Summer Fun--Week 4

This summer is really shaping up to be loads of fun for these kids. And the adults. Another great week in the books....

After celebrating Adrienne's birthday on Tuesday, we spent Wednesday hanging out at home and getting the house ready for our upcoming visitors. Matt had this day (and the rest of the week off) so we tried to keep the girls occupied while we worked. They did lots of crafts and enjoyed using Adrienne's birthday presents. They tried out some wiki sticks...

And enjoyed dining out of their new Frozen cups/bowls from Grandpa and Debbie.

Late Thursday night, Aunt Mal and Uncle John  (and boy cousin in utero) arrived. The girls were delighted to see them when they woke Friday morning. We all loaded up for a big day of fun in Minneapolis. First, we hit the Surly Brewery for lunch and a taste of some of Surly's finest. This restaurant is super kid friendly--just a win-win for all.

Next we hit the Sculpture Garden...

As  we were walking around the outside of the garden, Uncle John spotted a sign for a Taproom and wanted to follow it. So, we did.

And we ended up in the coolest little spot--Sisyphus Brewery. They had shuffleboard, and pinball...

And a huge shelf of board games....

....and a house dog. This is Albert. After being deathly afraid of him, Adrienne warmed up and she became buds with Albert.

You know, I just never thought my Friday afternoon would include drinking a delicious micro brew, watching my oldest child in a heated game of Connect Four, and observing my youngest child become the dog whisperer. But it was great. So great.

And locally made strawberry soda sweetened the deal for the girls.

We found our way back to the sculpture garden, and of course had to go across the bridge into Loring Park. I hate the bridge. It scares me. Especially when men pull shenanigans like this....

On the swing at the sculpture garden.

3 out of 4 backseat passengers zonked out for the ride home.

Adrienne was totally wiped. She crashed after coming off her strawberry soda sugar high.

After grilling steaks and enjoying some games on the deck while the kids played in the yard, the grownups managed to rally for some Camel Up when the kids were in bed. We got a rare 5 camel stack!

On Saturday, the girls were very excited to take Uncle John on a bike ride. So, he pulled the Burley and Matt went along and they biked to Pine Island via the Douglas Trail. While they were doing this (and eating a picnic lunch at Subway...gross), Aunt Mal and I enjoyed a nice long walk, then we cleaned up and headed downtown to lunch outdoors at Chester's.

We all came home for a little rest, and then got ready for the big 4th of July celebration.

Jillian really wanted to contribute something patriotic to the menu, so we settled on these fruit kabobs made of strawberries, blueberries, and mini marshmallows.

Of course little sister wanted to do something too (and big sister would not even consider letting little sister do the same thing), we agreed that some grape kabobs would be adequate.

The young chef was proud of her creation, and these babies went fast.

Soon the Tauntons arrived for a night of fun. We grilled, ate, let the kids run around and do some snaps and smoke bombs, and then we set up the outdoor theater to help bide the time until total darkness. Baby Jack got a view of the fun before he was sequestered to the pack n play in my bedroom.

We watched the absolute WORST kids movie I've ever seen--Home. Totally stupid. The kids thought it was fantastic.

We sat up on the deck eating dessert while the dads got ready to put on quite a fireworks show.

This was the beginning of the show--typical MN style fireworks--fountains. You can't buy anything that shoots in the air here...but lucky for us, Michael bought all sorts of contraband in WI last week. I have no additional pictures of the show because I was too busy covering my eyes and ears and fearing for my house that I was sure was about to catch on fire. Holy smokes. Literally! You can see the dads down by the flames wearing the headlamps. Nerds.

After we finally got the kids in bed close to midnight, I left Matt and John outside still watching a Nirvana documentary.

The girls slept in pretty late on Sunday, and then Aunt Mal and Uncle John headed south to KC. These two were kind of whipped as they watched some TV

After lunch and a rest, we decided to hit the pool on a nice warm afternoon. We joined the country club last week, so decided to give that pool a whirl. It was absolute bliss. Not crowded at all. Food you could order and have delivered poolside. We were there for nearly 4 hours, and ate dinner while we were there. The girls were so hilarious when they declared--"this is kind of like Hawaii!" Um. Sure.

Headed to the car and admiring the beautiful green spaces. That's a wrap for this week, kids.