Well, my goal of making my blog up to date BEFORE the end of January was a bit of a miss! But, amazingly enough, I have posted more than 2000 blog posts since I began this site! What a stretch! But then again, I have enjoyed pretty much every addition to it.

Now that I have posted June it is time to look at July… Canada Day, Independence Day… we manage both sides of the coin this month. You can see our Canada Day finery HERE and Independence Day HERE. We were spoiled with also spending a portion of cousin Gabbi’s birthday with her since it too is on July 4th and their vacation had stretched to meet the date.

We had amazing Pad Thai dinner with the Schwartz family… which also included time with the always entertaining Mystro (cue Echo asking ONCE AGAIN when we will get a cat, even the pictures set her off lately!).

We had an awesome time at Aidan’s Lego themed birthday party. Darcy went all out with the theme and Emanuel was over the moon to see at least one of his scouting buddies when they were not in session.

I wish I had the talent Darcy has with cakes. I am honestly more of a go to Target and order a cake kinda girl lately.

July was also when Grandpa Mike made his bike trip up through Minnesota. We got a whole afternoon/evening with him (minus swimming lessons). The kids were over the moon with the visit.

On the phone with Grandma

Showing him the nearby park (Echo was napping)

He even took us out to Wendy’s for dinner! It was the longest we ever sat there and one of the most enjoyable ever.

Sadly he had to bike on earlier than expected the next day when he got news of a need to visit family up in Ontario. But it was a good visit and the kids still remember it fondly.

We had plenty of time for learning and school in July with cousins back home and the weather rather fine.

Gavin is working on his art skills

Wild Kratts: fossa

Miss Echo was a laugh and a half most of the time.

But we made LOTS of time for the pool. And in turn my sewing time. After all, sunshine, warm weather and a pool in the yard… why stay inside?

Towards the end of July we were able to also make it to Alex’s birthday. Another awesome day, though we had to leave early to make it to YMCA lessons (did I ever get a lecture from the kids for that one!).

We lucked out with weather and free time and managed to meet up with the Novaks at one of their local splash pads. It is easier each year to go out and just relax, what with the older Novak boys and our own kids being older. A lot less micro managing. It is nice!

Multiple visits with the Novaks and the Schwartz family were experienced in July. Poor Trinity, so many boys!!!

Extra bonus – visit with Alicia and Cousin Robbie. She is off to university in the fall!!

We rounded out the month with swimming lessons. I am so pleased with how well all of our kids are doing. We are going to end up with little fishes very soon!!!

And of course continued our archery, cooking and running classes at the YMCA thanks to Nana and Baba!

So really July was an exercise in making the most of fun in the sun! We didn’t do half bad did we???

Way too many good pictures to share in June so sit back and enjoy reliving some of our summer during the January chill. You can read June’s original post HERE.

Journal filled!

She should appreciate the simplicity of her name… poor Emanuel had it rough at her age!

Look where our friends and family visited in Mexico!

Flowers from Gammie’s garden

Bunny!

Tea time with cousins

Sleepover in the basement!

Gaming!

Jeffrey!

Go Nathan!

Mall of America!

Matching outfits from Nana!

Post game Anthony

Ken and Andrew

So proud of these legible signatures!

Baking with Nana

Fairy

Learning a necessary life skill!

Splash pad with the Schwartz boys

Hanging with Aidan

Gardening with Nana

Baby birds in Emanuel’s bird house

Heron!

Helping Baba

Scouts at the Firestation!

Fish in the making

A little slow on the post but with Renee’s support (and ride to drop the items off) Emanuel and I entered our very first County Fair (well American one, I remember entering a fair way back in 4H as a child…). The Anoka County Fair. Very exciting. I entered 7 pieces and Emanuel one. There was no fee for entry (just if you wanted to come and see your entries while the fair was going on… we didn’t) and small cash prizes for placing. 

We didn’t expect much and were over the moon when Renee reported back that it looked like we had received some ribbons! In fact, what we thought was a participation ribbon for Emanuel’s was in reality THIRD PLACE !!! He did a unique creation… a Lego version of the Minecraft zombie villager. So very proud!!!

Yours truly entered (as I mentioned) 7 items, out of the 7 SIX placed either first or second in their categories! The only piece that didn’t place was my baby hat with beard and I threw that one in more because it was in my store and on hand than anything else! 

Now for the pieces that DID place! I have to give design credit for TWO of my first place ribbons – Rapunzel and the zebra were both designed by Kristen’s Kords. I love her designs and have had the great privilege to test many of her pieces. You HAVE TO check out her Etsy store… she also sells the amigurumi she makes herself there HERE.

My other two first place items are both up for sale CURRENTLY in my Etsy store! I was rather surprised that my baby sweater DID get such a high ranking, it is a relatively simple pattern. Ken says it was the adorable buttons… and the comments on the back of the card DID state that they WERE adorable! (Of course HE chose the buttons) The other is my lamb bag that I made a few months back as part of my stash buster attempt (successful I might add). I have multiple bags up for sale with differing flower colours. It was fun to make and I actually really love the final look! You can find the items for sale HERE and HERE. 

And now for my two second place pieces! First off my Blue, White and Red Granny Square. This was a bit of a surprise to me, a very simple single granny with colour changes. Though there was a suggestion to switch to a smaller hook size midway to keep the square shape more square that I need to research further (I actually like the pulled look. It looks almost 3D when stretched out). The other was a surprise to me as well – my dragon scarf… I have one up for sale in my store as well HERE and have made multiple versions of this. This particular scarf was Ken’s Christmas present last year! With how many scarves entered coming in second was certainly a bit of a surprise! Anyway those are my placers… next year I plan to enter more things!! Just… gotta think of them first…