Always on the go

 
 
 

 
Plenty busy!!  Busy enough that even the little tastes of summer, like backyard watermelon, can easily be forgotten as mundane, we are fortunate.  We have had to celebrate some 'days.'  There was Sophia's birthday as well as Father's day.  The kids greeted me with an earlier morning breakfast in bed with cards and gifts.  I couldn't have been more proud.  There was birdseed and a new badminton set.  We managed to relax on the patio and play a few games until it got too dark to see.  Sophia's birthday was an adventure as well, she choose to head to Two Rivers and eat dinner down there, so after summer school was out we headed south for large plates of french toast and then off to the strawberry patch to pick and sample a little early summer sweetness.  We made some strawberry shortcake that night and froze up about 10 quarts of berries for later.   Ella had her last regular season game that day and plays tonight for the third in the tournament.  Soccer leagues will continue for a few more weeks.  We have been to the library three times already this summer and the kids are coming home with arm loads of books.  Grace and Merrick quickly reached goal to get a yard sign and are still plowing through the books and proud of what they are reading.  It is fun to listen as the four of them talk about the plots and characters of the books and series they have read, so many of them being in common.  Friday Ella, Grace, Amy and I headed up to Penninsula state park and had a beautiful bike ride on a maze of well groomed trails.  We had a few stops along our 7 mile route that include gorgeous overlooks and places to skip the ancient dolomite rocks.  The weather was perfect and as the day faded away we figured we need a wood fired pizza.  The girls were given dough to play with and after making a pretzel were allowed to toss it into the restaurants oven and bake it!  The pizza was great and not wanting the day to end we decided to walk the city streets and shops and then made our way over to the local drive in theater.  We pulled the bikes down from the roof and nestled into the car with tubs of popcorn to enjoy the double feature before heading back home and sleeping well past nap time the next day.  A couple of nasty sun burns have kept our pool time limited but we will be heading back soon and start working on the rest of our summer bucket list.

summer times are here!

Well summer is officially here and has been for about a week.  The last day of school was appropriately celebrated with ice cream from the neighborhood shop.  The temperatures have been on a roller coaster swing from the low 60 to expected high 80's today.  Grace and the neighbor girl did a rain dance in the rain and our little garden is reaping the benefits of their choreography.  Softball starts it tournaments this week and soccer is still rolling along.  The carp spawn has come and went and Grace and I sneaked out a few times trying to land a couple.  She did get close to big river pig but missed it.   We hit the local pool for the first of what will be many times this summer and Merrick pulled a flip off the high dive.  Age prevented me from doing a flip off the lowest board.  We have already swung by the library too and the girls left with seven books each.  The summer reading and summer school are helping to balance the body and mind of this tribe.

Almost here....!!

The school year is creeping to a close and we will soon have weekends that last all week.  Spent some time at beach and the water was warm enough for some in the family....clearly not the best.  Ella and I spent 50 cents on a good laugh.  A guy was using his metal detector so I game Ella two quarters and had her run about 30 feet in front of the guy and drop them in the sand.  Then we just hung out and watched him shift through the ancient silica to retrieve his treasure.  Plenty of Softball games, Ella took a nasty pitch to the arm but we hadn't had the "charge the mound' talk yet so she just politely trotted to first base...next time though.  Merrick and Grace had their opening nights of Soccer and that season is underway now.   Grace had some great passes and Merrick played in a hayfield and scored twice in his opener.  Sophia officially starts this week but did win her scrimmage last week against members of her old team, so she felt some pride in that.  The garden is mostly planted although there is still some seeds to go in the soil.  Each kid has a 2'x2' plot and was able to pick out some seeds and seedlings.  We should have plenty to eat...Grace planted 3 tomato plants, 3 kahlarabi and some peppers along with corn, a watermelon, carrots and peas.  She might have found room for a couple rows of beans too!!  We did drive through a massive storm cell that forced us to pull off the highway on our way back to Eau Claire.  Saw Grandprize and Nancy for an night.  Sophia and Grandma baked and frosted the whole time except when we had a great tour of the ever improving downtown area.  Sunday was almost normal with a little more moving and rearranging of bedrooms.  The older two got their lofted beds and Merrick now has bunk beds.  The baking continued last night two. Merrick and Amy cranked out the family favorite chocolate eclaire torte to take to school for an end of the year celebration and Grace and I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies for the same purpose.  The older girls were still gawking and rearranging their room.