Hot Fun in the Summertime

It's weird. I feel like I've been having a super lazy, laid back, just kickin' it kind of summer, but then I look at all that we've been doing, and it's been kind of jam-packed. I feel very oxymoron-ish. You know, jumbo shrimp, and pretty ugly. Busy summer. Or maybe the oxymoron is calm summer. Either or.

I mentioned in passing that Jakob took an art class at the beginning of the summer. They learned about mixing paints, and about different artists like Van Gogh and Picasso. Here's one of Jakob's masterpieces:

When I saw it, I was like, my 5-year-old painted that?!? I was impressed. He also did a clay thing, where they pushed different items into the clay to create molds and texture, but it was so brittle that it broke. Doh.

We've been playing outside, a lot. Especially the boys. This means that even though the boys are pretty good about keeping the doors closed behind them, sometimes they forget. So the ever-curious Ivy was leaning out the door, and either tried to step out onto our stairs or just fell out, and over the edge onto the cement. Don't worry, though, her forehead caught her fall:

Poor thing. I've been wanting to get a rail for forever, and I just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe that will happen this year (you know, now that the threat has passed-I doubt Ivy will be hanging out of the door again).

We got a swing set, which the boys have been loving. Pete's parents came to visit us a couple of weekends ago, and Pete and his dad put it together. The first day they kept doing different poses down the slide-on their bellies, with arms folded, backwards, as a train, etc.

I love this picture, of Jake's little grin. And it looks like Troy had just fallen off of his swing. Pure awesomeness.

We started swimming lessons for the two older boys yesterday. No pictures yet, mostly because they don't allow the parents to stay close by ("Go up to the viewing area! I'm the pool Nazi!"). But hopefully I'll sneak some in soon. Jakob stays busy during the lesson splashing around and wiggling a ton, and Brock stays busy refusing to do anything the teacher tells him to do, and will only go in if he's attached to her like a baby koala to its mom. I'm glad I pay money for these things.

And today we went to the park, and had a picnic with my sisters and mom. Here's my Brocky-foo-foo eating some watermelon:

It was fun to just go and play. It's been hot hot hot, but the kids don't seem to notice as they're running around being crazy and cute. Here's a little slide show for the picture pirates:

Like I said, I think it's going to continue to be a good summer.