July 2011

It's almost August! Ugh. That means only a couple weeks left of summer vacation. It's sad, but in a way, I'm ready to go back.

I didn't take many photos in July, but we were busy. The boys took a great cooking class at the nearby Hy-Vee. It was three days long and focused on cuisine from different regions of the US. The first day was New York. We made wraps with apples, hummus and tuna and a few other dishes. The second day was Tex Mex. This was the best day. We made a summer squash casserole, black-eyed pea dip and fruit salsa. The last day was California. We made a chicken pasta salad, shrimp kabobs with lots of veggies and frozen peach pops. I will definitely sign the boys up for this again. It got them to try a lot of new foods and they loved chopping and mixing. We even made a few of the dishes at home for dad to try. We made a salad, the squash casserole and bean dip. The boys love cooking!

We have spent a lot of our time in July at swim lessons. Jack refuses to take them, but Charlie started them and loves them! He is doing two mini-marathons and goes every day. We are going on our fourth week of every day swim lessons. He has progressed so much and is an amazing little swimmer. He likes it so much that he has decided his goal is to be on a swim team. He wants to continue to take lessons throughout the school year. It makes me really happy to see him enjoy something so much.

Charlie also just finished his Intro to Drawing class. He had his final art show this weekend. He drew five really great pictures with everything from watercolor paints to charcoal. He did a still life and a collage. Now I have a lot of great art that I need to frame and hang up!

Doug and I made a little weekend trip to Minneapolis in July to see U2. This was on my bucket list, so I had to go! It was amazing. I want to go see them in concert again. We dropped the boys off in Des Moines with Doug's mom and sister. The boys (as well as Barb and Jessie) really enjoyed the alone time they had. They did a lot of fun things and got to visit with Kiley.

Jack had his first sleep over in July. His friend Ethan lives in Council Bluffs and the two met in preschool at St. Albert. They just love hanging out, so we had Ethan over for the night. We went to McDonald's, out for ice cream, played in the slip n slide and played dress up.

My friend Pam took photos of the boys for me this month. She did a fantastic job. I love the photos and can't wait to put some on canvas and get them up on the walls!

So, we have about two weeks left of summer and so much left we want to do. We have plans to visit a water park, go to the lake, attend a Back-to-School BBQ, among other things. Why, oh why, does summer have to end?!