The Crazy Hazy Days of Summer

Okay so it's not officially summer quite yet, and it's not really hazy, but our days seem to be getting crazier. Last year, our summer was absolutely nuts. We were always traveling or having someone visit, one thing going on or another. By August, I was so burned out I just didn't even know what to do with myself. So this year, we have a crazy crazy June planned and half of July, then after that, we plan on being at home (even though we will have stuff going on and people visiting) so hopefully we won't get quite so burned out. I think we're cooped up for so long in the winter, we have to fit a year's worth of fun in the sun into the three months of summer. :-)

Anyhoo, for us, it seems summer started this weekend. We had really beautiful weather all weekend. We spent a good part of Saturday morning getting caught up around the house and running errands. Then Saturday afternoon, Cindy, Shawn, Emilee and Braeden came over for a little water fun and grilling out. We had to postpone taking their family pictures at the Arboretum because poor little Brady fell Memorial Weekend and had some scrapes on his face. But he's all better now! :-) We all had a great time with appetizers on the lawn watching the kids play in the water (the inaugural summer use of the whale pool combined with the slide!) and then came inside for some grilled hamburgers, corn on the cob and relaxing while the kids ran around the house.






Sunday morning, we woke up and got ready for a playdate and picnic at Hyland Park in Bloomington. We met up with the Scott family. The Scotts (who live here in MN) are friends with our friends Jon and Jessica Slusser (from California) and we've been trying to get together with them for about six months or more. We were finally able to! We all had a fun time visiting, watching the kids play and eating a picnic lunch. We were finally able to give Zander his birthday gift from last February! Here are two pictures of Ella and Zander:



And as if all of that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, we had the Anderson family over Sunday evening for more whale/outside fun and make-your-own-pizzas. We got the blender out and mixed up some margaritas to enjoy outside and Andrew blended up some Diet Sprite and ice for the kids and threw in a little lime garnish for them. They all loved it! We had a great time with them and the best part is all the kids got along pretty well and the adults got to just hang out and chat in the kitchen!





(In order from top, then left to right): Ella waiting for the Andersons
to arrive; Isabelle, Hope, Claire, Lily, Ella, all the kids playing, and
all the kids eating their pizzas and Go-gurt.

We all had so much fun the entire weekend! And the fun just keeps coming. We had Jody and Arie over for a playdate yesterday. Today is Ella's official last day of school. And tomorrow night we leave to go up to the Cottage (or "the little red house" as Ella refers to it) in Wisconsin with Bubba and Grand Pat.

Check out the last couple posts again, because I was finally able to add pictures to them. (You do know when I say, "I'll post pictures tomorrow" that actually translates to "a week later", right?). :-) I hope to get pictures added to the photo site soon but you know me, so hopefully all of these will tide you over for a bit.

Hope you all are having fun in the sun!