Time flies when you're having fun!

WOW!  I cannot believe how fast this summer is going by!  I also cannot believe that I have not written a blog post since July 8th! 

Although I have not written in a while it is with good reason.  We have been so unbelievably busy!  The two weeks following our return from Colorado were filled with friends, family, and a whole lot of fun!

When we returned from Colorado, the very next day my friend (Kathryn) and her two boys stayed in our home for two weeks.  Kathryn's boys are 10 months, and 2 years (just weeks away from Nate's age).  It was so much fun to get to know her boys more and to see them play happily together with our boys.   I still had the daycare kids during those two weeks and so it was very tight quarters, but I was very happy it all worked out.  Kathryn learned we live a very mellow lifestyle and I think she actually liked that.  Each night we would sit on the couch and talk until very late.  We just loved it!  We felt like we were kids again!  I am so lucky to have such a great friend who knows me inside and out and who I can share everything with!  Kathryn celebrated her birthday on the 18th, and so we managed to escape once for a fun time out after the boys went down for the night.  We planned to meet up with old friends to go bowling and celebrate.  I made her chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes to wish her a very happy birthday. We had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures while she was in town.

Also during those two weeks Jay's sister (Mary) and her two girls were in town from Texas.  The week of the 16-20 was our busiest week...

• First, I took Monday off from work and all of us went to the Cascade Bay water-park.  Tammy and her family met us there as well and we had a lot of fun soaking up the hot sun and playing with the kids.  Afterwards, we headed over to Jay's parents for a short BBQ before heading home.  
• On Tuesday, ET was invited to go the MN Zoo with a very good friend from school.  He was so thrilled to be able to do this!
• On Wednesday, Nate turned 2 and 1/2!  
• On Thursday, Mary, her girls, Jay, and ET all went bowling together.  
• On Friday, they all went out again to see the movie Brave. Kathryn and her boys also left our house on Friday, and that evening we headed over to a friends house to hang out for a while.
• The next morning, we attended Jay's extended family reunion in Wisconsin, and then Mary and the girls followed us back and stayed with us for the night.  We stayed up late and played games and talked.  
• Sunday morning, we headed out to Stillwater for the day.  We shopped, and then ate at the Freight House out on the patio.  It was a great time!  We headed home and prepared the grill for dinner.  Jay's parents joined us and we sat outside and talked while we ate.  Mary planned on leaving one day later, so it was a nice way to end our time together.

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I took while Mary was in town.  You would think someone stole my camera!  I am ashamed to look back at these two weeks and only see this one picture! UGH!

Between the dates of July 17-23, we also had a large construction crew of over a dozen men at our home for a full week installing a new driveway and patio in the backyard.  During this time the kids in the daycare were not able to go outside to play.  It made things really tough, but they enjoyed watching the work being done through the windows.  I think the guys found it pretty humorous to see 12 kids plastered to the windows as they worked.  The construction was complete on Monday, July 23 but then it rained for two days!  By this time, we were all itching like crazy for some outdoor playtime!

Here are pics of the new concrete.  We feel like we have gained additional square footage on the house!  We love being in the backyard now and we eat dinner on our patio table every night that the weather permits. :)

We eventually want to do some landscaping around the patio, but for now Jay worked hard at laying some sod around the edges to make it look nice.  We will look into doing landscaping and getting more furniture next year.

 We LOVE having a sidewalk go all the way to the backyard!

 Our front walk was in pretty bad condition.  It was so sunken down that it would pool up water in the winter time and then freeze and make ice.  We straightened the walk out so that now it runs parallel to the house.  We like this look a lot more and it works a lot better for landscaping.

It is still strange for us to have so much more space to park on now.  We widened the driveway quite a bit on each side.

WOW!  Needless to say, we did not have too many free moments during July; however, Jay, the kids and I enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Being that Nate turned 2 1/2 years old on July 19 I will have to give an update on him in a separate post!

After those two busy weeks, we had about one week of down time.  One thing we did during this week was visit our new neighborhood splash pad.  It is so great to know we can ride our bikes to a free waterpark with the kids!

On Saturday, August 4th we hosted a party for my Dad's 60th birthday and my Aunt Diane and Uncle Rick's 40th wedding anniversary!  We had 22 people for the party and it was such a wonderful day!  We lucked out BIG time with the weather.  The windows in the house were open, the weather was sunny but not too hot, and the bugs magically stayed away from us as we picnicked outside eating our traditional Lundberg chicken!  Of course, the family put on a program to honor my Dad, Rick and Diane.  We shared so many joyful memories until we cried with laughter.  What a blessing to have such a great family!

 Here is my wonderful Dad making the traditional Lundberg chicken...

 This chicken tasted just as awesome as it looked!

 I served the food inside to prevent any bugs from getting at it.  I knew that my cousins (Dave and Mark) would be bringing a Kransekake (a traditional Norwegian wedding cake) to the party.  My Aunt Diane and Uncle Rick had a cake like this at their wedding reception.  My kitchen table became the dessert table - it was beautiful!

 Dave and Mark printed off signs and pictures...

 I had my Aunt Diane type up "40 Memories" before coming to the party.  She emailed me the memories and I displayed them at the dessert table.  Diane shared a few of her favorites with the group during the program.

I made cupcake favors for everyone to bring home.  These were chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  I knew her wedding colors were red, and so I topped each cupcake with a chocolate covered strawberry drizzled with red candy coating.  I tied them off with red ribbon, a homemade tag, and a spoon.

 This cake was gorgeous!

Dave and Mark even brought a jar filled with chocolate covered Oreos wrapped in colorful tinfoil.  This was such a cute idea!  Everyone passed by and had a cookie with their meal. :)

Including my own family, we were a group of 22!  We definitely missed having a lot of the family members, but we enjoyed the company who could make it.

 We needed to move the tables into the shade because we don't have patio umbrellas yet.

 Here are my two adorable boys sitting at the "kid table."  I love that!

The family can never have a get together without having a "program," and so Dave and Mark started out with a fun poem about their parents that they wrote themselves.  After a trivia game, and a few shared memories, Diane and Rick spoke out loud to each other about their marriage.  They shared what 40 years has meant to them and how much they love each other.  I absolutely adored seeing them share such sweet sentiment towards one another!

 Here they are about to cut the cake...

 Sharing a taste! :)

Shortly after we started a program in honor of my Dad.  Here Rick is giving him the gold medal for still having a full head of brown hair!  We all laughed because everyone teases him about this.  They all think that my Dad dyes his hair, but truthfully he doesn't! :)

 Wink - wink...

 Cheers to 60 years old!

Diane and Rick brought him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting - YUM!  I guess I know where I get my taste in sweets from. :)

 Before heading out, I had Dave and Mark decorate their parents car with a white car paint marker.  They did a great job, and Diane and Rick got a huge kick out of this. I hope they received a ton of honks on the way home!

 What a great looking family!