June Summer Fun

We built a campfire and had s'mores.

The kids worked really hard on making their own South Dakota scrapbooks.  They chose their own photos, cropped them, journaled, and decorated pages to document the trip.  They both really, really enjoyed it and did an amazing job!

 Simon fell on his scooter and split his lip.  It was very painful and he didn't eat or drink anything for hours after it happened.  It was pretty remarkable because he somehow figured out a way to talk like a ventriloquist, without moving his mouth AT ALL.  Though it was sad to see little buddy in pain, a great blessing happened as a result of his injury...He weaned himself from his nuk!! His mouth hurt too much to take it for a couple of nights, so I hid the rest of the nuks.  Several days later, he asked about them once or twice and I told him they were gone and he barely reacted.  I was so shocked!  It does seem like every time I worry about how a transition will go, it always ends up being way easier than I expected!

A mama and her babies crossed in front of our car on Hilltop Road.

We like to go thrifting and Simon found this hilarious lobster at Good Will.

I taught Nolan how to drive the lawnmower.  No blades yet, but he did great!

We set the pool up and the kids were so excited to be able to go swimming!

We're trying to help Nolan gain some confidence in learning to ride a bigger bike since he has majorly outgrown his other one.  He is still a little nervous on the bigger one, but I know he will keep improving!

We had a great time celebrating Owen's birthday.  They played in the sprinklers, threw water balloons, and enjoyed cake and pizza on a beautiful summer day! We're so thankful for our friends!!

With no nuk and no diapers, all of a sudden our baby Simon is such a big boy!  I don't know if I'm ready!

Olivia was lying in bed trying to get to sleep when she hollered, "Mom, there's a bear in our yard!"  I hurried to the back window, and sure enough! There was a HUGE black bear ambling through our backyard.  He turned through Chris' yard and came to the front, crossing the road and heading off into the woods.  I haven't seen a bear in years, so it was very exciting, and maybe a teeny bit unsettling to see a creature so big living so close to our house!

Patti's peonies are absolutely stunning this time of year.

Simon and Liv loved their new tie-dye shirts that Grandma got for them at Art in the Park this summer!

We enjoyed our first ride on the pontoon.  It is always such a welcome treat to get back on the water.  

Strawberry Picking

Patti and I took the kids to Tomahawk Berry Farm for some strawberry picking.  The berries were big and beautiful and there were tons of them.  However, our kids were not exactly "go-getters" in the berry picking department, and spent most of their time waiting for Grandma Patti and I to fill the flats.  Regardless, we were able to get three beautiful flats of berries to share with some of our family members and enjoy in lots of ways - desserts, jam, and of course, fresh.  It's a fun summer tradition and I look forward to those delicious berries every year!

Potty Training

 I've been dreading potty training Simon for a while now.  I kept envisioning power struggle after power struggle, trying to convince my super independent little tot that pooping in the potty is better than a diaper.  The other morning, however, something magical happened.  We had just finished breakfast and for some reason Simon took off his pajama pants and his diaper.  Nolan was being sassy, so I was taking a minute to deal with that before I got Simon dressed for the day.  All of a sudden, Simon yelled, "I have to pooooooop!!!" I asked him if he wanted to try to go on his Elmo potty and he agreed and I put him on there and seconds later he pooped!  I couldn't believe it, and I think he was pretty shocked as well!  We celebrated big time and I told him we would have a potty party because he was a big boy now and didn't need to wear diapers.  He was so proud.  A little later I had him go in the bathroom with Nolan who showed him how to pee in the potty.  He idolizes Nolan so much, that it wasn't long before they were peeing side by side - Nolan in the toilet and Simon into his Elmo potty.  I gave him a sticker and he was thrilled, so proud of his success.  After that he didn't have many accidents, even in the following days.  He went straight to wearing underwear and going both pee and poop in the potty!  I couldn't believe it!!  His siblings made him a chocolate cake and I decorated it with a little potty figurine we had laying around. They also made celebratory posters.  I particularly love this one of the dinosaurs pooping.   I absolutely can't believe this was so easy (I guess he kind of owed us one...) and I'm so proud of my little-big boy!!

Blue Ox Festival

The Blue Ox Music Festival is a bluegrass music festival in Eau Claire, and when we saw that the Okee Dokee Brothers were going to be playing, we had to buy tickets!  The weather was super iffy and it was threatening to rain on and off all day, so we packed all our rain gear.  However, when we got there, there was no rain in sight and it was just unbelievably hot and humid.  We baked, but enjoyed singing and dancing along to many of our favorite Okee Dokee Brothers songs.  We even got to meet Joe and Justin (again) after the show.  We had emailed them beforehand, sending them some illustrations we did to one of their songs, and it was fun to chat with them and share how much their music has meant to us.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around Grandma's and Grandpa's...riding horse, swinging, cruising in the golf cart.  It was so nice to have a nice chunk of time together.  We always treasure making memories with some of our favorite people!