All Summer Long.........The Abridged Version

I'm trying to journal this summer in a nutshell. We had a great time and wish it could have lasted so much longer. Summer started out cool and rainy.........Yum. We love the rain.

We braved the pool this again this year, choosing not to learn from our mistakes. Happy days....lots of playing shark but no CRYPTO!!! There is nothing like 3 weeks of stomach cramps plus the runs to make you afraid of the water.

Jack and Mad played coach pitch. I really think Mads did it to get the snacks at the end of the game.

Max and Mad washing all of our play food and dishes. Wouldn't it be swell if they did the REAL dishes?

We made tons of progress on the house over the summer; stucco, stone, drywall, texture, paint, doors, cement. We are now getting ready to order the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and put in the tile floors.

Jack and Mads took Coppa fishing for Father's Day. They had a ton of fun and even stopped on the island in the lake to eat lunch and explore. We also had fun fishing and camping (I have no idea what happened to the pictures).

Max turned one in July. He had the tasties Horsey cake and made a fantastic mess. We partied with all of our loved ones. Handsome Schmandsome!

As soon as the party ended we headed up to a Bees game. We sat right at Home Plate. The kids got batting helmets and autographs from Bumble. Max and I were sicker than dogs with really high fevers, but we still managed to have fun. I don't want to say that I enjoy having my baby sick, but I'm not sure if he were in tip top shape, that we would have made it through the whole game. Right after we headed to our home away from home and partied the rest of the weekend away with family and a baby blessing.

Kangaroo Zoo. Yes, we were evil enough to let him go down this long slide alone. He was mortified.

One of 16 doggie pee stains on my NEW subfloor and walls. Yum. Too bad I wanted to be a doctor, not a vet when I grow up. I prefer human to animal ANYTHING any day. Oh wait, I did find human pee in there too. Lesson: Don't touch full soda bottles left around your sewerless construction site. Don't leave any entrances unguarded when there are 42 mangy mutts in the neighborhood vying for territory.

Max and Mads hit the trails. Max loves to ride in all of our motorized toys. He begs to go out and ride around. We did find that he doesn't like the REAL ones though. Too loud.

We also did mongo loads of laundry. The kids really get sick of the daily grind. The always want to have events happening. Why take time off to do chores when you can swim, go to the park, do crafts, travel.....................clean clothes are over rated in a childs mind.

We made various jams and syrups this year. We also tried out new tasty dinner recipes. The kids love to cook. Max is always ready to help with dishes after. He loves to sit on his Pirate Parrot perch (aka my left arm) and kick his feet in the dish water.

Kids Day at the Fairgrounds Mads and Ri tried the climbing wall. It was at that moment my camera battery died. All of the kids fished (they were the only ones there catching walleye), got BACA tattoos, looked at farm animals and bounced on all of the bouncy houses.

Makeup!! Oh how we love to do hair and makeup. I saved you the pain of seeing what I looked like after my makeover. It was something akin to a streetwalker in a morgue.