Summertime and the Livin' is Easy...

1. Movie night on the porch.  Lights, popcorn, and watching "Brave" on the laptop--until the mosquitoes attacked.

2. Isabella does her best impression of Santa Claus. 

 3. What to do during a heatwave? Uh, make s'mores in the car!

The result? The chocolate melted, but the marshmallows became more dry than ooey-gooey. Fun, but better over a campfire.

4. Isabella gets fancy. She requested that her nails be painted and then scoured through my box of purses (that I never use) and found a fancy, shiny red one, which she then carried with her everywhere for the rest of the day.

Fancy Isabella takes her wooden horse for a walk with her fancy purse (and boots, of course).

 5. We took a trip to El Dorado Hills to visit BFF and her family. They just bought a new house and are busy decorating and painting. Super fun, says me. 

We spent two nights there, went swimming, ran errands, baked ourselves at a BBQ, took a walk with bats swooping low, ate at a Thai restaurant, hung pictures on walls, and had a Sunday morning dance party. It was so nice, we didn't want to leave, though we did miss Mark.

6. The new house decorating inspired me to come home and paint our bathroom in a warm gray color (it's hard to tell in the photo) but I love it and it makes our 110 year old house feel more like it's-- 88.

7. Scooter-scooting, wagon rides, and a make-shift family band.

Mark's on the keyboard, Isabella's playing the harmonica. Anything. To. Survive. The. Heat.

8. SWIMMING! This is Isabella's year. Thanks to the generosity of our landlords and a fabulous swim teacher, Glenda, who doesn't take any guff from chatty five year-olds, Isabella has gone from being afraid to go underwater to mermaid in just four, 30 minute lessons.

 9. Fourth of July - Matthew loves the chocolate cream pie so much, he goes for the plate, next.

 Dad and Mark challenge each other to croquet in 90+ degree weather.

 Burgers, peach lemonade, chips, and salad. And did I mention the 90+ degree weather?

 Eventually it did cool down and the kids played soccer.

 It got a little cooler and a little darker and the sparklers and snake-things came out.

We watched two fireworks shows--the annual July 3 country club show that we see from the parking lot of the elementary school and the 4th of July show from the fairgrounds. Isabella saw both and loved them. Another first for her, and another love to add to her list: Fireworks.

 10. And finally - the gift of literacy. Isabella has been on her own timeline with writing--even her name. It's hard for two elementary school teacher-parents not to push, but we really have tried not to with her. So it was such a lovely surprise to watch her sit at my mom's house, with art and stationary supplies all around her, sounding out words as she wrote them on envelopes to mail to each of us. I picked up the mail she sent me and on the envelope she'd written "THIS" (backwards 's') "MAYUL" (mail). (wowsers!)

 I opened the envelope and found a cut-out character.
"What's this? " I ask.
"It's me!" says she. 
"Oh, and what are these other cut up pieces?" I inquire.
"They are my arms and legs!" she explains. "You can tape them on."
Alrighty then.

 Pizza with Nana at Tony Tutto's

 Summer lovin'.

Other things to cross off the Summer Bucket List (if we had one):
*Homemade oreos (not so good)
*Homemade popsicles (really good)
*Puppet theater/storytelling/movie night at the library
*Farmers' Market with preschool friends, Christian and Amelie (it was pouring rain and therefore short-lived, but we did get some yummy lemon biscotti)
*water balloon toss