music on the square

every wednesday evening the symphony performs on the square and the entire town sprawls out on the lawn (picnics gallore!) we ate some dinner, listened to some tunes, played uno, rolled around, danced around, and ran around, whew! it was a fun summer night:)

too cute!

quinn's new favorite skirt. she twirled herself all the way home...oh, she cracks us up!

i love babies!

this is our friend wesley, he's 5 months old and just the sweetest little boy ever! quinn loves him, and tries to hold him every chance, it's hilarious because he's almost as big as she is:)

#6

#6: mud pudding (uncle troy said this was his favorite birthday dessert, so ryder had to try it, and yes, he loved it!)

quinn was so patient all day long (it's so hard being the one with the un-birthday).

listening to the lovely voices sing "happy birthday"

the pail of mud and worms......yum yum!

quinn was desperate for some birthday fun, so we put two candles in her dessert and sang "you've been a good sister today".

ryder is on his second hand!

so on the morning of july 25th, ryder russell mangerson turned six! can you believe it....i surely can't. to celebrate his day, instead of a party (due to the lack of local friends, which i am working on-stay tuned for additional posts on that front) we decided to celebrate turning six, with six super fun birthday activities, which was actually more exhausting than hosting a birthday party, whew (i was in bed by 9:30pm).

#1: go out to breakfast at merigolds kitchen for their yummy gingerbread pancakes. (we sang happy birthday to him, and then he blew his candle out with his nose -a very six year old way to do it, huh)

#2: devils lake state park (he was either chasing butterflies or minnows all morning)

#3: toys r us, where he got to spend $30 that he earned (he insisted on going here because "they have the best prices", really that's what he says! well, he ended up purchasing 3 little cars, but realized this store does have a bunch of, well, we all know what's there, and is saving his $ to spend at our local toy store.)

#4: toy story 3 (we all went and watched a movie together, which was so much fun. this was quinn's first movie, and she loved it!)

#5: make homemade individual pizza's (this has been a loved meal of ours since ryder was two. it's just so fun! let's see i believe he put, cheese, pepperoni, black olives, basil, and red/green peppers on his...yummy!)

dane county farmers market

we had to check out our local farmers market on saturday. we were pleasantly surprised by the size and all the yummy produce, it's no marine county market, but it will do:) and the kids loved all the shaded green space to play and picnic!

comfy?

ryder HATES taking a nap, but some days it's a must. so today he tossed and turned and then, silence.....i walked in to see this:) unfortunately he woke right after i took this pic, dang it!!

uncle james and ali

uncle james and ali came to visit us for the weekend. it was so good to see them again, it has been way too long. the kids loved james' energy, and so did jesse and i (we needed a break), whew! can't wait to see them again.

catching lighting bugs

playing clue (which was an early birthday gift for ryder, thanks james and ali!)

backyard picasso

ryder's birthday wish list II

ryder decided to funk it up this time around:) call if you have any questions, and enjoy......it's great!!!

sweetness in the midst of choas

we have finally landed at 3913 euclid ave. slowly getting rid of the cardboard boxes (which has been quite the feat while looking after two children), hanging art on the walls, and making this house into our home! here the kids are enjoying some raspberry lemonade popsicles while watching butterflies.....oh, so sweet:)

our little gopher

ryder had a blast at hunt hill, he attended 5 day camps, met some really fun kids, learned tons about nature, and played all day long:)

one last time

the kids requested that we go to hayward for one last trip around the track, the go-kart track, in hayward. we got grandmama and grandpapa to come with, and boy were they competitive:) ha ha, it was so fun, i think ryder had a grin on his face the entire time!

quinn decided to sit this one out and play with rocks:)

"you're going down town charlie brown"

eyeing up the competition and seeing which karts the fastest. i'm telling you, we are serious racers!!

little miss

fourth of july

we got to spend the weekend with the extended bemis family, which was a bit wild at times, but fun as usual! the kids loved playing with carter and sierra, frog wrangling, watching the fire works, tubing, boating, playing games, and of coarse the big water fight (ha....it was hilarious and everyone, i mean everyone got soaked!)

ryder and carter preparing for the big show

sierra modeling the local coon skin cap, and miss quinn modeling a make shift skort (potty accident and i totally didn't bring extra clothes, i know, what was i thiking! fortunately, i had a scarf, so i was all james bond, and poof, we had a skort. quinn loved it and sierra thought it was super cool.)

our view from hole 8 at the local golf coarse (family friends own a home here, so were all invited to view the fireworks right on the fairway....wow!!!)

the aftermath of playing an exhausting game of tag on the fairway with uncle troy, molly (whom is a track star), tiera, daddy, mommy, quinn, carter, sierra and aunt jill