Painting

 Now that we are somewhat settled into our new house, I decided to give the kids a bit of fun. We got out some canvases and paint and painted in our front yard. Jerry and Bee started first, as Gracie was still napping.

Mom, this doesn't really taste good.

 Bee finished one canvas and declared she was done. Upon getting out of the bath, she went straight outside and painted more. She just couldn't get enough, and ended up with three baths! Indecisive girlie!

Hard at work

 Finally Gracie got up from her nap. She said she didn't want to paint, but after giving Bee direction for a while through the open window, she came outside and said she was ready to paint.

My artists and their gallery.

Water Blob!

 While Josey and Caity were here, we decided to make a water blob. What is a water blob? Glad you asked! I found a tutorial online, and thought "why didn't I think of that?!" Simply buy a plastic dropcloth for painting and some packaging tape. Fold the plastic, tape the edges to make a pocket of sorts. Put the hose in, fill it up, and tape the hole the hose went into. Viola! Water blob! 

Gracie loved having Josey bounce her on the blob.

JR wasn't too sure about it...

Bee checking it out.

She danced on it and called it her "fluffy dance floor."

It was hot, so we also set up our two pools.

Jerry decided he'd rather swim.

He went back and forth, from pool to pool.

Josey & Caity

 Our dear friend, Josey came to visit this summer. This time she brought one of her friends, Caity. We are so happy to have a new friend! In addition to having a ton of fun with Josey and Caity, Caity took a LOT of really great pictures of our week together. Here are some, in no particular order.

Running to home at one of her last two T-ball games.

He's just too cute!

My little blue eyed boy, swimming on our turtle.

Gracie was upset that I only had a plain band-aid, so I was drawing happy faces on it!

Such an angel...

Josey's one year pic. She has one like this of each of my kiddos.

Yea! Josey's here!

huh?

Besties

Gracie loves the giraffe Josey & Caity bought her. She named him Babycakes.

Besties: You can have more than one best friend!

Teddy Bear Park

Jerry's First Birthday.

JR

 My sweet Jerry boy is growing up! The first three pictures here were taken at the beginning of the summer/end of spring. The last one was a couple of weeks ago. He's so big!

Bee prefers to push Jerry rather than swinging herself.

Love this shot!

Jerry had his one year exam in July. He weighed in at 20.1.5oz, which is the 25th percentile. His length was also 25th, at 29.5". Not surprisingly, his head was the 90th percentile at 48cm. All of our kids have been the 90th percentile for head circumference! We blame Daddy. :)

Parades

 Now that we finally have started to get settled into our new house (and have internet!) I realize that I haven't really blogged this year. So here's a series of posts on what we've been up to, in addition to Momma taking a class through UW-Stout (so I can have a student teacher this year), teaching summer school, and moving into our first home.

We went to the Oakdale Parade with the Moritzs

Anticipating the beginning of the parade.

Bee trying to do gymnastics like the gymnasts in the parade.

Dancing to a marching band.

 We also braved the Hudson Booster Days Parade with Aunt Jenni and her boys.

Beginning of the parade.

 We got primo seats, right next to the judges stand! 

Most of Jenni's fam (Daddy had to work).

Most of my fam (Daddy also had to work).

The girls' dance studio was in the parade. Gracie was excited to say Hi to Miss Laura!

Sky VBS

Gracie attended SKY VBS at a local church this summer. We take her to a neighboring church, as our church's VBS starts with Kindergarten. The church asked if children would be willing to present what they learned at the service following the completion of VBS. Gracie joined those kids in singing for the church. I was at the Color Run (which I had been anticipating since December, otherwise I would have skipped it to see my girl sing) so Daddy took this video for me.