Summer Days!

Well, summer has certainly arrived!  The other day it was 102 degrees here in Minnesota - hottest in the whole country!  Hot!  We've been having some summer time fun...playing at the park, eating ice cream, and retreating to our nice cool air conditioned home when the temp crept over 100.

Fun time at the park.  On Saturday, the weather was just too nice to stay inside for nap time.  Since Sarah had taken a nice long morning nap, we decided to skip afternoon naps and head to "the big park."  We went to Chutes and Ladders up in Bloomington, and since it was right by Nanny and Grandpa's, we called them up and they joined us for some playtime and a nice walk on the trails.  The kids just LOVE the park there.  The playground is enclosed, so we know he can't wander off, but when Austin climbs into the tunnels, slides, and climbers, we can't find him until he happens to pop out the end of a slide or climb out of an enclosure.  It is quite the place!  As you can imagine, it is hard to get photos of Austin enjoying the playground when we can't even find him half the time.

There is also a little Sarah sized playground.  Here Sarah is enjoying a little playground slide while Austin (in the background of the photo) disappears into the climber!

Sarah thought it was really fun that she could manage to climb the little playground equipment almost all by herself (with a bit of assistance now and then).

She really wanted to do the sand scooper, but wasn't quite big enough to reach the handles.

Smiles with Daddy!

We went for a walk and Austin enjoyed a nice cool popsicle at the end.

After dinner on Sunday, we treated the kids to some ice cream from Dairy Queen.  We sat on the front step, ate our melty ice cream in the warmth of the summer evening, and enjoyed our sweet children.  I helped Sarah eat some of my ice cream while Austin worked on his ice cream treat.  When Sarah was done with mine, she charmed Austin into sharing some of his...then ended up chasing him down the sidewalk to get another bite, tripping and skinning her knee, but getting up and continuing to chase him until she successfully obtained another drippy bite.

On Tuesday, I narrowly escaped a root canal (long story), then headed home to find Nanny and the kids having a blast in the playroom. The air conditioning was working overtime due to the 102 F temp, so we stayed nice and cool.  We did, however, brave the heat to go shopping for some groceries.  Nanny had some shopping to do too, so we all went together.  What fun!  The kids love to sit together in the race car cart and look darn cute doing it!

"Go Mom!  Drive!  We'll steer!"

After lunch, we decided to do some baking.  Despite the trip to the grocery store, we didn't plan ahead enough to have the right ingredients, so we stopped in at Target before nap time.  While the kids napped, I made the oatmeal scotchies and when the kids woke up, they helped me bake the chocolate chip cookies.  Austin helped read the recipe and use the mixer.  Sarah, when given some chocolate chips to snack on, insisted on putting them in the bowl instead.  She was very excited to help!

The kids were SO excited about the cookies in the oven!  Sarah kept looking through the window and declaring "CUCK---EEEE"  Hmmm...among her vocabulary right now, the most prominent words (aside from Mommy, Daddy, Nanny, and baby) are "cookie" and "more", though usually not used together - yet!

They were being so cute that I took a video of their excitement.  It turned out incredibly cute and they were being total goofballs.  Check it out...