We've made it to summer and had a great first "official" week of more time at home but less time doing school! We transitioned with a lazier schedule, checked a few things off our summer bucket list, and enjoyed some time with both Grandma and Papa Curt while Beau enjoyed a few days fishing at the Boundary Waters with some work friends. For the most part, we feel we have re-entered "normal" again. We're seeing friends, forgetting to wash our hands, eating at restaurants, and spending a whole lot of time outside. June started with a heat wave and with no pools to visit, we've found reprieve at the beach, on the trampoline with sprinklers, or running through our irrigation system. ;) We set up an obstacle course one day and it was the highlight of the afternoon!
Good Things of June, so far...
906. I took the kids out to George Wyth Beach last week and we were the only ones there for the first hour of our morning! The water was the perfect temperature, there was far less goose poop than I remember, and the kids jumped right in in a matter of no time. We liked it so much that we invited their cousins to join us a few days later and were there for almost four hours. We packed a picnic, brought out all the floaties, and got a lot of sun. After many months apart, the cousin clan picked up right where they left off.
I love this series of pictures of Cruz and Mila from their first swim of summer 2020...
907. This crew of hard-working Amish guys literally built this entire house in four days. They were pounding nails at 7 am most mornings and we took our breakfasts to the deck to watch them. It will be nice to have the north side of our property filled in, but I will be sad to lose my field, aka, weed disposal area. What do people do with yard waste and rotten garden tomatoes?
908. I have been pounding out all the Magnolia recipes lately, trying to finish up the cookbook because I won't allow myself to open the new one until I finish the first one! The strategy is working, but also leading to a lot of sweets consumed lately! I made Jo Jo's cinnamon swirl bread a morning last week and it may be on the top 5 list. I'm not usually a big bread person, but this one was incredible. Especially paired with some homemade strawberry jam.
909. A new crew of girls are old enough to run more free in the cul de sac this summer and the sweetness is on overload. Summer humidity curls, swimsuits and barefeet, dolls and Calico Critters strewn all over the yards, and munchkin voices galore! Since neighbors were the first people we started sharing life with post-Coronavirus hysteria, it sort of feels like we're one big communal family lately. And I couldn't love it more.
910. Mom came to spend the night with us last week while Beau was away and we all loved having her here. We cooked yummy spring pasta and shared dinner at the table, watched Little Women and ate popcorn after the kids went to bed, read books and ate macarons, and our favorite - learned to sew little sock monsters together. Mom made a bunch of these funny little creatures for one of Charly's birthday parties years ago, and Cruz has recently developed a newfound affection for the one he brought home that day. He sleeps with it every night, calls it his "heirloom" and one night asked if maybe Grandma would help him make one for Mila since she wasn't born when he got his. So Mom dug into the storage room and found her old box of supplies and hauled them to Cedar Falls. She taught the kids (and me!) to sew and we gave life to Brainy and Lola, the two newest members of Cruz and Mila's stuffy collection.
911. After a fun sleepover with Grandma, we couldn't short Papa! Mom had to work at the library the following morning, so we went to Allison to fish at Wilder Park. It was a beautiful morning, the fish were biting like crazy, and Dad did a great job staying patient while untangling fishing lines, baiting hooks, re-baiting hooks, and taking fish off the hooks. It's a busy job fishing with kids! Afterwards, we rode our bikes up to the library, one of Cruz and Mila's favorite places to visit. Mom made us a picnic lunch, the kids checked out forty books, and enjoyed getting to spend the afternoon in a library all to themselves.
Since the library is closed to the public, Mila discovered that the American Girl doll, Kit, has been stuck in her box for months. Mila took a liking to her and Grandma obviously let her check her out and take her home. Now Mila is counting her money and wishing for one of her own.
912. We officially became country club members this summer, something I never thought I'd say! Beau and I are not golfers by any means, but started to think that a place with a private pool, poolside restaurant, and beautiful golf course might be a nice escape in an otherwise strange summer.
913. Lots of porch reading so far this summer. Mila's moved onto chapter books, and Cruz and I are almost finished with the fourth Harry Potter. And this week, we started our summer book passports, another fun alternative to the summer reading program we usually look forward to at our public library. Every week, we'll read a couple books from somewhere in our world. The kids will learn about what makes that place unique or special, and the voices and stories of the beautiful people who represent them. Looking forward to lots of travels this summer, most of them from our favorite front porch.
914. This week, Iowa was "hit" with our second tropical storm in history, which resulted in heavy rains that fell pretty much all day. It was a nice reprieve from the heat we had been experiencing and I loved that the kids requested to be on our back deck through most of it. We ate lunch out there, read our books out there, and played a game of chess out there. Three inches later, we sort of felt like Noah on the big ark. A summer rainy day is good for the soul - now if only the movie theaters could open back up!
915. I finally got around to wrapping Beau's gifts, which meant we were finally ready to celebrate him! The kids constructed a sign all on their own and I made an incredible lemon angel food cake with blueberry compote, another top five from Magnolia. Later, we celebrated our new 39 year old with some pretty great gifts - a bluetooth speaker for his bike or kayak, a t-shirt subscription, and...a Chewbacca mask.
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