Early Summer Fun

What a busy summer it has been so far!  We have been staying busy with summer camps, baseball games (both professional and coach pitch), swimming, play dates, and the Fourth of July.

We attended the Buffalo Fest at the Springfield Art Association.  The kids needed a silly picture with the SAA mascot.

And speaking of the SAA, both kids attended art camps there and came home with fantastic portfolios of work.  Ethan took a traditional art camp that focused on the outdoors, and Olivia took a ceramics class.

Ethan celebrating a Cardinals (coach pitch baseball team) win.  Ethan really did a great job this season with his hitting and fielding - big improvements from the first to final game.

Olivia and Ethan at a roller skating party.  Both are getting better at skating - no longer clinging to the wall.

Olivia said farewell to her soccer team the Rockstars at a fun pool party.  She has decided to not continue with soccer in the fall.  We all understand this, but we will miss this team and her coach - so much fun and full of positive energy.

The Fourth of July celebrations at Illini Country Club are always over the top fun.  Here are Olivia with friends having fun while waiting for the fireworks.  This year while waiting for them to begin, we had some unexpected excitement when a neighbor's fireworks tipped over and shot into the crowd at Illini.  The crowd screamed and ran for cover, with some of our friends getting hit with the sparks.  Luckily no one was hurt, but it will not be something we forget!

Fun with glow sticks.

On July 5 we traveled to Litchfield for a day of pool and sun.  First the kids had to pick veggies for our dinner from grandpa's garden.

Pool time!

Fun on the paddle boat.

Happy birthday to grandpa!  Here he is with Olivia, Ethan, and Nathan (who was crying because he wanted cake NOW).

Fireworks ended our night.

Olivia and grandpa both ran in the Litchfield Freedom Run 5k and finished at 36 minutes.

Olivia won first place in her age group (5-9 years).  We are so proud of her!

And another reason we are proud of Olivia.  She is taking a baking class and has been doing a fantastic job making our family homemade treats - strawberry shortcake, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, bread, apple pie, berry puff pastry, and cookies.