summer mish-mash

Due to my lack of consistent posting, I have decided I am going to a seasonal mish-mash approach.  I took (and taught) a lot of classes this summer so we spent most of the summer close to home.  Which would have been great except it was outrageously hot this summer.  Record high temps, record high electric bills and record brown lawns.  (side note.  I love that I live in a community of people who do not water their grass... either for environmental or financial reasons: it doesn't matter- I'm kind of proud of my brown grass community)

 

We spent most of our time inside trying to stay cool.  I found a blow up pool on clearance this summer, which I thought was a fabulous idea, until I realized it was likely on clearance because it was huge and took over a 1,000,000 gallons of water to fill.

So much for the saving water on the grass...

Charlotte went to her first day camp at Durley.  This felt like a huge milestone for me, right of passage for me, moment in time for me.  She said "yeah, it was fun", guess it was just a cool day for her.

We also had our girls night-out Muny tradition, this summer.  Starting with dinner at CPK ...

 this year they were showing Aladdin... which was adorable.

 plus there was ice cream.

Since we were home, there were occasional projects that get ignored throughout the school year.

Many weddings.  Many many weddings... (which is not me complaining- we really enjoyed them)

 And some fun play dates with friends.

 

We somehow bought season's passes to Six Flags, which turned out to be a huge hit this summer.  Even with the heat the kids loved it.  Charlotte is tall enough (due to her crazy long legs) to ride most of the roller coasters and she rocked them.

There were also quite a few rides for Claire.  She managed to get her money's worth as well (she was free).

 Claire looking for trash.

The Olympics were in London this summer. We watched as much of it as possible.  Both girls loved all things swimming.   The races, the diving, the synchronized, the polo... pretty much if it was in water Charlotte was into it. 

 Claire was into the pie...

There was also swim lessons (6 full weeks).  Charlotte went from Level 1 to Level 3 which meant at the end of the summer she was able to jump off the diving board, come up by herself and then swim to the edge of the pool.  She is quite the little fish, as you can see in her backstroke.  Watch out Missy Franklin...

Claire took a mommy/daddy and me class in which she was nearly impossible to contain.  Her favorite being:
"I'm a piece of popcorn, put me in the pan.  Shake me, shake me, fast as you can.  And I will... POP!"