love these kids!

it's nice to be home.

mini-vacations

jesse finished his summer sessions with aau on aug. 17th. since then we had a studio opening party, drove to valparaiso, spent a day in chicago, registered ryder for school, switched insurace/doctors, and then packed up and headed to rhinelander.....whew!

our few days in rhinelander were so pleasant! we got to spend a day with the loes family, at their rental on squash lake (skiing, tubing, swimming, even bare footing.....nice work jesse!), and had a lovely cook out with them and also mimi and brian, and the fishing on the river with mark and bev.

here jesse is getting the poles set. see how much ryder is concentrating.....so cute.

not sure fishermen are suppose to be this good lookin!

quinn caught a fish. she was trying so hard to hold it, but it was just too slimy, and she was scared it may have teeth;) she is braver than me, that's for sure.

abby came for a visit!

amazing how much these two little girls love each other....cousins 4 ever!!!

silly face.....i think they got that one down:)

vermont valley cornboil

we are members of a csa (community supported agriculture) this summer and have enjoyed every piece of fruit and veggie that we've gotten! what a lovely way to bring the yummy produce for the local farms to our tables....love it!! and so do the kids!

our farm does an annual corn boil in august, where they invite all the share holders to come out and harvest some corn, and have a potluck dinner...featuring corn on the cob! we were so excited to go, i mean fresh corn, it's so delicious!

focused little farmer!

ryder found his piece....looks good to me:) oh, and we also ate some corn right in the field, raw (the farmers recommendation....and it was amazing!!)

say "corn"

lemonade?

ryder was determined to make some fast cash this summer, so it didn't take long for him to realize the success of the lemonade stand! they had their stand set up by 10am, and we took it in by 1130, and i think they made around $23.00! it worked out pretty well, it was also the huge neighborhood garage sale, and who can resist kids selling lemonade and cookies, really? i loved watching them, it just made me so proud:)

swim lessons-completed!

although we did lots of traveling this summer, the days that we were here, you could find us poolside;) the pool was by far the best investment we could have made for our kids, and for us! swim lessons were all summer long, and both kids did a fantastic job. they are now finished and will continue here next summer;)

my little swimmers
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i loved seeing quinn in her purple goggles

and ryder was such a pool stud/dive master!! my little man is growing up way too quickly!

quinn went to camp!

quinn will be starting pre-school this fall, so to jump start her routine, we enrolled her in a little camp at her school. she was quite apprehensive to start, but once she stepped foot in this lovely space and the teachers said hello, she looked around and realized that it was going to be okay.

this was her on the first day, coming out of the building heading to the play yard. i arrived early to just check in, and she was just beaming!!! what a big girl:)

they also have a little climbing wall outside, so quinn had to show me her skills:) she is quite the climber!

the camp is now over (yeah, and i am now posting the pics...it's been a fun packed summer, what can i say) and quinn loved every day! she will have the same teacher for school, so she is just thrilled. the teachers said that quinn was a lovely little girl, she played nicely with everyone, had quite the imagination, and they were always looking forward to her outfits (cause she's quite the eccentric dresser)! ha:)