| We started off our summer in May with my precious neice Maycie's 1st birthday! Since I have the three boys, I enjoy every second with her. She is so sweet, and I finally get to buy girly, pink things for her! She had a beautiful day! |
The following weekend was Landen's 5th birthday party. It was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed! We had a nice afternoon that wasn't too hot and spent it in our backyard with our closest family members! | |
One thing we have enjoyed a handful of times in our community is our local water playground. It is AWESOME! The water depth is 2 feet, and it has a play place planted right in the middle of it with water spraying out, a tube slide and a tire swing. With our kids being the perfect age for this, they enjoy it so much. |
The boys and I enjoyed many beautiful days in our yard. Brian and I have worked so hard since we moved here to make our yard nice, and this is the first summer we have done absolutely nothing to it! We enjoyed it a lot. The boys have had a blast on the trampoline our cousin gave us! When I let them use the hose on it for the first time, Landen shouted, "Mom! This is the best day EVER!" | |
In June, we celebrated Father's Day for the entire weekend. Brian returned home from a trip on Friday, and because I can't wait for anything, we gave him his gifts that evening. Then Saturday his parents and siblings came to our house and we went out to eat and came home and had a cake and bonfire. On Sunday, we went to church, then met my parents in Michigan at a winery that was having a Corvette show and finished the day at Silver Beach Pizza in St. Joe, MI. We let the kids play in the GIANT splash pad before heading home. It was a great weekend! | |
We made it to the beach once this summer. It was quite an adventure that day. To make a long story short, we stupidly decided to go at the last minute on a weekend. BAD IDEA! I spent way to many hours in a car that day, but in the end, we made some memories, and soaked up some excellent late afternoon sun on the lake! It was also Mr. Gavin's first time to the beach, and he loved it! | |
For the Fourth of July, we took the boys to the annual parade in my parents hometown. It's pretty much emergency vehicles, tractors and hot rods, so the boys think it's pretty cool. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at my parents house with my family.
| The following weekend we were back there again to celebrate my mom's birthday. The weather was warm, and the kids had a great time swimming! |
Two weeks later, it was time for a family reunion. It had been 12 years since our last family reunion, so my cousins and I worked together to pull it together with the help of other family. We had an excellent turn out, and enjoyed lots of food and wonderful weather. | |
| At the end of July, our families came together at our house for yet another birthday. Mr. Nolan turned 3! He requested a car themed party. Specifically not Lightning McQueen, just cars. So we did just that. He received some new matchbox and hot wheels cars as well as the little tikes cozy coupe and truck! He is our vehicle specialist of the house, so he was in 7th heaven! The day we celebrated Nolan's birthday was also my Grandmother's 93rd birthday. We could not let that squeak by unnoticed. We had a cake for her and let her blow out some candles. I knocked 10 years off because I had an 8 and a 3 candle. Hey...she looks like she is 83! |
In our hometown, the county fair was taking place, so we decided we better get our boys over there. We quickly realized that we have city kids. Even though I didn't grow up on a farm, as a kid, my grandparents had cattle and chickens. Friends of mine grew up on farms, so livestock was something I was always familiar with. Brian and I were raised in a very rural community, so there were farms all around. Our boys were terrified by the animals. Gavin, not so much. He was attached to me in our Ergo carrier, so I think he felt safe....but the other two weren't so comfortable with their surroundings. We took them through the cattle barn first. Nolan was in the stroller, which didn't help the situation. He couldn't hold our hand and was looking up at these huge animals that he had only seen in books. He was freaking out and crying with every moo as if the cows were going to stampede at any moment. Landen had a grip on my hand so tight and just stayed very close to me and didn't say much. Brian and I were terrible parents and laughing! We then took them to the swine barn. This was just as bad. There was one pin of pigs that were making so much noise, it was like a pig alarm going off. Landen and Nolan didn't know what to think. |
We finished off our summer with a vacation to Wisconsin Dells that included my husbands side of the family. It had a rocky start with some terrible traffic and a realization that poor Landen had broken his arm the day before we left, but that didn't stop him from having a good time while we were there. One of the days my in-laws rented a pontoon boat for a few hours, and we all enjoyed it a lot. It's so nice being out on the water. We dropped anchor at one point and Brian and his siblings jumped in the lake and raced around the boat a couple times. Nolan got in but didn't last long. I enjoyed my dry spot on board while soaking up some sun! We also took the kids mini-golfing a couple times. It was their first time and they thought it was so much fun! We took the Original Wisconsin Dells Ducks tour. It was pretty cool and the boys thought it was awesome. Gavin was so relaxed he took the best nap he had all week in Brian's arms as we rode along. After leaving Wisconsin, we stopped to visit our dear friends, the Lied's in Illanois. We miss them so much and enjoy every second we get to spend with them! The kids had a blast playing with their daughter, Lydia! It's tough to say goodbye at the end of our visits! Lucky for us we got to see them again at the end of August! | |