Beating the Heat...

My kids are sneaky little buggers. I'll think that they are playing nicely out in the backyard, and so I try to get something done in the house, and the next thing that I know, they have dragged all the pillows and blankets off of everyone's beds and they are laying on them OUTSIDE!

So I saw this idea for outdoor pillows in a magazine awhile ago and instantly knew that this was the solution to my problem. They were super easy and cheap to make (made out of a vinyl picnic tablecloth and a $3 pillow from wal-mart), and now I don't have to spend the rest of the day washing bedding just so that we can get into our beds at night...

The only downside to outdoor lounging in the middle of the summer is the darn heat. So we remedied that with our swing-set tent...

There was even enough room under there that you could still use the swings. I have to admit, this was one of our families all-time-best forts...


I hope that my kids remember these kind of days, spent in the shade, in our own backyard. Just lounging, reading, playing and laughing. I sure will.

Future Enviromentalist?

 

If you can't read what that says, I'll translate: "I wish you were alive". We found this little message written to the baseboard going up our staircase. At first when I saw it I thought that Hayden may have written it to one of his many "pets" (bugs, frogs, lizards, snakes) that have passed away. But after asking him, nope, it was to the wood. He wished that it was still part of a living tree. What a funny kid!!

Summertime Messes...

What do you do when mom is on the phone and Sophie wakes up from her nap early? Throw every blanket and pillow that you can find in her crib, and dive on in...

 

Little stinkers. It was all great fun until it was time to clean up the mess...

Lunch...

My friend invited me over to her house for lunch the other day, but I felt more like I was dining at a 5-star restaurant. The salad that she made for me was so beautiful that I just had to take a picture of it. And it tasted beautiful, too. I love fresh food in the summer time...

 

I snapped this picture awhile ago as I was washing those oh-so-beautiful berries of summertime. Doesn't this just look like summer? I can almost taste them...

Bike Tubes, Obstacle Courses, and Snakes...

My kids are constantly collecting things outside, Hayden especially. Bugs, rocks, leaves. You name it, and he's probably collected for one project or another. Well, he always wants to take things home with him when he finds them on bike rides, so we made these bike tubes out of Pringles cans, to haul all of his "collections" home. And they aren't bad for storing candy in either, on those all-too-frequent rides to 7-11...

We spent many-a-day across the street at the park/black-top, making obstacle courses to rides bikes through. Their favorite was to race or to see who could make the most laps in a row without stopping. It was a great time-filler for those days where we had nothing on our schedule except to play outside...


Hayden got to be quite the off road biker this summer; a little too good, actually. He scared me a little at times. I guess we'll have to start taking him mountain biking with us next year...

And, of course, there were snakes this summer (along with many frogs and toads). Hayden has definitely inherited his father's love of reptiles and is not afraid to demonstrate his snake-wrangling skills. He handles those things like a young Steve Irwin...

Ice Cream in a Bag...

We love homemade ice cream at the Clark house. One of my friends showed us how to make it really fast in a ziploc bag (So, of course it went on "the list"). We had so much fun making it several times this summer. The kids loved shaking it...

 

And, of course, eating it...

 

 

Yum!!

More From Our "Summer Fun List"...

We designed and built a SLUSHIE stand...

Sophie was such a good "helper"...

We did lots of coloring...

It's way more fun if you do it in a blow-up tube...

We turned our house into a library and had a reading day. (Have you ever checked out 75 books from the library? Bring a wagon!)...


A reading day complete with book-worm treats...

This wasn't on the list, but Hayden sure is funny sometimes. He chased the girls around the house while they screamed at the top of their lungs that a monster was after them. Good kid fun...

We had LEGO playdates...

And of course, took trips to the zoo...


Made s'mores indoors (during the rainy weather)...


Man, posting all these fun times makes me smile remembering them. But, more from the "list" will have to wait for another post...

California With the Clarks...

From Utah, we headed out to California for the Clark Family Reunion...

Can I just say, I love my in-laws. It was a week with some of our favorite people in the world...




Our kids had a blast! We spent a couple of days at Disneyland...









And then we headed to Huntington Beach for the 4th of July...





Rob and Wendy, Thanks so much for the fun trip! We had such a great time being with you guys!

Yippee, Sophie's 3...

At the end of June we headed to Utah...

We went out there to see Rob's sister Callie, who just returned from a mission to Chile. It was so fun to be with her and hear all her awesome stories...

We also happened to be there over Sophie's 3rd birthday. And what a birthday she had! Her Nona loves to throw parties, especially Tea Parties...

Sophie was treated to the most perfectly pink birthday she could have ever dreamed of...


All her sweet cousins were able to be there, too...




She got to blow out her candles with her cousin, Katelyn, who turned 3 that month, too...






Bubbles, sidewalk chalk, pink teddy bears, and kisses from Papa. It was the perfect day...





Happy Birthday sweet Sophie!!