Fourth of July

On the Fourth of July, we attended a way cool parade.

Our kids absolutely loved it because of all the candy they got!!
Caroline and her friend, Emma.

The firetrucks were a little too loud for Luke. (and me) Jake and his friend, Haleigh. Cooling off after the parade.
After the parade, we had some good friends from college come over for a barbeque and swimming. (the barbeque wasn't perfect . . . it went up in flames, actually . . . but the swimming and the company was fun!)The kids were happy because there were a lot of other kids to play with!Check out this Jello mold Caroline made!! I got that mold years ago when we lived in Virginia. I'm glad we kept it. (You can get the recipe for the layers here.) She was super proud of it.

God Bless America!!

I am so thankful for our freedom!

Glen Ellyn Regatta

Over the Fourth of July weekend, we got to watch Jake row in a cardboard boat race in Glen Ellyn. (yes, I said cardboard)

It was a blast!!

Here is his rowing team.

Their boat was made to look like a Wii remote and they wore shirts that said Mii on them.

Here come the rowers . . . they are ready!
Jake was at the back of the boat steering, which was a bit tricky.

At first, they were having a hard time going around the buoy, but they managed to win the first heat. (they were actually disqualified because of going over a buoy instead of around it, but then the judge reconsidered and they won the heat . . . whew!!)hooray!!

They had to quickly dry off the cardboard boat and put it up on a stand to dry so it would not get soggy. They still had another heat to race in.

Here are some of the other boats . . .

"The Nerds" . . . look at their cute pencil boat.

"Tippy Canoe and the Mrs. Too"

"Vikings"

Here is Noah waiting to race.

And here is Noah's Ark . . . it was kind of funny because the boat was so high, the paddles hardly touched the water.

"The Yellow Submarine"

"Michigan State"

This lone rider ended up winning the entire kid race.

"Stanley Cup Champs"

"The Economy . . . Trying to Stay Afloat"

Unfortunately, this one sank right away.

"Hello Kitty""Metra"

I was impressed with this one . . .

until it entered the water . . .

"Unleashed"

The man who made this boat, made the boat the kids raced in . . . he did such a great job.

Look at their hats! (also made out of cardboard)

"Pezident Lincoln"

"The Empire State Building"

This one would have had a chance at winning . . . until a guy dressed as King Kong tried climbing up it while they were rowing . . .




It was so much fun to see the creativity and hard work that went into these cardboard boats.

It's too bad that most of them ended up here . . .

It was a fabulous day spent with really great friends . . . a big "thank you" to the Bickharts for inviting Jake to be a part of this race. :)

Busy Summer . . . Fun Summer

So far this summer has been packed with fun things for the kids to do.

Last week, Jake was in a football camp at Wheaton Academy . He sure loved it and the coach informed me that Jake was really good at it and he could see football in Jake's future (uh oh! . . . that is what I was afraid of . . . We have too many broken bones in this family!)

Jake is in a baseball camp this week and Caroline is in a sports camp at Wheaton Academy. (which she loves!)

I am teaching swimming lessons to a group of kids in our pool twice a week. (call me crazy . . . but it is super fun!) I am also doing a lot of tutoring during the week.

It's good to keep busy, but it's good to have time to do things like catch frogs . . .

. . . and swim with good friends . . .

. . . and just be together . . .. . . .and do things that you normally don't do when there is snow on the ground . . .. . . and sometimes it is good to just sit and enjoy the scenery . . .

I adore summer.

Before and After

This summer, I have had a LOT of time to sit in my backyard while watching my kiddos swim. I've been making a list of how we can improve our yard and the back of our house.

The other day, I realized that our kitchen window could look so much better.

before

Sooo . . .now it looks like this.

after

All it took was about $30 worth of supplies. ($20 for the shutters and $11 for the shelf on clearance at Hobby Lobby . . . I already had the pots)

This is what it looks like from inside our kitchen.

Nice to look at while I'm doing the dishes and counting my blessings. :)

Easy Bruschetta

We had some good friends over tonight for a swim and a poolside barbeque. I made bruschetta for the first time. It turned out really well, I think!! Here is how I did it. (with the help of Whole Foods Market . . . I love that place almost as much as I love TJ's . . . almost)

I bought a tub of their delicious heirloom tomato bruschetta mixture.

I also bought a French baguette that was already sliced.

I brushed olive oil on one side of each piece of bread and put in on the top rack of the oven at 450* for about 5 minutes. (olive oil side down)

Then I took it out of the oven and put the slices of bread (olive oil side up) on a platter and put the bruschetta mixture on each one and served it immediately.

Oh yum . . . and fresh!! It had just the right amount of garlic and cilantro in it.

SO Easy!! And delicious!!

If you don't have a Whole Foods Market to help you out, you can find all kinds of bruschetta recipes online when you Google it.

(p.s. that is not really my picture of my bruschetta . . . I didn't take one because I was too busy with my company to think about taking a picture . . . I just found one on SimplyRecipes.com that looked like mine.)

Summer Saturday

At 4:00 in the morning, I never would have guessed that Jake would still have his game today, but the horrible storm passed and everything dried up. They ended up losing, but they fought hard and the score was close. I am always so proud of Jake and his team.

After the game, we did a lot of swimming.

I am so thankful for our pool!!

We have really used it a lot this summer.
We are having some old neighbor friends of ours over for dinner tomorrow night.

I am trying to decide what to make.

I'm thinking about making bruschetta for an appetizer. (I've never made it before.) I'll let you know how that turns out. :)

I think we will just have grilled cheeseburgers with all the fixin's, strawberry spinach salad, chips, fruit, and s'mores for dessert.

I love summer . . . entertaining is so much easier when you can grill and eat outdoors!