4th of July weekend

Our summer has been filled with busy days and lots of activity so far.  It's feeling like a good summer with so much fun to look forward to yet.  This past weekend we were able to check a couple more things off our summer list.  One was mini golf.  There is a little place down the road from us that is simple and usually not very busy, so I thought it would be a good way to spend a little time with these 3 to help fill our morning.  Sam has been very interested in mini golf since he tried it for the first time at a Mother/Son school event at the end of the school year.  It was a tough job keeping them focused and all in one general area, but we made it and had fun:)

And we always have to get a little strawberry picking in.  We went back for a second time as we just can't get enough of the fresh strawberries.  Such a treat that we wait for all year, but something that lasts only a couple weeks.  I managed to get a few in the freezer, so hopefully we can wait until winter to pull them out and enjoy them then.

This is more what the reality of strawberry "picking" looked like!  It was me trying to keep the kids in our row and trying to get them to pick their 10 strawberries they had to contribute to the box.  I think Mollie sat like this for most of the 20-30 minutes we were there:)

On the 4th of July we watched our town's annual parade.  It was a nice change to have cooler weather this year instead of the normal 90's for the parade.  It's a crazy tradition for people to start putting chairs out the night (make that afternoon) before, just so they can get a front row seat for this parade.  Sam and I sat for 4 hours the afternoon before holding our spot before we could leave our chairs for the night.  Crazy thing is that he had so much fun and didn't want to leave!  I ask myself every year why we do it...but it's for the kids of course, so they can sit on that curb and catch candy:)

Here they are watching the participants line up for the parade in the fairgrounds.  Speaking of fairgrounds, we can't wait for the fair!  But that will also mean the new school year is fast approaching.

Then we spent the rest of the weekend in Madison with Ed's brother and his family.  It was so nice to have the shared time together.

We went to the Madison zoo...which was free and really nice, and got another thing checked off our summer list!  The animals are always fun to see...

 But the carousel and train are always favorite!

 3 girl cousins who love to play together and pose in kangaroo pouches together:)

 The girls:)

We enjoyed lots of fun playtime at several different parks.  My kids LOVE these web/rope climbing structures and were so excited to find this at one of the parks.

 And this picture of nephew Will was just way too cute...I had to share!

 Cousins...no one was thrilled to take this picture, but we HAD to do it:)

 Ice cream was enjoyed by all.  You should have seen these kids lined up for their cones!

And today we are back home and swimming lessons have started for Sam.  For the next month our mornings will be spent at the pool.  Sam is taking this session and the girls can swim while he is having his lessons.  Then for the next session they will all be in swimming lessons...the first time for the girls, and the first time for this mom to have all 3 involved in something at the same time.  Hopefully I can sit back and watch them all from my chair on the pool deck...hopefully as Emmeline is a little bit hesitant yet about the whole lesson idea, but I think once she tries it she'll have fun.

Here's hoping for warm weather for swimming!