mad scientist

our neighbors, don and patty, have taken quite the interest in our children, and visa versa (our kids are always chatting with their friends, don and patty). every day they exchange some sort of greeting, discovery, witty comments, jokes, advice....the list goes on! one of the shared interests between our neighbors and the kids (well, and jesse and i) is the love for science and nature. don is a retired middle school science teacher, so is an endless pit of useful information and experiments. he had one that he wanted to share with the kids called "water rocket launch".

we pumped. 

we measured

and we launched (and also calculated flight time)

and we learned lots about air pressure (and also humidity). it was so fun! science in our backyard:)

go-pack-go!

jesse and ryder were invited to go to a preseason packer game at the end of august, they, of coarse, went..duh:) it was the first packer game for both of them....what a wonderful experience to share as a father and son!!

view from the seats

leaving lamdeau. 

this is totally how a little boy becomes a life long packer fan...for sure;)

outdoor theatre....yes please!

some of our good friends (who live around the corner from us....love the ease of frienship here!), spontaneously put together an outdoor theatre to create a wonderful memory for out little kiddos. it was a warm summer evening, about 10 kids, popcorn, drinks, chairs, pillows, and blankets spread out over their backyard....and the lovely movie,  "the secret world of arrietty"! so so fun;)

summer essentials!

so at our house, we create what we call a "summer to do" list. this list consists of things that just make summer, well, summer:) for example, going mini golfing, getting ice cream at the union terrace, camping....ect. the list is quite long and we have managed to get through most of it...and sometimes we can cross multiple things off on one day....now, that's a GOOD day!!! 

on one friday morning, while our friend oliver was visiting (he was with us for an entire week....he lives in seattle!!), we all woke up, had breakfast, tie dyed about 7 shirts, made cookies, made lemonade, and set up the annual lemonade stand by 10am:) whew! (that took 3 things off our summer list).

the kids had so much fun. they all had a specific duty (oliver handed out cookies, quinny handed out lemonade, and ryder handled the money). i loved watching all three of them....oh, they would giggle, nudge, whisper...and giggle more!

the birthday bash!

we invited a few friends over to celebrate ryder's birthday. ryder wanted a backyard water party, with a bonfire and a camp out....and that sounded like fun to us, so that's what we did!

 cruising down the slip and slide.....right into a mud hole!! it was awesome!!!

 quinny enjoying her s'more!!

 jesse had his technique down with perfectly roasting or should i say caramelizing marshmallows! we have never used our homemade marshmallows for s'mores before (i usually just make them in the colder months for hot cocoa) BUT, i will never by marshmallows for s'mores again....this was amazing!!!

the three amigos! ryder and his buddies playing one more round of croquet before they hopped into their tent....and then giggled and chatted most of the night....but, it's one night, so it was totally worth it;)

marshmallows

hard at work making the marshmallows for the s'mores! it's so easy and so fun!!

funfetti cake

 ryder requested a funfetti cake this year, so i was determined to make it myself:) we ended up with a colorful double layered funfetti cake with super delicate vanilla frosting (i made the 7 minute frosting...and man, i think i could eat that on anything!!)

quinn thinks this cake was pretty delicious too!!