we were leaving for the beach), Alli made a really weird meow from upstairs (very odd in the middle of the day, especially from upstairs). I went up to find her leaning against our bedroom door frame (odd) then she slowly lowered herself to a lying position and layed on the side of her head (odd). I got her into the vet for an exam, bloodwork, and x-rays and didn't get too much of a diagnosis. Her bowels were backed up again and her liver numbers were climbing again so she got a shot and an enema and we were on our way back home. Thankfully Nana and Grandpa and our neighbor Melissa checked on her while we were at the beach and she seems to be back to normal. Crazy cat. How many lives is she down to now???

Summer Fun: slip-n-slide, cookies, first official haircut, catch, s'mores, bike riding, cousin time, diving board fun!

Summertime = water fun!

Kim and I took the kids blueberry picking and to the library for the Dare Devil Dogs. They were amazing! Can you spot them in the air? We were all amazed!!

Owen's preschool buddy Kathryn invited us over for a slip-n-slide playdate at her house. They certainly have a good hill in their backyard for it!! 

Here goes Willow!! Watch out for the grass!

Andrea was pretty brave to host so many kiddos at her house being 8+ months pregnant! She even had a water balloon race!

The kids get more and more helpful with baking as they get older! I think this was Owen's first time helping the entire time!! We made some yummy snickerdoodle cookies from a kids cook book from the library. 

70-degree weather with low humidity makes for great reading conditions after the kiddos go to bed!

I've done my best attempts at trimming Willow's hair throughout the years. She's been sick of her tangled ends for a couple months so I asked if she'd like to get a bit more cut off for the summer. One of our neighbors cuts hair out of her basement so we walked over and got on her schedule. Willow said she'd like this haircut:

She was trying to hide her smile the whole time at the end. She was so excited to show both sets of grandparents her hair and tell them all about it. When we "paused" her talking and talking and talking about her hair so Owen could talk, she then said, "Can we go back to talking about my hair now?" Lordy!! I think she likes it! It certainly made her look all grown up! We'll see if mama can style it well enough to keep it looking cute now!

Playing catch!

S'more time!!

Willow was not so crazy about the idea of getting back on her bike this summer. Clearly we should've made it more of a priority throughout the school year so it wasn't such a battle. She's practiced for 15 minutes every day this week, so we'll see if we can get the training wheels off by the end of the summer this time...

Check her out going to the end of the culdesac.

We had fun playing in the backyard and at the mall with the cousins this week!

Puzzle progress has been   s  l  o  w

We headed to a local pool this afternoon and Owen tried the diving board for the first time (not without needing a lot of encouragement though!!). He did great! Check out his first jump and both kids going at the same time.