Two Wheeler! (+training wheels)

Paige has graduated from her tricycle to a two-wheeler! A friend's mom scouted out this bike at a garage sale and picked it up for us. It is a princess bike too, just what Paige was hoping for, so she was extra pleased by the whole thing. She wants to bike everywhere now and she's not too far away from doing that. I took her on a bike ride to her chosen location thinking I would have to put her in the bike seat on my bike and somehow sling her princess bike over my handlebars once she got tired but she made it the whole way there and back, no complaints. It was a pretty timely purchase too because it gave the kids a chance to play Tour de France in the driveway.

Swimming Lessons!

I'm going to go ahead and post about things after they're done...the kids took swim lessons five days a week for two weeks and it was really fun watching how quickly they improved. Owen benefited more from the instruction than Paige (more on that in a bit) and learned actual strokes and gained a lot of confidence. On the first day, Paige was totally devastated (tears, etc.) that I wasn't going to be in the pool with her and so was separated into the half of the class that didn't have much swimming skills. It was a shame because she's actually very confident swimmer when we go to the pool just for fun. On the other hand, she made such progress on the whole separation issue that I wasn't disappointed at all but just as proud of her as I was of Owen! They both got something important out of the class and I think I got a little glimpse into what it's going to be like dropping Paige off at preschool in September...

Kids

We had to say goodbye to some dear friends over the weekend. There was a great send-off party involved but for now I'm just posting a picture of the kids from a play-date earlier in the week. I thought maybe the kids weren't understanding the full impact of the move but Paige looked at me sadly yesterday and told me she didn't want them to leave and it was a little heartbreaking. We're going to miss them like crazy but I'm feeling good about the fact that we've already figured out how to meet halfway and they'll be coming back to visit regularly. 

Tall Ships!

We decided to try something new and go see the Tall Ships that were downtown. We didn't know quite what to expect and we were a little disappointed. This is not really an activity for a 3 and 6 year old...The ships were fun to see but you had to wait in extremely long lines to get on board. We ended up only waiting in line for one and then got some kettle corn on the way out to soften our disappointment. There was one fun thing that happened while we were there- a Bay City newspaper photographer took a picture of Paige and me for her website/paper and I found it online later that night (it's the last picture in this post).

Goggles!

Finally!

My usual rule for the ice cream truck is the first time it passes our house after summer starts we split an ice cream sandwich. For some reason it kept passing our house at the worst times! I started to get worried we were never going to be able to buy one so finally when I heard it last week I had the kids stop eating dinner and we ran out, bought one and stuck it in the freezer until we finished our dinner. Then I cut it into fourths and put the kids portions on popsicle sticks because I'm cheap thrifty like that.

Yum!

A couple new and successful recipes!

Grilled Cabbage Wedges with Spicy Lime Dressing-we left out the "spicy" in this recipe. I thought this was great but I think I was the only one. Pat thought it was mediocre but thought it might be improved by grilling the wedges, then cutting it up and mixing in the dressing. I think that would be great as well! We cut the recipe in half but I think half the amount of dressing wasn't enough. I ended up making more dressing the next day and I ate the leftovers cut-up and cold with chicken and onion. 

Asian Peanut Noodle Salad-This picture is from before I put the dressing on...for some reason my other picture was very blurry. It's possible I was shaking from excitement because it looked so good? Maybe... I'm definitely making this again. I substituted apple cider vinegar for the rice vinegar and left out the Sriracha sauce.

Parade!

Our Fourth of July parade was actually on the fifth so I'm still posting it within a week... barely... Owen had the opportunity to march with his t-ball team so Pat accompanied him in the parade while Paige and I waved and collected (awful) candy. We had fun watching and got super excited when we finally saw Owen and Pat coming down the street. Owen had run out of candy at this point but had saved a handful especially for Paige. 

Crafts for the Fourth!

We made a couple crafts to celebrate Independence Day! In the first one, the kids made "fireworks" using cupcake liners and markers. They even went a step farther and added stars, confetti and a moon. They enjoyed it so much they each made two! We put them together on the door in our kitchen and it looked like a big night sky lit up with fireworks. In the second craft, we painted popsicle sticks and glued them together to form a flag. This was definitely the less popular craft, probably because it had multiple parts and waiting-time in between while the paint dried.

Fourth of July!!

I was worried the weather might ruin some of our celebrating but it wasn't a problem at all! I got to go for a run in the morning and when I got home we had a festive breakfast. Then we got to go have a cookout with our families and made it home in time to have a very late dinner and walk to the fireworks with some friends. What a great day! By the time we were walking home Owen was barely able to keep his eyes open. Paige was having a tough time admitting she was tired but was definitely showing it in other ways:)

Breakfast!

The kids dressed for the occasion.

Amazing Cherry Blueberry Pie. I'm making this again. Very soon. (Definitely cut the amount of sugar in half and it doesn't need as much cinnamon as it calls for.)

I know that cutting watermelon into shapes seems very silly but look how cute it looks! There are even some shaped like the United States if you look on the right. Owen was waiting all day to eat one and then took a bite and realized he doesn't like watermelon.

Fireworks! (I believe Owen's facial expression was being exaggerated for the camera...)

Happy Independence Day!

Ice Cream!

We're pretty lazy ice cream eaters. It never seems like a good time (I know, I know, it's always a good time) or we've just consumed some other sort of treat. We had an early dinner last weekend though and it was the perfect time to try out a new ice cream place! Everyone loved it, the kids got cotton candy, I got oatmeal cookie and Pat got lemonberry crumble. Then we spent a little time exploring the fake/old timey shops.

Owen didn't let his ice cream drip at all. When Paige was done it looked like she had used it to decorate her clothes, face and hands.

I like that sign on the tree. Also, my arms look super long in this picture, I should have played some basketball that day.

Ice cream and train watching too?! Does it get any better?!

Look! An old-timey phone booth with a phone that doesn't work! Maybe that explains the face Paige is making.

Summer Fun!

Here are some random June pictures that I like but didn't make it into any other posts!