A Summer of Fun!

A few pictures that show all the little things that don't fit anywhere else!

In Poznan, I found these cute little bee hair ties, so I bought Juliet all the colors.  Her favorite is the blue!

Grace was really into tic tac before we left, so when I saw interesting tic tac sizes, I bought them for her.  She was quite excited and put them all in order.

I read that if you lay white towels out on the lawn, the peroxide released by the plants will help to whiten them.  While I was skeptical, and did not research the science behind it, I did take a before and after picture.  I attempted to take it at the same time of day as well, but didn't notice much in the way of improvement.  It actually kind of looked dirtier, which is not much of a surprise, since it had been outside for several days.  My personal conclusion: lawn bleaching is ineffective.

I've been to Leslie more in the past month than I have been since Billy and I were house hunting!  Emily's new friend Emma lives there, so I foresee many more trips!  I saw this cool historical flag in their downtown, and sent a picture to Billy because it reminded me of Fallout.

Grace cleaned her bed, and I thought this was a cool shot!

Have I already shared the single Haribo in the bag? Well, here it is again.  Billy found it on our camping trip.  He found it remarkable, because most of the packs had 4+ in them.  But not this one!

Grace and I went to the library to claim our prizes for summer reading, while Emily helped Avia with some cleaning.  She found this huge popper!

We walked down the center a few store fronts and found some egg plants, that actually looked like eggs!!!  We didn't get much, just a little cookie snack.

Scooby Doo day felt so forced this year.  I think I moved it three or four times, and finally had it, just to get it off the calendar, and get the box out of our house!  If next summer feels the same, our Scooby Doo celebrations might be at an end.

Kristy was selling these adorable honey packs at the girl scout yard sale, and the girls and I couldn't get over how adorable they were!  We finished the honey in just a couple of days. = )

We got to celebrate Avia a second time, in St. Louis and on her actual birthday this year!!!

Avia bought Aunt Janet a special shirt to wear on her birthday!  It says "Aunt of the Birthday Girl!" Perfect, right?

Grace loved having Aunt Janet here!  

On the Fourth of July, we were able to see some fireworks from our porch again this year!

Since I had a smore fail on our camping trip, I promised Grace backyard smores once all the camping stuff was cleaned and put away.  She was very patient, and the day did eventually come!

With Emily gone with Abby's family, I think William was the only other one who came to cook with us!

The sunset made the trees look like they were on fire!

Once day, I opened up the back of my car and found the car toy holder back there.  When I asked the kids about it, they casually said that they no longer needed the toys in the car and that I could get rid of it.  ::sniff:: ::sniff:: = (  I remember buying this, new, at a friend's Thirty-one party in Houston, just a couple of years ago.   So sad.  I hope someone new can use it and love it as much as we did!

We went to this ice cream shop so many times this summer, that I could have sworn that I'd already written about this (and maybe I have, I didn't actually go back and look.)  But, Grace won the ice cream creating contest from her school last year.  The ice cream shop will donate $1 for each one that they sell to the PTO of that child's school.  It took 4 trips, but we finally saw her creation in the window, and spent her gift card, all in one foul swoop.  There's no such thing as free ice cream!

The fireflies were extra this summer, for at least a few weeks!  Grace even 'caught' one.

We did our best to keep up on our Latin, but it was a busy summer, so we didn't fit much in.  However, this is one of our Latin days.  It totally makes me miss homeschooling!

Emily's end of Summer trip up North with Emma!

Emily's Fourth of July trip with Abby's family!  I told her that she needs to make some dedicated posts, because I wasn't there, but she's kind of busy to make that happen, I suppose.

I snagged this photo from Jennifer.  The girls class went out for ice cream at the local ice cream shop at the end of the year. I can't imagine what I was doing that day that I didn't go and take my own pictures, but here is a picture of Juliet, Kennedy, and Natalie!

It's day 2 of school for my dear ones, and I'm still not quite ready to let go of summer!  We have some fun plans for this weekend and Labor Day and most of September, so I guess I'll get over it soon.

later days

Around these Parts: June

Before Avia left for Texas, she took us all out for ice cream!   The largest table indoors only fits six, so Alice and I shared a small table.  She was playing with the salt and pepper shakers, and Billy was collecting Salt and Pepper in his game, so I sent him a picture. =  )  It was chilly inside, so once our ice cream was served, we moved outside to one of the covered tables.

We watched the slow, sad, demolition of Dimondale Elementary as we knew it.

My mom also treated us to cookies at the MSU bakery store one day when we were out thrifting, we were at the free porch at the recycling center.  Poor Alice was still in school, and William was at camp so it was just EGJ.

Emily and I both wanted to try the spartan cookie and the M&M cookie, so we split both of them!  The M&M was way better, for the record.

After dropping the twins off at Zoey's one day, Emily and I went to a garage sale.  They were very organized, and had a ton of stuff, and were not overly expensive!  We found four restaurant cups for my mom.  I was super excited.

Instead of going home, we decided to 'explore' Eaton Rapids.  Surprisingly, I'd been to most of the independent establishments there, which I suppose may not be all that surprising, as Darb's was the first place in all of Michigan that I ever ate.

Anyhow, we decided to get something light at MooVille, but it turns out, they only serve ice cream, so we ended up at the Mexican restaurant across the street.

Emily created a water bubble in the table.

We split this colorful burrito, and ate it all, it was quite tasty!  I felt a little bit guilty eating at a Mexican restaurant without Billy, but we went out that weekend, so it was not as harsh to 'come clean' while we were out together. = )

After lunch we explored the park, and saw ducks with their ducklings!  The river is still flowing North, btw.

Once we regained our dessert appetite, we did finally go get MooVille.  We brought home a gallon of chocolate milk, which was much appreciated by everyone. = )

Grace's Yard Sale and Lemonade stand overlapped with the Oldsmobile car show again, but we had several rounds of rain, and kept having to move our tables into the shed.  

She found some chalk in the chest that a spider had inadvertently woven together in it's web.

William was super helpful setting up, and showing off the merchandise. lol.

Since we sold so very little on day one, I conceded to a second day, and we just moved the tables under the carport so that we could walk down to the car show.

The next day was a much prettier day, but nowhere near as much traffic!  We did sell quite a bit, at 25¢ each, but a bunch went out to the curb!

Not as much went for free, from the curb, as I would have hoped, but it did all still fit in my car in a single trip to the thrift store, even with the whole family in the car, so my record remains intact!

I scanned the books that didn't sell to see if sell your books would buy them, and there were enough to pass their minimum, so after boxing them up, I made the trip to FedEx, and stopped in for a campfire latte, to get into the camping mood, of course. ; )  I would not recommend, because I didn't like the crumbled up graham cracker garnish, but otherwise it wasn't bad.

My mom gave me a Scooby-doo colored tub that they were clearing out, so now our Scooby Doo things have a new home!!

My mom also cleaned out some rolls that she wouldn't be able to eat before she left.  One of the rolls was pumpernickel, so naturally I bought some brie to go with it, and it was quite tasty!  Emily was also a big fan, and I ended up making her a round every time I made one for myself, knowing that I would have to share.

Summer food is so colorful! Look at this beautiful assortment. = )  

And tonight, we headed to Fazoli's to support Emily's color guard fundraiser!  Everyone enjoyed the food, and we left with another doggie bag full of food.  The gentleman at the counter was super helpful, since three of them ordered a slice of pizza, he changed it over to a whole pizza, to help us save some money!  This Fazoli's is way better than the one near our Houston house.  On the way out Emily did recognize someone!

June has been really pleasant, exciting, eventful, and finally felt like summer by the end.  Next up: July!

later days