summer weeks 8 and 9

The week and a half between 2 big trips, we spent some time recovering and organizing for the next adventure.  But we did squeeze in a few more items off our summer bucket list.  We spent a day at the beach. We spent a day in Stillwater, going to Teddy Bear Park, walking along the St. Croix, and going to the candy store.  We also had a backyard campout.  We also went bowling again and wrapped up the summer reading program at the library.  We ended up winning both prizes! Brett won 4 tickets to the state fair and Lydia won 4 tickets to a Twins game!

Summer week 7

The 7th week of summer marks the halfway point.  We're on the downhill slide - about which I'm mostly sad. 

This is a picture of Reggie learning to tie his shoes.  I decided kids should learn to tie shoes the summer before 1st grade.  But I don't really have the patience for such tasks.  Brett learned to tie his shoes by an occupational therapist.  I looked up a video on YouTube and Lydia taught herself.  When I came home with tie shoes for Reggie, I told Brett to teach him.  A few minutes later, I discovered all three watching a YouTube video and practicing tying their shoes!

This year, our Green Bay vacation landed the last week in July and we stayed an extra two nights.  We celebrated Reggie's birthday while we were there.  He wanted a Packer party, so I didn't have to decorate!

 

 Family Night was so much fun!  Notice that MeeMaw is surrounded by 6 grand kids!

I think we're ready for football season!

Summer weeks 5 and 6

Weeks 5 and 6 were daily swimming lessons for Reggie and Lydia.  They both made good progress.  Lydia is able to swim 25 yards both the breaststroke and on her back, and has learned how to dive.  Reggie does a pretty good breaststroke, but when he's on his back, he just sinks.

We also went to a splash pad and ate at sonic (a summer tradition), built a matchbox car wash (Brett's idea), went to one of our favorite parks with a wading pool, and went to The Works museum (which celebrates all things engineering).

Over the weekend, we went up to Lake Superior to go for a ride on Papa's boat.  Bryan caught a couple lake trout.

Summer week 4

The 4th week of summer, Lydia went to art camp. I signed her up for art camp because she loves to paint, and I needed to make it "equal" since the boys did basketball camp.  I don't have any pictures of her artwork, but it was all pictures of her guinea pig, Milo.  On the last day, she brought home a clay sculpture of Milo!  This was no surprise, as last year at school, every creative writing assignment was about guinea pigs-until her teacher told her to choose a different subject.  And she has read every book in the library about guinea pigs!

 

On Friday, we took a field trip to one of the kids' favorite playgrounds, nicknamed "Chutes and Ladders" because of all it's long slides and climbing structures.  

On Saturday, we took the kids to a fishing clinic.  They practiced casting a line and had minnow races. Brett's first minnow was "sleeping", but his second minnow knew just what to do!