quinn's fort

lemonade stand, meet your match!

the third annual mangerson food/beverage stand, which always coincides with the westmorland garage sale, was a huge hit this year! instead of doing the standard lemonade and cookies, we decided to step it up a notch. we make cold coffee concentrate (which could be turned into an iced coffee, or a hot coffee), iced tea, lemon/mint water, scones (cherry almond, and chocolate chip almond), and the kids also sold a huge jar of candy (which was just sitting in our cupboard from multiple parties they attended throughout the summer.
everyone loved the coffee and scones (people came back for seconds/thirds). the kids made a whooping $60 in a few hours, which is so much more than i ever made when i was a child! my favorite part was listening to the kids ask the adults what they would like, and then them giggling when they got paid! (i can't remember what i said when i took this picture, but quinn's face is great!)

nature

we went for a family stroll to picnic point, a beautiful trail on lake mendota. reasons we went there were to swim, to look for black raspberries, and for jesse to do a little landscape painting, what we didn't plan on, and what ended up being super awesome, were all these toads! the kids had so much fun chasing them, holding them, collecting them, and then releasing them! i love all the surprises of nature!

kids first swim meet

i am so proud of these kids! i just love watching them, do everything, pretty much! here they are at their first ever swim meet. quinn is the second from the left. ryder is the second from the right. (ps. sorry for my loud voice, but, i had to cheer).

tie dye

it just wouldn't be summer if we didn't tie dye some shirts:) when we were visiting family in birchwood, we got to hang with our cousin cohen for a few days too, and for his birthday, we brought a tie dye kit with us and some shirts, for a fun afternoon activity. the kids had so much fun, and they all made such cool shirts. cohen said it was his first time....and he was so focused on making his creation just right:) i just noticed that he is wearing a shirt that i think ryder made him last year....ha ha....i told you, we tie dye every summer:) 

berry pickers!

we cruised over to the "berry farmer" for our annual evening of blueberry picking. the difference from last year to this year, is the weather was actually tolerable...i think it was like 95 last year, and the kids and i still picked for an hour. this year it was 82, we managed to pick for two hours and came home with about 8lbs of delicious blueberries!! ryder is my picking buddy...man, i love him!!

side note: when i was growing up my friends and i would call the tourists "berry pickers"....i'm still not sure why we called them that, and why berry picking is bad thing(?)....but, i giggle to myself when i go pick berries....sayin, yep, i'm totally a berry picker:)

family reunion

we went to birchwood for a short visit with our cousins from california a few weeks ago. we head up there every summer, for what always is a quick weekend that is jam packed with activity and chaos, but it's so worth it, because we all LOVE spending time with these people!! we wish we could see them more often, and build these relationships to be even stronger, but for now, we will take this one weekend a year and enjoy every second of it! we love you crawford family:)

kickin it at the terrace

we met uncle troy at the union terrace for an evening birthday celebration (troy turned 23!). this place is so wonderful....colorful bistro tables, the lake, free music, food, popcorn, locally made ice cream, and of coarse....pitchers of delicious micro-brew beer....how can you not love this place!!