summer highlights ~

we had a fun and full summer -- lots of time 

at grama's house including a special overnight

with friends bella, evelyn and berkis .....

the girls had a lemonade stand .....

and had a very special customer .......

grama dianne in disguise!!

they also participated in the summer gymnastics program,

that included time after class for the girls (who have known

each other since they were in early childhood family education)

to play, and the moms (who have also known each other that

long) to talk -- and drink wine.  LOVE indeed : )

we went to comicon and were greated by a very large
hagrid .....

we spent time at como zoo and were entertained as always
by the antics of the gorillas ......

the girls also got their faces painted at como town
(special treat) .....

we visited tom's youngest sister mary on her birthday .....

and ella won a bunch of MEAT at the meat raffle!!!

thanks, gary, for buying the girls the winning ticket!!

the girls and tom climbed lots of trees .....

after a week of VBS grama and auntie jen attended the
girls' simple and sweet performance --
songs and rootbeer floats.

girl time with auntie jen meant manicures .....




and pedicures too ......

and even though this is not a thrilling photo -- i finally
made a bunch of frozen crockpot recipes to get on a better
track for dinners during the school year.  yay me!!

friends, hotdogs, smores, swimming, jumping on the
trampoline ...... 

frogs and toads made the list too .....

so did participating in the summer read library program.
the girls read and wrote about so many books they read,
this was one of my favorite drawings zoe did.  

they also won a drawing at the dentist office and these
sweet baby lambs and the mama lamb were the prizes.

more toads .....

and even MORE toads!!

summer of 2014 included a lot of playing in the backyard,
transforming areas into magical lands and using imaginations,
with a few props from nature ......

the girls went swimming with friends at the pool ......

and went swimming at the lake too .....

they played in parks and got even faster and stronger 

on the monkey bars .....

we went to an outdoor movie night and saw the

movie FROZEN (so much fun) ......

and went to our city's parade -- and hung out with 

a lot of friends!!

we even saw the marching band i was in when i was in

high school -- yay buffalo bison!!

more trips to como town .....

going with kaelin was extra fun : )

and we even had a GARAGE SALE!!!!
which i can now totally cross off my list of things to do.
(a lot of fun but oh so much work)

we took grama on the zipline!!!

we visited the giraffes too ....

and the gorillas as well .....

we roasted more hotdogs with grama and truly enjoyed
every moment we were able to spend with her ....

we wrapped up summer going to the Science Museum
of Minnesota, hands-on learning at it's best!!

we went to the omni show about dinosaurs too ......

the night before i went back to work we had dinner

with our buds, bella and evelyn -- to say goodbye to

summer with ice-cream at connie's creamy cone.

thank you summer of 2014 -- you were a good one!!