Howe Two: Summer Fun--Week 3

We started this week's summer fun by returning to swimming lessons. We asked Mrs Larson if she would come to the country club, and we coordinated our lessons with the Tauntons, so this is lots of fun for everyone. Mrs Larson said she loves to have a different venue for some variety to her teaching and is excited that diving is allowed--she plans to teach Jillian to dive this summer.

Jillian attended a sewing camp Monday and Tuesday mornings. The camp was geared to help students make a pair of pajama shorts. Jillian was the only student signed up, so she essentially had some private lessons. She selected some wild fabric (totally her style), and is SO proud of these cute little shorts she made.

I always get a kick out of how Adrienne sleeps with her lights on bright and her music on loud. She loves this enormous teddy bear (named Rojo). She has covered her headboard with stickers (not approved by her parents) and proudly displays her medal from the Spartan race.

On Wednesday the girls asked to go to the RAC pool, mainly because they wanted some waterslide action. Jillian was delighted to find her classmate, Lizzy, there. We also saw Mrs Davidson!

On Thursday, we of course had all the excitement of a big birthday.

Adrienne admiring her Garfield stuffies at the breakfast table Friday morning.

The girls enjoyed some time on the front porch playing with Adrienne's new chalk markers and chalk paper (birthday gift from Charlie)

Saturday morning, the girls and I hit the farmer's market while Matt went on a long bike ride. They always like to take a break and sit on this bench looking for geese.

When we got back, I decided to tackle my basil. I am deck gardening this year (planning to expand the real garden for next year) and am overrun with basil, 3 varieties of kale, and mint. Two cherry tomato plants are trying to survive in there too.

I cut back about 25% of my basil, and still was able to make 5 batches of pesto from it!

On Saturday afternoon, Matt and the girls spent several hours out in the man cave...sewing. Yes, sewing. Matt loved how excited Jillian was after her sewing camp, and they were talking about things she could learn to sew. Soon he came downstairs to proclaim that he and the girls were going to learn to sew teddy bears together...so they did!

The girls picked their own fabric, Matt found the pattern online, watched a few YouTube videos, and we ended up with three teddy bear shaped pillow friends.

Finished products. You can see that Adrienne drew "hair" on hers with a fabric marker, and Jillian insisted she put a face on hers and a bow around its neck. Matt told me later that they put heart shaped pieces of each other's fabric inside every bear--their sweet little take on the Build-A-Bear process. The girls will never forget this father-daughter adventure.

On Sunday we headed over to Winds-Consin (Jillian still calls it that). On the way, we stopped at Lark Toys, of course.

We picked up some curds at the Nelson Creamery, then hit a nearby park for a bit before buying A LOT of fireworks (and New Glarus beer, of course).

Then we made our way to Stone Barn Pizza. We were the second car in line at 4:10 for the 5 p.m. opening. After we sat in the car for a bit we noticed a huge line of Corvettes coming around the bend. It ended up being a Corvette club coming to eat some pizza--21 of them!

I was pretty proud of my order number. In impressive feat at this place!

Silly selfies on the way home. Adrienne was soooo tired and was having no part of the fun.

On the Fourth the girls and I finished up our first-ever cat sitting for the next door neighbors. Lucky was a very good cat and hid from us most of the time. Jillian was serious about this job as you might expect. Adrienne got to help whenever I forced Jillian to let her. Sisters.

Later that evening, we headed over to the Taunton's for dinner and play and Matt and Michael's second annual crazy fireworks show (featuring 'illegal' fireworks from Winds-consin). I was pretty pleased when Matt busted out his goggles, and head lamp. Safety first! No, he didn't really wear that hoo-rag on his face/head, but it sure made for a fun picture!