Party!

Owen's friend Adam had a birthday party and it's a big enough affair that we all joined in! We went last year too! Paige's friend Mikayla was there and of course Owen knew a ton of kids so everyone had someone to hang out with. They had an inflatable slip n slide again too! Eventually we had to leave to get ourselves to another party but we brought Owen back later to finish out the night there with a sleepover!

In the "shower"

Water balloon fight!

Adam's mom sent me this picture of all the boys that slept over eating breakfast!

Cookout!

A friend had a few families over to celebrate the start of dance season so the kids got to enjoy good food, jumping on the trampoline and some water balloon fights! Owen was the oldest but had no problem at all getting in the mix!

Dance Camp 1!

Paige finished up her first week of dance camp (2 more to go!) and loved it! The first week focused on tap, hip hop and acro so my guess is that will be her favorite one! The girls went 3 hours a day for 3 days and then got to show off what they learned on the last day. I love going to see her routine and I'm always impressed with how much they learn! They also got cake pops on the last day as a special dance company treat! After class on day 2, Paige and Miley went to Maeve's house and spent the night, then went to the last day of dance camp, then came back to our house, then went to a party together that night. It might have been the longest playdate ever!

The hard work is done!

The epic playdate continues...

CFC Camp!

Owen finished up his Akron camp on a Sunday and rolled right into CFC camp on Monday morning! I felt bad about the timing because Owen was exhausted already and the of course it was one of the hottest weeks of the summer. You could see waves of heat rolling off of the turf. The camp supplied plenty of ice and breaks in the shade and they ended the week with a pizza party to celebrate!

Soccer Camp!

Owen had so much fun at the Akron soccer camp last year that we told him he could do the overnight camp this year! You have to be 10 to attend so Owen was amongst the youngest of the campers but he roomed with his friend who attended the year before. We packed a ton of soccer socks and all the usual away-from-home stuff too and Owen threw in a bag of parade candy as well. The kids stayed in a really nice dorm that was right near the stadium and playing fields and the room even had its own bathroom! We were stayed around and chatted until Owen asked us to leave, eager to get started on his camp experience;) He played a ton of soccer, ate a bunch of junk food (and some good for you stuff too), and loved every moment of it! We came early on Sunday to watch him play in some games and then we stopped at Swensons for a bite to eat before we headed home!

Owen posing outside of his room!

Owen's roommate/friend, Jack, arrived!

I snuck in a quick hug before Owen kicked us out:)

Brother/sister photo

Selfie the boys sent from camp (Jack had a phone with him!)

Action shot!

Owen's coach, Barth! A lot of the people running the camp are current Akron players or coaches at Akron. Barth told Owen to come visit him at some games and make sure he said hi!

Two more coaches/players!

One more picture on the way out!

Swenson's! Everyone got burgers and fries but Paige chose a rootbeer milkshake that was excellent. Owen and I got chocolate!

Pat enjoyed his food too! The workers didn't stop running around the entire time we were there!

USA!

While Owen was away at camp (that post coming soon!), the US men's national soccer team came to town! Pat and I and a couple we're good friends with went to the game while their daughter and her friend watched Paige at home. We went downtown early so we would have time to park and grab some food because we weren't sure what kind of crowds we would be dealing with. Pat remembered a restaurant by the lake called Nuevo so we put our names down for a reservation and used the waiting time to check out the Cleveland sign and sit by the water. The food ended up being really yummy (although I was concerned my fish tacos weren't cooked completely enough and didn't end up eating all of it). After, we headed over to the soccer game where people were donning the most amazing patriotic gear! My favorite may have been the bald eagle mask. The game was really fun to watch too and even though they missed two penalty kicks, they ultimately won the game!

Finally got to see the Cleveland sign!

The four of us!

Corner kick!

Red, white, and blue smoke for the win!

Captain's Game

It's been awhile since we've been to see a Captain's game! Maybe 2013 was the last one? Lisa, Jamie and I chipped in to get Dad some tickets for Father's Day and he decided to bring all of us;) It was a hot, hot day and the seats were burning our legs so once we realized (ok, Pat and Owen figured it out) how much cooler the lawn seats across the stadium were, we decided to watch the rest of the game from there and it was a lot more pleasant!

Still in our seats! For now...

Hi Mom and Dad!

Pedaling to see how much energy it takes to light up different kinds of bulbs

Not easy!

Paige and Laney checking out the action from the outfield

Me and Dad!

Me and Mom! And those other people:)

Future Hero

Owen snagged a ball from a homerun but then graciously gave it up when a couple girls came looking for it to give to the batter's father 

Run the Bases! Owen was halfway through the line but sprinted past everyone to "win"

Love this picture!

The whole "crew"

Blueberries

This is our fifth annual blueberry-picking trip with the Bodenmillers! Here's 2013 and 2015 for comparison. It was raining but we decided to stick with the plan and it worked out because the kids decided the rain was washing the blueberries and that made them ready to eat! 1The kids are getting faster at finding the good blueberries so we had to cut them off at one point so we didn't go home with $50 worth of blueberries! The blueberries we picked are so good that we've mostly just been snacking on them but we did make one batch of blueberry pancakes!

Lake Walk!

We met up with the Joy family last week to catch up and let the kids get messy! Owen and Paige had swim lessons so they met us at the playground after and ran around until everyone was too hungry to play. After we ate some lunch we hiked around the lake and the kids threw things in the water, carried sticks around, found a frog (toad?) and a snail, etc. Shockingly, no one fell in the water:)

4th of July!

Our Independence Day started off with swim lessons! Owen is in level 5 this year and Paige is in level 3. Paige had a rough start with them...she was upset that she couldn't do everything they asked of her immediately but she's made such quick progress that her initial worries have disappeared and she enjoys going every day. Owen's doing great in level 5 too, they basically swim a bunch of different strokes for long periods of time and work on their dives! At the end of the class, the older levels get a chance to do any jump they want off of the diving board (see below)

Paige! 

Owen!

After swim lessons, we headed to my parent's house to visit and have a cookout! It was a beautiful day out so we spent a good amount of time outside playing or taking a walk.

Family picture in our patriotic colors!

A little cat's cradle

I made this 7 layer dip-my feelings are a little conflicted about it. It was pretty good but it was so heavy! I didn't feel like I could eat a lot of it and the leftovers weren't that great because the juiciness of the salsa ended up running everywhere! I would consider making it again but for a much bigger crowd.

After my parent's house, the Hall family joined us back at our house for a bit before we all walked up to go see the fireworks! The kids had plenty of treats that day but when the ice cream truck wandered down our street (finally!) we couldn't say no to some ice cream! We went to town a little early so the Hall's could check out the festival but it was so ridiculously crowded that we didn't really get to any games or rides or buy any food. We found a good spot to watch the fireworks from the playground and called it a night!

The kids have been waiting all summer for the ice cream truck!

The girls ended up loving the fireworks!

SaveSave

Parade

I love our town's Fourth of July parade! It's long and festive and the kids get a ton of candy. It's one of the times of year that reminds me how much we enjoy living here and being in a smaller town. We always know people in the parade and even just walking into town to get a seat we end up running into people we know. Owen chose to march with his baseball league this year so Pat, Paige and I joined some friends to watch while Owen did all the hard work;)

Ready for the parade!

Paige and friends

Pat was ready to collect candy too!

Fire trucks are always a big hit

We finally spotted Owen! Yay!