Summer Days

Summer's not over yet!  We're still going strong, starting with the pool!

As many days as possible, we've been at the pool!

Noah is generally quite happy to sit on the lounge chairs or stay by my side in the water.  Even though there are almost always friends for everyone to play with.

Emma has become a real fish this year.  And I hardly see the big kids except during the hourly break. 

On the beautiful evening of Emma's birthday, we headed downtown to watch the iCubs baseball game.

 We get free tickets every year from the library summer reading program, and this year we were determined to actually attend.
Bucket list- check!

 It was not the most exciting thing we've done all summer.

 But at least we were together!

 Thank goodness we had some friends to keep us company!

It will be so interesting to see what Emma remembers about her sixth birthday as the years go by- the year she got her American Girl doll?  The year she had a butterfly birthday party?  Or will she remember it as the year she was forced to attend a baseball game against her will??

 The girls were desperate to have a lemonade stand this summer!  They had some very generous customers, and sold out of their product in no time.

And we went to a mansion!  The Salisbury House has also been on our Iowa bucket list for years, and one afternoon we checked it out.  It was very big, and very formal.  We wandered around for about 45 minutes before we went outside and had a picnic lunch in the gardens.

I was obsessed with the beautiful wavy glass windows, ornate ceilings and intricate woodwork, 

the girls loved the chandeliers and fancy furniture, 

 and the boys just wanted to find all of the secret passages.

 This trip had quite a different feel from the dairy farm- our family of 5 (the kids lamented that Daddy never gets to do anything with us ever...) vs. the creamery, in which we coordinated to have 52 of our favorite friends join us.  

 Oh, and Leah talked on the phone to a boy.  It was a moment worth remembering, because it was a first!  She'll be playing a violin duet with him in the fall.