ice skating in july

I took the boys ice skating today...yes, in July.  The had gotten so good at it over the winter that I didn't want them to lose any of that progress!  We had the rink practically to ourselves - there were maybe 12 other people there over the course of the hour.

Ready to go!

Fresh ice!

Getting the hang of it

Carefully...

An old pro

Whoa!

Helmet for safety!

And...he's off!

Down he goes



Two exhausted little boys

 

super summer dinner

Tried three new recipes tonight - all hits!  (With the grown-ups).  Summertime Chicken (thanks, Jillian!) with Brown Rice with Vegetables and Green Bean Salad with Maple Dijon Vinaigrette.  And there's plenty of leftover sauce from the chicken to make pasta tomorrow!

'I'm so super cool...J.E.R.K'

More silliness from Little Caesars last night...he was dancing around singing "I'm so super cool...I'm a JERK - Junior Educated Rich Kid"  HA HA HA HA HA HA

boardshorts

I picked up these cute little shorts for Owen at Costco...I'm sure 2 million other kids in America are wearing them this summer.  But I wonder if those 2 million mothers encounter the amount of discussion and whining that I do each time these shorts appear at the top of the laundry stack.

"Mom...everyone thinks that I'm wearing a swimsuit" - it's kind of like a swimsuit
"Mom...should I wear underpants?" - it's up to you, kiddo
"Mom...why do these have strings?" - so they don't fall off your skinny tush
"Mom...are the other pants that look like a bathing suit but aren't a bathing suit clean?" - usually the answer is no...the other ones are white and I don't wash white very often.  Besides...what's wrong with these?

I will say though...he looks pretty dang cute in them. 

After much cajoling and discussion...I finally got him into the water with them on.  And he loved how quickly they dried.  "Mom...why didn't you tell me they dry super fast?!"  I seriously cannot win.



Working on his dive



Hot-n-Ready

The boys were in a seriously silly mood tonight when we stopped to pick up pizzas.  Here they're pretending to to eat the giant crazy bread on the wall.  Goof balls.

keeping cool

Just relaxing...doing workbooks, watching Disney

Frogs, anyone?

The boys are drawn to a small retention pond at the back of our subdivision.  I'm not exactly sure how this particular pond might help with drainage of the neighborhood...it's full of weeds, reeds, and wildlife.  The kids love it.  Last fall, I first heard the phrase "can we go to the frog pond with Brendan?" and didn't realize that I'd hear those words many MANY times in the future.

The frog pond never has much water in it, but we've had NO rain to speak of for the last several weeks, so it's particularly dry these days.  That didn't discourage three little boys and one little girl from traipsing through it with their nets and buckets last night.  There were no frogs to be found, but they came home with plenty of mud!

As for me...I'm with Brendan's little sister - "it's too itchy at the frog pond"