Other stuff we did in July

Bleached stars on some shirts for the kids for 4th of July and spent the day at my parents' house swimming and eating and visiting with them, my sister, and one of my brothers and his family.

I made freezer paper stencils like the ones here - they're kind of fun!

Every July, Chik-Fil-A has "Cow Appreciation Day". If you dress up like a cow, you get a free meal! Even if you just wear one cow item, you at least get a free entree. We've gone the last few years, and it's worth looking ridiculous for an hour or so. I should have taken a picture of our tails. Next year I think we'll wear white shirts. If you've never done it, you should next year!

Our second camping trip was also nice. We weren't sure we were going because the whole state was under fire restrictions due to all the forest fires. But two days before we were hoping to go, they lifted the restrictions.

The lake was a little warmer than it was in June. We like to hike down to one of the legs of the lake, where it's pretty narrow and there are fewer people. We liked this family of ducks:

Last time, Robbie found a caterpillar that he played with for a while. This time while we were setting up, he found a buttterfly and was SURE it was his caterpillar. "Mom, my caterpillar turned into a butterfly!"

There were lots of butterflies, and he kept thinking it was all the same one. He named it Pickles. No matter where we were, Pickles showed up (he didn't know there were hundreds of Pickles look-alikes all over the campground). They were very friendly. Erin got them to land on her hands several times - never when my camera was handy, though. Here is Pickles sitting on Robbie's lap while he ate a Pop Tart.

We've had a good summer! Only two weeks til school starts. I'm not super-thrilled about homework and busy weeknights, but I'll be kind of glad to get back into more of a routine/schedule.

Erin's 9th Birthday

Erin turned 9 last week! These kids are growing up!

We kept it low-key like we did for Robbie's birthday. She got to invite two friends to Big Surf. We had lunch at Red Robin and then stopped at home to change before picking up the other girls. Of course Erin got a birthday sundae and an embarrassing song at Red Robin!

I didn't want to deal with my camera at the water park, so the only picture I got of Erin and her friends was in the car on the way over. Erin has been friends with these lovely twins for as long as they could all talk. And boy can they talk - these three are little chatterboxes! Robbie had to get in on the action - or he tried, anyway... their chatting skills are superhuman.

(As a side note, Robbie may or may not have a little crush on one of the girls - the suspicion has yet to be confirmed)

Big Surf isn't a huge waterparks, so we spent four hours there and had time to do everything a few times. We even ran into a couple of girls from church, so they all played together for a while in the wave pool.

After we got home, Erin opened her presents and got to play with all her new stuff.

We're so lucky to have Erin in our family! She's a good example to her little brother and to her mom and dad. She's very smart, and she's a nice kid. It's a little hard to belive she'll be starting fourth grade in just a couple of weeks.

We love you, Erin!