We had a very busy 4th of July this year. My parents invited us over to their house for lunch. They served us a great lunch and then we went to the water park in Gaylord to cool off. The girls enjoyed the pool. It has a little slide that is just right for them. Next we headed home to change out of our swimsuts and take a little rest. Our next stop was Nick's aunt Ruthie's house. Every 4th she has a great party with amazing fireworks. This year the girls actually made it to the fireworks.

 Faith posing next to Ruthie's garden. I'm not sure why she looks so serious.

 The girls got to play with their second cousins. All the little girls then watched fireworks from the upstairs porch.

 Grace has been taking a ballet class this July. This Thursday is her last day of class. She has really been enjoying it. This picture is her all ready on her first day of ballet. She was excited to go to ballet!

 Hard to believe, but my little girl is now 3 years old. We had family over to celebrate the day. Here she is blowing out the candles on her cake.

 Opening presents

 Nick playing, umm, I mean helping with the new barbie.

It was such a nice day on her birthday. We enjoyed some time outside with everyone before supper. 

Beating the Heat

We have been having a heat wave in MN lately. With the humidity it has been over 100 for a few days now. We haven't been getting much relief in the evenings either as it has only been cooling off to the 80s and 70s at night. I know I shouldn't complain. We could be like my parents and not have air conditioning or we could live in Arizona and have this heat all summer. Needless to say, we have been trying to find fun and cool things to do outside. The sprinkler and pool have been a big hit.

 Our first day using the sprinkler this summer. Grace doesn't mind the ice cold well water at all. Faith on the other hand still runs large circles around the very edge of the sprinkler. She is a little braver then last year.

 Getting a drink of water fromt the sprinkler. Maybe not he most pure drinking water, but certainly the coolest and best on a hot summer day.

 Faith having fun in her swimming suit.

 Gracie taking a rest in the shade.

 I have also been enjoying seeing my garden grow. I planted eight tomatoes this year and they all are doing well so far. Hoping to get lots of tomatoes to freeze again this year.

 Some of the plants haven't been liking the heat either. These are my wilting cucumber plants. Hopefully they do okay so we can make fridge pickles (one of my favorites).

 We continued our cooling off after the sprinkler with some strawberry ice cream. We even pulled out some "fancy" cups to have it in. I got a set of fancy dishes at the thrift store and we use them to make certain treats more special. I don't care if they get broken and the girls think it is great to use them.

I've been trying to do a little sewing again. I made an apron for Grace and am working on one for Faith. It seems that I always make at least one big mistake and a few small mistakes that can easily be fixed. As you will see, after cutting out the material I realized that I didn't get the material in the right direction. Grace was smiling when I tried to take this picture and apparently I missed the smile and got this very unhappy look.

The Adventure Continues

After our train ride we went on another hike to explore the old mine some more. Once again the girls did great! We are certainly looking forward to more hiking in the future.

 The old school house.



Our family on the hike. Not sure what this building was. My cousin Anna borrow us her homemade moby wrap for the hike. It was very comfy for me and Faith seemed to like it too. I'm now sold on them! 

Shelving inside an old building. 

Of course there were a few old cars. 

The girls had a great time playing with their second cousins. I didn't get a great picture of them together, but they had a blast. After this they started a very giggly game of ring around the rosy.