July List Update

It is hard to believe my two months of time off is coming to a close as of August 1. I have thoroughly enjoyed this extra time with the girls as well as having some extra moments to do other things I enjoy - nap, read for pleasure, and complete household projects to name a few. I have had a couple of great garage sale finds this season that I will have to post at some point. But, this entry is to update where we are in our list of summer fun. It really has been awesome to have this list. When I've had a day where I'm not sure what we are going to do, I already had the brainstorming complete and could just choose what was feasible for that day.

Our most recent list item occured today when we visited the animal shelter. We stopped at Kroger on the way to get some treats, pet food, and toys to donate while we were there. The girls thoroughly enjoyed playing with the cats. Rather than having the cats caged, they have 'cat colonies' where the cats could roam freely in a room. 

Elise also attended 'Spirit Camp' last week, which was the Vacation Bible School at Faith Lutheran. She had a wonderful time, and now is very excited for preschool to get started again.

I don't think we'll thoroughly complete this list before the summer's close, but we'll keep chipping away at the remaining items into the fall.

Elise on the last day of Spirit Camp

Making a mailbox wasn't on the list, but I didn't have any other list pictures to share. We pinned this tutorial on Pinterest and when we ordered a new carseat, we had the perfect box for the occasion. The girls, especially Elise, spent a good hour and a half making, depositing, and opening mail. (This is a great feat because very little holds Elise's attention.)

1. Go to Holiday World
2. Go to Columbus, IN for children's museum and indoor playground
3 Indianapolis Children's Museum with friends
4. Paint a canvas
5. Outside tea party
6. Go to the Splash Pad
7. Visit Blythe, Uncle, Tim, Aunt Molly and Colton in Chicago
8. Potato Stamps
9. Make Giant Bubbles with the kiddy pool
10. Invite friends over to swim
11. Go to every public playground in Bloomington (there are 15) - About half way through
12. Visit Nana and Papa J
13. Invite Katherine down from Indy to swim
14. Go to the zoo with Katherine
15. Go to the Paynetown Beach for a picnic and splashing
16. Go on a nature hike
17. Visit the animal shelter
18. Go to a farm
19. See the True Story of the Three Little Pigs  - Had to replace this with Beauty and the Beast because the other sold out before we bought tickets - Elise and Wes are going this weekend
20. Go to Jumping Joey's when it opens
21. Walk to Bruester's (hopefully we'll do this more than once this summer!)
22. Swim lessons
23. Vacation Bible School
24. Ride bikes on the B-Line Trail
25. Ride city bus to the Chocolate Moose
26. Lunch with Papa T at the IMU
27. Read all 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know - Only 22 more to go!
28. Build ice cream sundaes
29. Make fruit pizza
30. Visit the Pioneer Village at Spring Mill State Park
31. Bowling
32. Do something kind for someone else

Mini-Vaca

Elise wants to go to Disney. Really bad. It is expensive to go to Disney. But, totally worth it, I'm guessing. Imagining Elise meeting 'Real Belle' warms my insides. It will be special....

Relevance to this blog post - we didn't get to go on a real vacation this summer. However, we had a great mini-vacation in Chicago and Lake Geneva. We got to spend time with our good friend Sarah and her kiddos on Thursday, play around the city on Friday, and then head to Lake Geneva with family on the weekend. It was a wonderful getaway (and I would have welcomed a few more days :).

Things are starting to get busy here as we near August. It will be a transition of school and work after a lazy, fun summer, though I hope to get a few more of our list items knocked off before the summer officially comes to a close (list post update coming soon.)

Family

We had the greatest blessing of getting to spend time with our entire family on each side in one week's time. Josh, Rachel, and Caleb were in Indianapolis for Alex's wedding. Wes and Lilah got to meet Caleb for the first time, and Elise and I got to see how much he's grown since March. He is a sweet, smiley baby and cute as you can fathom. 

 

 At the end of the week we traveled to Chicago and then on to Lake Geneva for an Erwin family gathering. We so appreciate Tim and Molly's generosity in inviting us to the lake and enjoying the beautiful, relaxing atmosphere. Colton was busy crawling and pulling himself up - he'll certainly be walking the next time we see him.

Wes and I are so fortunate to have two families who enjoy and love each other - we realize how rare that can be. We attribute so much of that to our wonderful parents - thanks to each of you.

4th of July in Bloomington

Lilah didn't love parade this year - too noisy!

There is nothing that quite says "Happy Independence Day" like the 4th of July Parade in Bloomington. It is the wackiest display of freedom of speech you'll come across.

Elise got to meet up with her good friend Molly

Elise said it wasn't scary taking a necklace from this 'Fourth of July Skeleton' - anything for jewelry