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With the snow gone (again) and above normal temps in the 60's, who can resist spending the day outside?








Hmmm ... Wonder where those dirty feet came from? ;)

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Middle Child and Hubby being silly

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After all the snow had just about melted, we got hit by another snowstorm yesterday. This morning Middle Child went outside to shoot some hoops. His play was cut short when he made his first basket and the ball didn't come out of the hoop because the wet was frozen with an opening too small for the ball to pass through!

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Younger Daughter celebrated her 8th birthday today!

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Leap day only happes once every four years so why not leap for joy when it comes?


Leaping for Leap Day

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It's Spirit Week this week at the school my children attend. Today was Crazy Day.



Younger Daughter all dressed in mismatched clothing and sporting a strange hairdo for Crazy Day

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The kids spent a few hours outside this afternoon sledding and building snowforts.



Middle Child

Unfortunately the light was bad and I bumped my ISO up to compensate, but it made the picture pretty grainy.

An Afternoon at the Park

As I mentioned before, the kids and I went to the park yesterday. Here are some fun photos from our excursion ...

Weekend of Water Fun

Some friends of ours have a lake cottage that has been in their family for 3 or 4 generations. (It was either our friend's grandfather or great-grandfather who built it.) They invited us to spend Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend there with them. We've been there with them before, and we jumped at the chance to go again!

Saturday was pretty cool, but some of the older kids were brave enough to do some tubing.





Meanwhile, some of the younger kids were just thrilled to ride along in the speedboat.

(Oldest Son was trying to warm up after tubing.)


When not tubing the kids spent much of the time in and out of the paddleboat, canoe, and docked pontoon boat. The cottage's lake frontage is wonderful for kids because you can walk out 100 ft, and the water is still only about 5 ft deep ... very shallow. However, we did have the kids wear life preservers when playing around by the shore, on the pier, and in the boats.

The Oldest and Oldest Son taking some of the younger kids for a canoe ride


Attack of the water gun soldiers!




The weather was warmer on Sunday, and all of the kids except for the Youngest took turns riding on the "hot dog." We adults and the kids who weren't riding the hot dog enjoyed cruising on the pontoon boat as it pulled the hot dog behind.




(This one is my entry into Paper Mama's "Excitement" photo challenge.)





Some of the kids even got to spend some time fishing off the pier and some of the docked boats.







What an awesome, fun weekend!

Obstacle Course

A couple days ago the kids set up an obstacle course in the driveway.

Here's Middle Child navigating his way through it.


Why, yes, that's his sister's purple bike helmet he's wearing. Why do you ask?

This pic is my submission for this week's "Outside" theme over at You Capture.

A Visit to Amish Country

Yesterday the Oldest, Younger Daughter, two friends of mine, and I visited an area of our state where a large number of Amish people live. None of us had ever been there before, but one of my friends had acquired a map from a friend of hers. The map was marked with lots of stores selling various things. There was no town; instead the stores were all buildings on the Amish people's homestead or parts of their homes.

This sign was next to the hitching rail in the parking lot of the "general store".


This shelf of colorful gelatin mixes caught my eye. I thought they were so pretty all lined up!


We visited an Amish furniture store, too. The pieces were all so beautiful! Oldest, Younger Daughter, and I all thought this "saddle stool" was pretty neat.


These buggies were all parked outside of the bakery we visited.


The bakery was actually just a huge kitchen and display area in someone's basement, but we had to wait in a long line for about 30 minutes before we were able to get in and purchase some goodies. It was definitely worth the wait when we tasted the still-warm donuts and cinnamon rolls we bought!


Yum!


And, yes, we did bring some tasty bakery treats back home for Hubby and the boys!

Summer Continues

Yes, it's still summer, although I'd be much happier if it was June or even July rather than August already. I am NOT ready for school to start again at the end of the month! At any rate, I'm going to enjoy the summer break while we have it.

The theme for the week at You Capture is "Summer." Last weekend we went camping with a group of people from our church. The campground had a pool, and we spent a LOT of time there, and I took a bunch of pictures that fit You Capture's theme.

Jumping in the pool quickly became the activity of choice for the boys.




When Hubby and I first tried to coax the Youngest to jump in the pool into Hubby's arms, Hubby practically had to pull him in. The second time the Youngest kept squatting down, and we kept telling him to stand up and jump. He squatted and stood about 5 times before jumping in. After that, jumping in was almost all he wanted to do!


Look at our big muscles!


Our water nymphs

Splash Pad

The other week I took the kids over to our town's new splash pad and was able to capture some fun memories.

(My submission for another "Blue" theme, this time over at the Thursday Challenge)

(My submission for "Pure Joy" at Perceptive Perspective)
***UPDATED to say that I won this photo challenge!

I'm also submitting both of these pictures for Simplicity's "Summer" theme.

Summer Fun

The new photo theme at Thematic Photographic is "Summer". (Click the link to see more summer photograph submissions.)

Nothing says "Summer" to me more than kids playing in the sprinkler and running around in their swimsuits having waterfights.

Waterfights are serious business


Garbage can lids make great shields


Last second decision to go around the sprinkler


Sprinkler hair washing
(our girls and the neighbor girls)