Tubing It

The boys decided they needed to cool off one afternoon after getting all hot and sweaty on the trampoline.  Clothes and all!  They had so much fun in the kiddie pool with our tubes from Slide the City.

 This happened more than once...must be a kid thing!

Raspberry Pickin'

 We loved the great summer we had.  There were some hot days, but nothing too terrible.  It really allowed us to head out and have some fun together without melting in the heat and humidity.

One sunny morning we went raspberry picking with our good friends, the Moranos, who had recently moved back into town!  We collected so many yummy berries and the kids always have a great time with their friends!

Emily, Stephanie, and Alexa

Andy, the pickin' pro

Christian, busy filling up his basket

Even Kari, who won't so much as try a raspberry, still loves to pick them.

Kari and Alexa, showing off the fruits of their labors (literally).

 After our picking, it was starting to heat up so we took some time to relax in the shade.  I think the girls mastered the relaxing aspect of it better than the boys though!

My sweet friend, Stephanie, and me

One Last Zoo Hurrah

I took the children to the zoo one last time before school started back up.  Everyone got to pick something to go see, and we even shared our ice cream treats.  Love it when everyone gets along and we can have fun together!

Lazy Summer Days

With only a couple of weeks left before school (and our crazy fall schedule) starts up again, we took full advantage of just playing outside and relaxing at the pool.

 Bathing beauties!

 And pretty Emily, just chilling

 Also, it was during this time that Britta FINALLY decided to start crawling!  (It was on the trampoline and I got a video of it, but since it takes so long to upload videos to the blog, some pictures of the blessed day will have to suffice.)

These last two pictures just make me smile.  I mean, what is going on with Ju Ju's hair?  She reminds me of Harry from Dumb and Dumber.  And the snoozing Kari and Daddy shot?  Too sweet :-).

Slide the City

Although coming home from our week in Utah was tough on the kiddos, they had Slide the City to look forward to when we came home!  (Slide the City is exactly what it sounds like--a giant slip and slide down the middle of our main street.)

Some old childhood friends of my family's were running this city-wide event and they not only hooked us up with free unlimited ride passes, but they bumped us up in line whenever we came within view.  (Thank goodness for those hook ups too, bc otherwise, it would've been way too much money for a LOT of waiting in line.  I mean, the whole city, plus many more from the Omaha metro, came out for this event.)

 Auntie Erin came out for it too--she knows how to party and the big kids loved it!

After going down a couple of times, we went back home to relieve my mom who had been watching the little girls.  Not too long thereafter, Cubby took Em back with Kari and they met up with some friends and went down a few more times.  Kari LOVED it!

One More Park Day Before the Trip

 Before we were going to be in the car for two days, we took one more trip up to our school's park to enjoy the nice day!  The little girls just loved picking flowers, Christian eventually got over whatever was bugging him, Emily loved jumping and swinging, and Britta, well, Britta just loves being outside so she had fun too.

A bouquet from my loves.
Even sweeter than long-stemmed roses in my opinion!

 And a picture of all five where they're actually looking at the camera and smiling!

A rare moment, indeed.