Summer Fun--Weeks 9, 10, 11

Well, here we are again in need of another 3 weeks-in-1 recap. So it goes.

When the girls woke up on Tuesday August 8th, they had a different clip on their chore buckets--it said, "pack". They ran downstairs to investigate and I revealed the big secret--we were headed to Des Moines to see Grammy and Grandad! They had been asking to go all summer, and I kept telling them I wasn't sure we'd be able to fit it in. I can be sneaky sometimes. When we arrived, Grammy secretly told the girls she had made my two favorite pies--macadamia nut and chocolate cream--as an early birthday celebration for me. Oh how glorious to feast on those divine confections! The girls weren't disappointed, either.

While we were there, I took the opportunity to get a little 1:1 time with Jillian and we went to Jordan Creek Mall to go school shopping. It was fun to watch her try and find her style, and also a chance for me to withhold my opinion in places where it doesn't matter ;) We capped off our shopping with lunch at Chick-Fil-A and had a great time together. She is growing up so fast and has so many questions about EVERYTHING.

Hammock time with Grams

Dessert and table talk with Grandad

Making homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce for the first time with Grammy

More hammock shenanigans--this time it was Grandad's turn

I helped Mom do a little purging at home, and we did find some gems--love these photo booth pics of my parents circa early 1970's!

Entertained by Urban as he drank from the bathroom faucet

This kid. Finished her sister's dessert in addition to her own!

Tea party time! Rapunzel arrived with a little junk in her trunk.

I had to get one last bowl of homemade perfection before we hit the road. Yep, I ate every last drop.

We got home on Friday night so we could all spend the weekend together. On Sunday we decided to head to Lanesboro for the day. The weather was gorgeous. We had lunch at the darling Peddle Pusher's Cafe, then rented a 4 person bike and made it 3 miles on the trail (Adrienne couldn't reach the pedals so she just rode along) before grabbing some ice cream and heading home.

The following week the girls went back to Quarry Hill Camp. This time, Jillian attended the Archeology camp and Adrienne did the Eco Hero camp. They both had friends who attended camp with them, so it was extra fun. I have no pictures of QH related stuff except for Adrienne proudly displaying her homemade bird feeder with a repurposed toilet paper roll.

 After camp on Tuesday, we picked up Jimmy John's and headed to Oxbow to meet the Rivera girls for a picnic, play, and trip around the zoo. We headed back to Rochester after that for a DQ stop, followed by a trip to the Gibbs park. It was a super fun afternoon, and the girls all had a great time. Jillian LOVES to mother Lily!

Jillian proudly displaying her fox shirt (that she picked out on our shopping trip) in front of the fox at the zoo.

On Wednesday after camp we went to Paige and Bella's for a play date. The girls had fun making a movie together and playing outside on another beautiful day.

 On Friday afternoon, Jenni and I found ourselves alone for the night (Matt was off doing his crazy RAGNAR run from Winona to the Twin Cities and Michael was working late), so she and the kids came over for the afternoon. They played, watched a movie, we had pizza, and even enjoyed some much-needed prosecco in the driveway as we managed the chaos. We sent our husbands this pathetic picture (with a Rachel photobomb) of our crazy scene.

On the 21st, I did my best to make sure the girls could participate in viewing the eclipse. I admit I didn't order glasses specifically because I didn't trust that they would be authentic. So I made the cereal box viewer things and we gave those a go. They were unimpressed, and honestly, didn't really care at all!

Grandpa Bennie, Debbie, and Grandma Helen came for some appointments and the girls enjoyed the extra love and attention. Us girls even managed to do put a big puzzle together one afternoon. It was a race to get it put together before we needed the table for dinner, but we did it!

Adrienne is so snuggly, love this series of pics of her and Grandma Helen

 Jillian decided she wanted to make a "School Survival Kit" as inspired by her American Girl Magazine. She made her list and we went to Target so she could gather supplies.

 A peek inside the kit--she even asked me to print a family picture for her to put in there. 

Matt helping Adrienne learn to tie her shoes. She selected tie shoes this time...but we've got lace locks on backup if we need them when school starts.

Finally, a trip to Thursdays on First! The girls and I walked around, bought books from a local author who autographed them for the girls, enjoyed homemade ice cream sandwiches, special lemonades, and of course, the ride in the elevator up the parking ramp.

The girls are really into playing the Disney Infinity game Matt got for the playstation. I'm not super hot on any video games, but they ARE building worlds and problem solving, etc, so we let them play a bit each day. Matt ordered them some new characters (Inside Out characters) and they were SO excited to get them in the mail.

I got some new workout shoes, and as we walked into the RAC Friday morning, I noticed that all of our shoes had the same color scheme! Matchy matchy.

When the girls ask to bake something, I do my best to always oblige (even if I have a million other things to do as I did on Friday afternoon). We made banana muffins and instead of frosting them with Nutella like I like to do, we tried using Nutella as a "surprise" filling. Delish!

It's been a long, rainy weekend of Matt working and me trying to get before-school-starts-again projects done, but the girls and I did enjoy church, brunch out, and a trip to Trader Joe's this afternoon. We've got one more week of summer and we are going to make the most of it and have some fun!