Hot Summer Days

We have been blessed with an early summer this year! I, for one, love this hot, sticky, breezy weather and my kids do too! They have been having a blast in their wading pool and running through the sprinkler. I think we had the sprinkler on in May, which is pretty unusual for Minnesota!

We also visited the beach at the end of May when we had some 90 degree days. Logan and Lily love "swimming" and splashing around in the lake. Neither of them can actually swim yet so they stay in the shallow water and splash around. Sometimes they will go in the deep water with Mommy and Daddy but they need to be wearing a life jacket.


Miss Lily has the cutest little ruffley bikini but we had some trouble getting her to wear it! She didn't want to show her tummy. Hopefully this attitude will still be present when she is 13. ;D Once we got her to the lake she forgot all about her bare tummy and spent a good hour splashing around in the lake.

Logan is a little fish and he loves to dig in the sand. The water was unbelievably cold but he still went in up to his neck! The kids were digging in the sand and found some catepillars. Lily ended the lives of a few of them before we successfully had the children gently hang on to them so we could put them in a jar at home.

I'm happy to report that it has been a couple of weeks and the caterpillars are still alive in their jar, it will be interesting to see if they make cocoons. We've been having so much fun this summer with the wonderful weather and playing in the water, I look forward to making more fun beach memories this year.

Home Made

I consider myself an average seamstress at best. I can slipcover chair pads, sew curtains and hem jeans. However, when it comes to actually making clothes, I really haven't done that much sewing. I made myself some skating skirts, which turned out OK but they definitely could've been better.

Well, this summer I decided I wanted to make Lily some cute shorts outfits and maybe a couple of dresses. I found a pattern at Walmart on sale for $1.50 and they always have fabric on sale for $1 per yard. So I picked up some sale fabric and this is my first attempt at a cutesy girl outfit.

I admit it could be better and now there are some things I have learned for the next outfit. (Like not to make the straps so wide because Lily has smaller shoulders.) It is a good thing that this fabric was so cheap so I don't feel so bad that it isn't quite the quality of a boutique baby store. Still, I hope to practice and get better. I just need to find the time! It took me almost 2 days to finish this outfit.

I think that when fall and winter hit, I will have tons more time and that is when I will attempt to make some cute summer outfits for next year. I think I will also have a little more patience. I admit that I was in a rush to get this done because I have hard time focusing on craft projects when I should be working!

The nice thing is, fabric is so cheap and I can even buy pocket folds used for quilting and turn those into outfits for Lily. I think the next thing I sew for her will be a dress. I'm so thankful to my grandma for teaching me to sew! I could never have even tried something like this if she hadn't shown me the way around a sewing machine.

The Saint Michael Fire Station

Every year, our local fire department hosts a fire station open house and let's all the kids come play on the fire trucks and tour the building. They also provide games, an inflatable jumper and food. The open house is free but they do have a raffle with all proceeds benefiting our volunteer fire department.

We decided to bring Logan and Lily and they had such a blast. Logan was just thrilled to climb in and out of the fire trucks, play the games and bounce in castle jumper. We stayed for an hour, maybe more and it was difficult to get the kids to leave. We got some really cute pictures of the kids playing on the fire trucks.

Logan spent the rest of the day playing with his fire trucks at home. He also wore his fire helmet and insisted that he was the fire chief. By chance, I had checked out Curious George Visits the Fire Station and, of course, that is the book we just had to read for bedtime story.

Lily spent most of her time either eating hot dogs or jumping in the castle but she did also check out the fire trucks. She wasn't quite as enthralled with them as Logan was but they both had a great time. It was a rainy day so it was a perfect way to entertain them without resorting to TV. We are so lucky to live in such a great community that hosts these types of events for our youngsters!