Summer Days with Cousins

We spent yesterday at the Young's house playing in the pool and having so much fun! The kids could have swam forever. Jacob crawled around the pool area with gusto and was thrilled to watch and splash. He was so sleepy that he fell asleep while riding on my lap on the walk home.

Aaron spent all 3 hours in the pool. Never got out. He wore his floaty suit and for the first hour he hung on to the wall. After he let go and realized that floating was a safe method as well, he explored the whole pool and floated next to whoever he felt like. He made lots of friends and by the end he was bobbing up and down in the water and very proud of himself.

Alex swam with no float device and did just fine. He and Edie had fun jumping in and lounging in the big floaty.

In the evening we pitted cherries, watched the movie Sandlot, and took pictures of the kids. It was the perfect summer day.

Lemonade Stand, Face Painting, Sprinklers...

The essence of summer. It has felt like summer here in Michigan with the temps getting up into the 90s. Alex and Aaron are happy and loving the summer life. We bought a set of face paints and have had tons of fun with them.

The lemonade stand is something that Alex has been planning in his little entrepreneurial mind for months. He has been waiting for weather warm enough and he got it last week. He did everything for this stand. He even made the sign 100% by himself. I gave him 8 sheets of paper and told how to spell lemonade and off he went. I was totally impressed at his bubble letter skills. He is only 5 after all. He kept watch of the stand a couple hours in the morning and an hour in the evening. Only 9 customers, but it was all worth it. He has his next one planned for Labor Day weekend.

As you can see from the pictures, my belly is growing huge. Even though I'm only 35 weeks along according to the calendar, my belly is measuring 40 weeks. Its due to the fact that the baby is measuring big on the ultrasounds and I have a ton of amniotic fluid. Combine those two factors and you have a very uncomfortable mommy. The plan is to induce at 37 weeks, so we'll see if I make it that far.

Lake Michigan Camping

Last weekend we went camping in Northern Michigan on the Lake. The weather was great during the day - terrible at night. We only got 1/2 a night's sleep because of the thunder and lightning. But the next day was beautiful and bright. The boys loved playing in the water and sand. Lake Michigan is great for kids because there are very small waves and shallow water.

Aaron being chased by Brady

Alex had his goggles on the entire trip

Ionia Free Fair

We had a great time at the fair on Saturday. It was a free fair, with a free circus, and we even parked across the street for free parking. Chris is not a huge fan of the fair scene but we all had a great time. The swords the boys 'won' for picking a duck out of a pool were definitely not free but they were totally worth it.

Going to a fair on a cloudy day totally reminded me of going to the Oregon State Fair as a kid. I loved going with my family and coming home with some item that my Dad won for me. I remember tolerating an hour of walking through cows, bunnies and shammy cloth booths so that I could go on rides. I remember going on the SuperLoop with my mom and watching her get scared for the first time in my life. I remember my Dad buying a bag of cotton candy and getting like one bite because we had to split it among all 7 members of my family.

This trip my fond memories were... smelling something new each time I took a breath, watching the funniest little clown act I have ever seen (a trained dog dressed like an elephant stuffed animal who played dead for a long time - I thought it was a robot), watching my boys walk proudly down the midway with their swords and sheaths attached to their belt loops, Alex climbing to the top of the big slide by himself carrying his potato sack, helping Aaron go potty in a porta-potty and explain to him that "no we can't flush this one".

This week in boyhood

These guys love Chris' tool box.

Aaron hasn't worn a shirt in weeks.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting

Summer Fun

This summer has been relaxed and pretty uneventful so far- which is exactly what the boys love. They have been having fun at neighbors, swinging on their new swingset, going to our very own "beach" at Lake Lansing, and wearing their bat masks when its not too hot.