Sum-sum-summertime

Celebrating Mike's birthday

Mike's birthday

With Grampy in a train switching yard in Des Moines... a family friend is an engineer and let Henry sit in one of the Union Pacific diesel engines.

Hanging out with Charlie-dog.

"The Cousins" at Great-Grandma D's.

We got back from Des Moines on Monday and have been trying to settle into our summer routine. We had a ton of fun in Des Moines, visiting with family and friends and doing something fun every single day we were there. Henry especially loved getting together with "the cousins" and of course catching all those fish. I was worried that the boys would be incredibly bored last week doing ordinary things since we were all over the place in Des Moines, but they seem to be adjusting okay.

Georgie and I are doing a summer Kindermusik class, and Henry started an instructional soccer class. Yesterday we got a real taste of summer weather (hot and sunny!) and brought out the kiddie pool and slip n' slide, which I foolishly took a few turns on and now my entire abdominal area is so freakin' sore... what was I thinking? We had a really good time out there though.

We also celebrated Mike's birthday on Thursday with a trip to Famous Dave's and an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. What more could a guy want? I consumed more calories that day than I usually consume in a week. I am not exaggerating.

And a very Happy Father's Day to my dad, my father-in-law, Mike, and all the other Dads out there! We celebrated by going out for breakfast and then went to Lake Eau Claire County Park for a picnic. It rained all afternoon so we stayed in and I made strawberry shortcakes with the fresh strawberries we got at the Farmer's Market yesterday- YUM.

Did you all catch the Real Housewives of New Jersey finale? Oh. my. goodness. Those ladies are hysterical. The reunion show is on Tuesday, so set those DVRs. And a big thanks to my pal Kelly in DM, with whom I watched an episode on her super-cool home theatre setup while I was in town. Nothing like watching the housewives in all their glory on a wall-size projector in high def!