summer's over

I feel like I was so negligent in posting the last half of the summer, that I thought I’d bore you all with one long informational post {complete with photos, of course!}.

So where should I start?  Let’s see ... there was the afternoon I came home from work {late} and Curt was going on a conference call, so I decided to take the girls on a picnic dinner at the playground.  We packed up our dinner and headed to the park.  The weather was perfect for pb&j and corn puffs!  See photos here.

Next up ... the hatching of monarchs!  Curt had taken the girls up to the lake and guaranteed ... they come home with some sort of creatures every time!  This time was a box full of monarch caterpillars.  The girls built a nice habitat for them, put them in the bug house and watched mother nature take its course.  We watched as the chrysalises were formed and slowly the butterflies were hatched.  It truly is amazing!  The girls carefully took out the ones that were ready and released them outside.  See photos here.

After the butterfly hatching, we took the girls {and honorary sis, Ana} to the Racine County Fair {you have to read that with a little bit of a southern accent ...}.  The girls loved the rides.  Hunter’s turning into quite the little adventure-mobile!  Wonder where she gets that from.  :)  See photos here.

All summer long we go out and feed the fish at the bridge.  The girls love it, the fish thrive on it, and it’s sort of become a tradition.  This time was a little different though ... it involved winter boots, a nakie fanny and a princess crown!  See photos here.

Then there’s the annual trip to the EAA air show in Oshkosh.  For some reason, I’ve missed the last couple of years ... so was glad to catch this one.  See photos here.

Remember how Piper was on swim team?  Well, the club had awards night and since everyone got an award {and Piper did a great job} we needed to head over there.  As soon as the awards were handed out, we boogied out of there and over to the Ophelia Project run.  Piper and Wynter ran in the ‘kids dash’ ... it was so sad {cute} that we put these kids at the start line, we head down to the finish line and then ask these kids to run for their lives ... right into a sea of screaming fans!  A lot of the kids started crying just as they were nearing the finish line.  Gotta prepare them better for that one next time.  And then after the race was over, I had to take advantage of the beautiful night, Hunter’s great dress {thank you Trishie}, and the beach.  See all photos here.

Let’s see ... then there was a day off with the girls.  We were trying to think of what we could do.  I can’t remember now what the first thing was that we were going to do, but for some reason that didn’t work out.  Then I talked them into going to the Mitchell Park Domes.  I hadn’t been there in years and thought it would be fun.  It wasn’t super great weather ... so I thought it would be perfect.  We headed out and just as I was getting on the interstate, decided to call to make sure they were open.  Nope, they were in fact, not open.  Closed for renovations.  Okay, what next?  We decided to try out Apple Holler.  Turned out to be great fun!  See photos here.

Oh yeah ... and then my {very weak} attempt at potty training Hunter.  See photos here {yeah, there are photos}.  And no, she’s not potty trained.

If you didn’t read here, here or here, I took Taylor on a trip to Los Angeles right before school started.  I think it’s important that she and I spend some alone time together, without Curt and the other girls ... so I asked where she wanted to go, and she decided on LA.  We brought Ana with too.  It was a really great time!  See photos here.

And lastly, the day before school started, I took the girls to Six Flags.  I hadn’t been there in forever and have really wanted to take them this summer.  It was just the four girls and me, and we had a great time.  The weather was perfect for it and I’d love to make it a ‘day-before-school-starts’ tradition.  See photos here.

OH! One more thing ... I took the girls to the State Fair.  I didn’t want to bring my camera along, and then of course regretted it ... but here are a few photos I snapped with my phone.  The first one is of Hunter on a trampoline bouncy thing ... you have to look kind of carefully, but she’s on the top of the photo.  The other two are of the girls eating cream puffs.  Fortunately, no one got a photo of me eating one!  :)