Bits and Pieces of July

I've not done a very good job of keeping up with our July happenings here.  I've posted about some of the bigger things, like Emma's triathlon and the completion of our room addition.  But there have been a handful of other things I've missed during the month.  So here is my attempt at wrapping up the other bits and pieces of July.  :)

In the beginning of the month, Dakota and I had our 11th anniversary.  Did you know that the traditional anniversary gift for 11 years is steel?  Well, it is.  So he got me a blowtorch.  'Cause there are steel parts in blowtorches.  And you just never know when you're going to need a blowtorch.  :)  And I should probably mention that he used the blowtorch to make me breakfast that morning--creme brule.  Which I had never had before.  But it went well with the fresh berries we had picked the day before.

The day before our anniversary, Dakota took the day off of work and we all went up to The Berry Patch to pick berries.  I kind of wondered about our sanity, as it was supposed to be like 98 degrees that day.  But we started out very early in the morning, in hopes of finishing our berry picking before we melted.  Happily, no one melted, but we did get VERY hot.  We also got a lot of berries--blueberries, raspberries and black berries--around 4 pounds all together.

On a much cooler note, we had swim lessons here every morning during the following week.  This was the 4th year of having people over for swim lessons.  I think we had 8 families join us this year.  (We know a lady from church who comes over each year to give lessons to kids in our pool--small groups--2 at a time, so it works out pretty nicely.)

Ashlyn in her lessons...

Playing sea horse with the pool noodle

Emma and Natalie swimming laps during their lesson

Practicing diving

Everyone out of the pool for a half hour while a storm passed through. (You can tell they were really upset about that.)

Towel-head buddies

 

At the end of that week came Emma's triathlon.  And after that, we finally got a little down time.  That was also about the time that the heat wave hit.  Now, let's be honest, really the whole summer has been one long heat wave.  But last week was what I hope I can call the peak of the heat wave.  I think we had five days in a row of temperatures above 100 degrees, with 107 being the top temp.  (These were the actual temperatures, not head indices.)  Just last night the streak broke when a cold front moved through, bringing with it a lightening show and a few sprinkles of rain.  And today we're at a balmy 90 degrees.  We might need to pull out the jackets, as it's supposed to dip into the mid 80's over the weekend!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of hosting some good friends from college (and their kids).  They came over for lunch and dinner, and the kids swam in the pool the whole time in between.  (I think Emma is growing gills!) 

This week has brought the completion of the room addition, Josiah's first song, and home made t-shirts.  Josiah, who doesn't say more than handful of words, started singing a line from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star this week.  "Up ba ba ba wur hi!"  He even manages to hit most of the notes--sometimes.  Anyway, we think it's terribly cute, and he's awfully proud of himself.  :)

And the t-shirts... I bought these iron-on designs a long time ago (last summer?) and finally dug them out this week!  The girls spent most of the morning yesterday deciding how they wanted the designs displayed on their shirts, and I spend most of the morning figuring out how to get the things ironed on. In the end, they were happy, and I was happy. (Even if I did have to get out iron again today to re-attach some peeling designs.)

So I think that about sums up the month around here.  I plan to spend the rest of the month packing up and organizing school things, as I make the move to the new school room.  By the way, I'll be hosting a Discovery Toy party in our new school room next month!  Let me know if you're interested in joining us!