Summer Continues

It continues to be a hot summer for us this year.  I find that it takes us indoors or to water more frequently.  Regardless, we have been enjoying every minute of it, and denying anyone saying that summer is almost over.  (I may or may not have purchased Olivia's back to school supplies already, but that's besides the point.)  Here's a snapshot at what we've been up to lately:

I took the kids to Cedar Lake Farm beach once myself, and was proud of my juggling act I was able to perform to get both kids and myself out of the sand without much sand on us at all.  Olivia enjoyed building sandcastles, a "river", and wading in the water.  Henry kept busy finding rocks to put in his bucket.  It was such a perfect day we decided to bring Daddy there the next evening for a picnic and play time.  Unfortunately loud naughty boys (the swearing kind) ruined our fun.  We ate and hi-tailed it out of there and to my parents' place to swim instead. 

One Sunday the kids and I traveled to Pat's family's birthday celebration.  (Pat had to work unfortunately.)  While there was plenty of fun swimming and playing with cousins, being a single mom for the day I was only able to capture this one picture of Henry getting fed cake.  Two forks coming his way in this photo.  I think he had five people feeding him birthday cake and one point or another.  Way to work the crowd little dude.

We spent last Saturday hanging out with Grandma and Papa Clark.  We went for ice cream at Two Scoops, and just hung out for the afternoon and grilled steaks for dinner.  Olivia likes their riding toys, but needs a little practice with steering!  Their neighbors have egg laying chickens, so we visited them, fed them raspberries right out of our hands, and even held them!  Henry points at everything these days.  When he was pointing at a chicken, it pecked at his finger.  He wasn't such a fan of them after that.

This past Wednesday we took Pat's day home with us to attend the Scott County Fair.  It was a little abnormal from recent years since we went as a family (normally it's just me and the kids), and we went on opening day.  Some things were still rolling in (like some of the draft horses), but there was still plenty to see.  Plus the weather was perfect, and the crowds were less than normal.  We checked out machinery hill, the playground, 4-H building, animal barns, grabbed some lunch, and quickly flew threw a commercial building.  You could tell it was early in the fair because all the vendors were quick to approach us.  I'm guessing their assertiveness fizzles out as the fair goes on.  We ended with time playing in the large sandbox.  Our kids were the first to play in it, and could have stayed there all afternoon. 

Thursday I took the kids to the MN Zoo.  I was lucky enough to snag free passes from the library.  I didn't have high hopes for how long we'd stay since we left right in the morning and would be barreling through Henry's morning nap, but the kids did great and we lasted a full four hours!  It allowed us to see almost every bit of the zoo!  Favorite parts included the penguins (since one was showing off and swimming along the glass), seeing the day old baby piggies, cooling off in the splash pad, and the butterfly garden.  Mama got a great workout pushing the sit-stand stroller, we enjoyed the cooler temps, and long afternoon naps after all the excitement!

I keep getting those reminders that summer is nearing an end, but we're soaking up every last bit of it!  Things still to look forward to:  play dates, Olympics, cabin trips, pool parties, t-ball, church festivals, gymnastics...  Plenty of summer left, if you ask me!