A little beach time...

This past weekend, we made some time to hang out at the beach with our cousins.  The girls and boys had a blast digging around in the sand, building sandcastles, digging holes and filling them with water and of course playing in the water!

What a fun day, and looking forward to many more days and evenings at the beach soaking in all the joy that summer days and nights bring us!

The craziness begins...

It's going to be a busy, crazy couple weeks for us!

This weekend... GIRLS weekend.  No, not mom and the girls, but mom and her girlfriends!  Daddy will be home with the girls this weekend and it looks like there is a bunch of rain in the forecast.  I'm sure they will get creative!

Then, the girls... me and my little ladies head to Grandma and Grandpa M's house for part of the following weekend... Mama needs her hair done! 

And then, the girls... me and my little ladies head to Chicago for Tim and Celina's baby shower!  We can't wait for that party!

And then we're off to the Dells for a M family weekend with extended family to celebrate 2 wedding showers, a graduation and baby on the way!

And then, we might be back in Chicago for another baby shower... still waiting to see if flights cooperate.  We'll see.

And then, we have two weekends at home to recoup and over the last weekend of July we're ready to have a birthday party for the girls with our families.  We're going to plan on doing joint parties every year because all our family has a 2-7 hour drive to visit us.

And then, we're into August... what happened to the summer?

And, while the girls are traveling, we're leaving daddy home to hopefully finish the girls new room before the end of July!  Updates on the room to come... we've started the painting, but there is still ALOT of work to do!

And throughout all of this, there are a couple pretty significant days!
Mama's birthday
Nece's 4th birthday
Franny's 2nd birthday

And what are you doing this summer?

Dancing!!

Dancing with the Stars is one of the favorites around here!  It's a good thing that we have a bunch of episodes TIVO'd because we watch them every night.  Not only do we watch the episodes... we mimic and dance the routines!

Grand Ole Day!

In a perfect world, the pictures would come after the update, but Blogger isn't cooperating and I don't feel like messing with it... so here is the day recap!

Every year, St Paul has a one day street festival to kick off the summer, Grand Ole Day!  There is always a parade, lots of food vendors, art fair, kids play area and lots of bands!  Before we had kids, Marc and I ALWAYS spent this day hanging out at the bars listening to bands!  It was a fun, fun day...  My, how the times have changed over the last four years... we just do the parade now!

The girls love the parade and getting candy!  This year was a glorious day as it was sunny and low 80's.  Couldn't ask for anything better after a cool, rainy day on Saturday.  And what a change from the 2009 parade... when we were in gloves, sweatshirts, pants and a crummy, cold day!

Memorial Weekend

Better late than never!  We always travel over Memorial Day weekend, but this year we did something different... we stayed home and loved every minute of it!  It was very warm!  The girls played outside in the water alot, we had a couple bon-fires and were able to spend Memorial Day in Elk River at 'grandpa Bob's' house.  We'll let the pictures do the talking!

My little water rat, Nece jumping into the lake with dad!

Water fun for dad and Franny!

Nece and Franny hanging out with their idol, Emmie!

Franny hanging out and getting ready to go down the slip and slide.  I like how this picture shows how little she still is!

Mya hanging out at the lake!

We were fortunate enough that day to take a boat ride, and for the 2nd time this year, already I forgot my camera 'on land'.  We know there are many more boat rides and trips to the lake this summer... I WILL remember one of these times!

These pictures are from Sunday night... we promised the girls their second bonfire of the weekend... we sent them out to help daddy get the fire started and within less than 5 minutes we had a nice heavy downpour... which made for a damp, but perfect night after the showers passed!

Nece and Franny snacking!

Mya helping gather firewood!

Doesn't Nece look relaxed?

Nece and Mya enjoying snacks and watching the fire!

Coming Back Soon...

I know it's been almost two weeks since I've updated, but we have been busy, busy, busy... The intent is to update sometime before Sunday with pictures from the last two weeks or so! 

See you soon.