Summer Fun

In spite of my intro to this post, we have been having some fun this summer. :) For example, Lauren finally got that little sister she's been wanting:

And we found a recipe online for "oobleck" that we played with for most of an afternoon. If you've never tried it before, it's really fun for young kids. It feels hard if you punch it, and yet it can be poured like a liquid. So bizarre. Just be sure to throw it away because it starts to smell after a few days. ;)

Oh, and don't eat it. Jon tried licking his hand and then said, "Is not taste very good! Don't eat it in your mouth." (Sometimes living with a speech-delayed child is a little like living with a foreigner trying to learn English...)

We've been enjoying lots of summer food, too. We've loved grilled pizza for a while, but it tastes even better with tomatoes and basil grown in our own backyard! (Oh, and we tried this recipe, too--so yummy!)

We also tried this cheater version of homemade donuts. They were so good and so easy that we've already made them two more times since then. ;) Hey, not everything can be healthy, homegrown vegetables, right?

Of course we've had a few house projects this summer, as well. Nothing compared to the kitchen remodel of last summer, but our biggest one has been improving our front yard. We spent one weekend ripping out half of our lawn (which was mostly dead and weed-filled anyway):

{I love this picture of all 3 generations "working" together. Many thanks to my dad, who joined us for the back-breaking work of removing sod!}

Then we spent another 3 days straight of physical labor, putting in a pathway, new plants, lots of weedblock, and tons of mulch.

We still have a few more things we want to get done in the front, and then I'll share a full before and after, of course!

School starts again in just a couple weeks, but thankfully we still have more summer fun planned before that, including a beach vacation. Did you know it's been 2 years since our last vacation? I think we're due, and I'm ready! :)