End of Summer

We've been having lots of fun the past month. A couple days before school started we spent a morning picking berries at McBrides. The kids always love it so much, it's been a fun tradition. We used them to make jam later on.

The older kids had a sleepover at Mamie's with cousins. They had been looking forward to this for a long time.

Violet goes to the ice rink a couple times a week to practice. This day there was only one other person on the ice besides Violet. She thought it was great!

Violet left this note in her tooth bag (with her tooth) under her pillow for the tooth fairy. Guess money isn't enough anymore?

"Tooth fairy, please give me all kinds of powers."

Brad and Kami invited us to their cabin their building on Labor Day. The kids loved exploring and riding the four-wheeler.

We're excited for school to start!

Making Progress

One good thing about this whole social distancing thing is that it provided small class sizes for swim lessons!

The older kids made great strides this year. This was Ginger's first time in swim lessons and she LOVED it so much! She didn't pass to the next level (Preschool 1, ha), but as long as she had fun I'm okay with that.

But she is making good progress on her sight words!

Violet's ice skating classes started up again. She's been able to get lots of practice in this summer.

It's so weird to have to wear a coat in the chilly rink and then come outside to 100 degree weather!

Jaxon planned a "circus" for the Talbot cousins. He included this homemade pinata made from nothing more than paper and staples, and paint for decoration. I have to admit, I was worried this would be one of those, "Oh, he's putting so much hard work into this, but I'm afraid it's not going to turn out and he'll be so disappointed!" kind of thing. But it actually went through 2 kids before the third one cracked it open!

 

He also loves helping Travis fix and build things.

And this one is crawling all over the place.

Book Worm

 We let our kids read themselves to sleep every night, but that isn't nearly enough for Violet.

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That's okay, we'll check out even more next time!

Glimpses of Summer

This is a semi photo dump of what we've been up to this summer.

Feeding the ducks

Hadas de limpiar
(cleaning fairies- they surprise me and clean something up. I love it when this happens)

Fathers Day

We love this tree

Silly with cousins

We definitely need a pool upgrade, but with the virus everybody had bought them up and we couldn't find one that was worth the crazy inflated price. I was sooooo grateful we still had our kiddie pool.

Violet: "Look mom, they're listening to the prophet!"

Jaxon loves playing with the hose and trying to make fountains and dams with bricks.

Fourth of July

Picnics and splash pads

Ginger has always loved meat. For her, Tucanos=Heaven.

Violet and Ginger's cards to Travis for his birthday. Even though Violet can read, she still insisted it was the prettiest card for daddy.

The girls love to dance as Travis plays the piano.

Ginger's developed a slight obsession with mail and making letters to send. I'm sure our mailman is so confused by the things she leaves in there.

She tends to be the moody one of the bunch, even while celebrating the 24th of July.

I told her to smile. Didn't feel like it.

This summer has definitely been different than years past, but we still had just as much fun!

Staycation

This summer has been a little tricky as far as planning an actual vacation. We may still plan something, but for now we're sticking close to home. But that doesn't mean we have to be home. :)

On Memorial Day we hiked the Y. The kids have been wanting to do it for some time now. I was a little nervous how Ginger would do but she kept going!

It was the perfect weather, too. We're talking in the 60's. If we hadn't been hiking we would have been cold.

It was so green!

In June the Wendels invited us to the lake with them. We enjoyed a ride on their boat and had fun playing with cousins and flying Violet's kite.

In July Chad and Wendi were also able to visit with their kids. We met up at the sand dunes and enjoyed a couple hours in the sand and sun. I'm sure my kids had never seen so much sand in one place before! I'm so glad the Andersons gave us a year's worth of free car washes (and vacuuming! :))

The next month before school is still uncertain as far as vacation plans but we're having lots of fun despite the restrictions and being cautious. It's good to know we have lots of options close by, and it's no big deal if we have to wait till fall break to get away (crossing fingers!). ;)

Violet's First Haircut

After 6 years, Violet finally got her first haircut (real haircut, that time she cut her own bangs doesn't count). She donated about...somewhere over 12 inches of hair.

She was just fine getting it cut. A year ago she cried at the thought, but by spring she was ready. In fact she really didn't think it was a big deal and couldn't figure out why everyone kept asking about her hair.

Me, on the other hand- my heart cried a tiny bit when the scissors made their first cut.  I think it was just because her hair identified her so much. But I'm relieved I don't have to spend so much time braiding her hair everyday, and she likes being able to comb through her own hair and leave it down if she wants to. I felt her hair was being hidden for so long because we could never leave it down (holy tangles!). And it still has some length to it, so this feels just right. But I will always remember my hairy baby.

10 months