July...So Far

I've said it before and I'll say it again..being outside this summer has been the best.  We even started taking our meals outside, significantly reducing the amount of cleaning up I have to do inside!  It's the best!

The real story of July has been building the tree house.  It will get a post of its own upon completion.  Here's a taste from building day #1.

We've managed to squeeze in a little playing around the tree house efforts, mostly when Dad's at work.  Esme has developed a new technique for the slide.

These guys love our "hikes."  This day we went to Beer Can Lake to explore some trails.

Please take note of the steepness of the hill we just conquered with the stroller!  The twins felt pretty good about "climbing the mountain" all by themselves!

I am loving watching these guys become themselves.  There is a lot of silliness in a house with two toddlers, that's for sure.

We checked out the botanical gardens one day.  It was lovely and peaceful, but it did make me wish for Griff's.  That place was so pretty!  Ezra especially loves "pretty flowers!" and they both like to point out every flower they see as we drive around town.  When Ezra walks out of our house in the morning, he gets really excited to see whatever flowers are around, even if they are the same flowers that were around yesterday.  He yells in his most excited voice, "Pretty!"  So I thought he would enjoy this garden and I was right.

We've been enjoying the flowers in our yard.  There are tons of roses.  This is just a snippet of the roses along the fence before they really got going.  I'll have to get a picture of our nasturtiums that just started blooming and are awesome.

My favorite are the peonies in front.

We hit up Bass Pro Shop one day for some kiddie activities.  Esme got to shoot her very first BB gun. She hit the paper.  Pretty much a natural.

And they got to practice casting, which made Ezra very happy.

Don't forget Thomas!  Thomas loves to smile and to admire his hands.  He's a finger sucker for sure. I should probably be worried about what a bad habit it will be and how hard it will be to get him to stop someday.  But for now, I'm really just thrilled that he can get himself to be happy all of the time. It's pretty great. He really is so so nice.

 

Sometimes I feel guilty that we're not getting in very much reading this summer.  But look...here's proof we are doing some!

See, cute and happy.

Ezra spent a couple days last week obsessed with rose hips.  He would be happy for a long time, running to the back of the backyard and picking a handful of rose hips and then doing it again.  And again.  And again.

Every once in a while we'll just go for a walk in our neighborhood.  And every once in a while the two wrestlers will take a break from wrestling and just hold hands.  Melts my heart every time.  They really are pretty great. 

Esme loves to keep Ezra safe.  She'll pull him away from any danger, knocking him to the ground if necessary.  Maybe it's a dog across the street, or maybe Ezra's getting too close to the road...don't worry.  She's got it.  

We found a little bit of graffiti out at Point Woronzoff that I thought looked nice and colorful behind my tots.  

Thomas loved it out there.

It's really non-stop fun around here.