We are definitely loving our summer! I love that we don't have to be anywhere if we don't want to, watching my girls play in the pool, and reading. Alison is loving the "mommy matinees", zoo camp, and scrapbooking. These pictures show our recent trip to a park in West Linn. {After stopping at McDonald's for iced coffee and chocolate milk!} Life is good!

Happy Father's Day!

I found this cute recipe and thought it would be fun to make for the dad's. We had everyone over for brunch on Sunday before Trav and Mike went off to golf, and Greg went to soccer.



While everyone took apart the "burgers" to eat what they wanted {or in Johnna's case, just to lick off the frosting}, Natalie ate the whole thing like a little burger. Love that!

What I'm Reading

I couldn't put down our latest book club book, Sarah's Key. It was haunting, but so good. {I love historical fiction because I always learn something new!}
I started this book next, and it has thoroughly sucked me in. I have loved every Wally Lamb book that I've read, and this isn't any different. This is a fictional story set in a very real setting - Columbine. The fictional characters are intertwined with the real people... the main character has many issues of his own, of course, including the fact that his wife was the school nurse at Columbine High School the on that terrible day. It is another deep - and disturbing - book. I'm going to need a very lighthearted fluffy book after this!

Garage Sale Weekend

This was our second year of participating in the HV garage sale. Last year was sunny, we had tons of stuff to sell, and we made quite a bit of money. I didn't have much to sell this year and the weather was cold! {And, sometimes rainy!} Anyway, we didn't make a lot of money... but the girls had tons of fun with their lemonade stand! {Well, Johnna and Merilyn drank a lot...}




Merilyn spent most of her time finding and playing with all the things she hasn't played with for a year! Her favorite treasure was my old Cabbage Patch doll. She carried it all around with her for two days {after she took the doll's clothes off, of course!}.

Ali's Last Day of Kindergarten

It seems like just yesterday that I was trying not to cry as she walked into her kindergarten classroom for the first time, and today we picked her up after her last day of school. She said she was very excited about summer because of all that she "has planned", but she's sad because she "loves school so much" and she'll miss her friends.

To celebrate her big day she chose to go see UP and have dinner at Red Robin. The movie was cute and funny in parts, but Trav and I were actually surprised how adult the movie was. Ali said there were a lot of parts that were too scary for her. Meri also said, "This is scawy!" as she crawled in my lap. {She still managed to sleep through the second half.}

My Gardening Helper

Merilyn is such a great help in the plant watering department....



Until she is distracted by a bug. Then all gardening duties are quickly forgotten.

A Lost Tooth & the Lost Tooth

Ali: "Hey guys! My tooth came out! My tooth came out!"

Me: "Really?!?" {We have been trying to get this darn tooth out for awhile... it was extremely loose and wiggly!}

Ali: "Yes, really! My tooth.... hey! Where's my tooth?"

This is the part where Travis and I crawled around on our hands & knees for 20 minutes looking for the *&%# tooth. Finally, Travis had Ali show him exactly where she was & what she was doing. {She & Merilyn were wrestling in Ali's room & Meri knocked the tooth out of her mouth!} It turns out she only thought she grabbed the tooth, because it was still right where they had been playing.