July 25

One of the amazing benefits of Ken’s job is that he can work mad and crazy hours for the week and then take a day off to spend with his family during the week! This Thursday was one of those lucky days. So we packed the kids up, ran a few errands and then… afternoon complete with picnic at another lake! So much fun!!

We stopped off at Lakeshore to get one of those listening phones (the red thing in Echo’s hand) so that the kids can do their spelling and reading while listening to themselves.

I wish the camera had caught this butterfly better… there were a bunch of them when we got there and they pretty much glowed!

This is one of the more “pool than lake” lakes that is maintained, cleaned complete with lifeguards!

We swung by Dollar Tree for shovels and buckets… 1.00 for the sets it was more than enough that most lasted through the entire trip out.

Quite the pool they built together

It started to rain right when we left

Played out

After a busy day in the sun we headed home to enjoy dinner out with Nana and Baba at Old Country Buffet! Yummy and fun with cotton candy as well! Some days it is just nice to have a day… a day together!

So much yummy food! Thank you Nana and Baba!!!

After dinner we all went for a neighbourhood walk. Gotta burn off some of those calories!!!

I love the colours of summer!

Add in some nice sand and beautiful water and who can complain?

July 21-24

After such a wonderful package coming in the mail from Gammie, is it any wonder that life right now is like a daily fashion show? The girls are loving their new pieces…

Limping or not Ken is loving his time with the kids in the playset HE built!

And then the kids brought our their little kits they bought at Lakshore (2.00 a piece!) to get  their dig on. Zander loves the gems and the other two boys are in love with digging their own dinosaur bones.

We had some mad growth with our beans and some spare time in the evening with Ken not playing soccer it was time to pot our beans. We kept our best of the littles’ beans in a pot on the table in the kitchen (remember the sunflower attempt?) and the rest in a large pot in the front yard.

The most excitement was truly in the watering!

Back to our half days with some fun in the sun thrown in. Funny how focused the kids can get with the help of a 2.00 toy!

Zander recording his findings.

On Tuesday it was time to learn about FRANCE thanks to Little Passports. I added in two books – Around the World, Let’s Visit France by Susie Brooks and France by Liz Sonneborn for Emanuel to look through for fun and of course went to Activity Village (link on right) for printable book marks and a map.

We had time for fun in the sun, both art and bringing out the bubble maker for another go with the homemade bubbles (interesting but NOT the same as their brand… yet).

With the next day just a morning of learning.

All in all a successful few days! Summer in Minnesota is certainly treating us well!

July 19-20

One week after planting our beans are AMAZING! Though I am told one set should be bushier. The twins are working together on their charts and the little ones are doing theirs in their nature journals. I think it is time to pot them!

We really got into the manipulatives… those math cubes and pieces are just too much fun for everyone.

Gavin has pulled out his sewing and started a new, smaller project. We are working on getting him going again to make a few gifts to send to loved ones up north. He wants them to have something to remember him by!

Of course, after lunch what is more fun than getting BACK into the pool??? Dirty as it was!

Our Saturday was a special one – Ken agreed to (since he has been injured and limping even not able to drive for so long post soccer injury) take the whole day and just run our errands. So we packed up our list, a picnic lunch, swim suits (just in case), the kids and got out and about.

First to the quick errands and then to Lakeshore in time for the craft of the week – making foam visors!!!

A few more errands and then time for a lake… well RIVER leading into a lake we could SEE… picnic. Lots of running around for the kids…

And finally, the unveiling of the new shoes! I do so love the style!

Emanuel made sure to draw his picture for the tooth fairy requesting a dinosaur item.

I did rather well with my shopping… I got some lovely workbooks from Target for 1.00 a piece and a relevant to the next big focus (lions) Magic Treehouse book… our first! (that was a used bookstore find)

It was an excellent day spent as a family out and about!