Summertime!

Happy Fourth of July! What a privilege to have a day to celebrate our country and remember all of the blessings we have to live in the United States of America! It is also a great day to revive us in prayer for our leaders and people.

We have had a little bit of a lot but not too much going on in the past couple months. Mother's Day and graduation were the highlights of May, along with hosting company a few times. June was highlighted with Matt's birthday, Father's day, my birthday, a week with Jesse, piano lessons on Tuesdays at Mom's, library visits, and of course miscellaneous plans on many evenings. And in our spare time, Matt works on his projects. Lest you think we would ever sit around and relax as a family or something. ;-P 

We got to watch seven new goslings hop out of our nesting box! They even stuck around for a few weeks this year so it was fun to see them grow!

Something about kids falling asleep while eating is just so entertaining.

My mom and dad took a two week tour to Europe at the end of May/beginning of June. We got the honors of bringing them to the airport AND having Jesse spend a week with us! 

The first day with Jesse we went up to Davenport to Niabi Zoo. Jonathan met us there (from Cedar Rapids where he's working this summer) and the boys had a grand time! The weather was perfect. Jonathan noted that Niabi Zoo seemed much bigger when he was in second grade! 

The next week was filled with plenty of fun times with Uncle Jesse! Here he is exerting his patience in letting the boys help him make chocolate chip cookies! 

The next weekend involved the first two days (since 2017) of working on our landscape project. We finally decided to hire Jesse to help Matt out. This was to give Matt someone to work with, and to create structured landscaping work days so the project will actually get done! 

This was the progress they made (with the help of Zach) the first weekend. 

Matt's 31st birthday party!

I enjoyed making this layered strawberry shortcake frosted with whipped cream! It was a success because he liked it. And now he is 31 so that also made it a successful birthday. 

The boys sang "Happy Birthday" to Daddy at breakfast (this is the second verse)!

June also marked the summer "reading" program at the library. For toddlers, they had an activity-based program. One of the activities is to do finger painting. Which looks like fun and sounds like fun and was probably fun for the boys. And that's all I have to say about that. 

They finished their activity sheet and picked out their prizes! Micah was pretty proud of his new look and he didn't want to let go of that ball until we got home. 

We also attended the rocket-building program at the library. All the kids got to build and shoot off their own rockets inside the library! 

The boys got Austria t-shirts from Mom and Dad when they got home from Europe! 

More messy fun!

Next summer event: Sunday School Picnic at Perkins Park. The weather was once again beautiful! 

 

So, we have bees now. Matt found a swarm and caught it and now I am sitting here with my honey bottle waiting for the first harvest! He says it will be awhile yet...but in the meantime, my beekeepers look pretty dapper in their suits!

We had to improvise with snow pants for Levi.

Meanwhile, I cooked up a supper we affectionately refer to as Bleh. "Bleh" encompasses any sort of concoction involving miscellaneous leftover food items that I typically turn into soups or smoothies. Sometimes I give it a better name. This time I called it Beef Enchilada Soup. 

Matt headed up a swing set renovation project at my mom and dad's for Father's Day. An interesting fact is that he actually helped build this swing set about twenty years ago. 

Jesse is Matt's new side-kick.

 

Then, of course with Father's Day came the father-son camp-out! The boys had a hundred more cookies than they needed. They "camped out" once again in the baby room with their pop-up sun shade and had a blast!  

On Sunday, the Schulz family gathered in Fairfield at a park for supper. Here are all the fathers and sons who attended! 

I guess the mothers and daughters were feeling left out, so we got our picture taken too!

Matt's first Father's Day with Joanna!

Sand volleyball!

Grandma brought lots of bubbles!

Micah woke up one morning with a swollen eye. I think it was a bug bite. It looked like he got in a fight. This boy has more problems... 

Later, he fell asleep with squirt gun in hand and it really looked like he had put up a good fight. 

The boys both got squirt guns from the library and were thrilled to use them to get Daddy when he was out working!

It is hard to believe she will be one year old soon! Joanna is sleeping well at night, still nursing a few times a day, doing well eating table food, very happy, and loves her family! She is SO sweet!

Playing a creative game of "doctor" with the uncles!

My birthday activity and gift was repainting three of the walls in our bedroom!

We had three light green walls that we changed to light brown. I never did like the green after we painted it before getting married. I smile every time I walk into my bedroom now! :)

Bill & Vienna had new t-shirts when we showed up for family night! Yay!

Matt is such a fun daddy. 

The turtle is still going strong and growing! The tadpoles unfortunately died before reaching adulthood. 

Joanna likes helping me cook (and anything else that makes her feel like a big girl). And apparently she thinks butter is delicious!

The boys are constantly needing to "fix" their bikes, scooter, strollers, and everything else. Poor Matt has no hope of keeping all his tools organized anymore. And he never knows when he might learn that a bolt or plug has been removed from a tire...

A small token from the great Northfield parade! I can't figure out when Pixy Stix octupled in size between my childhood and now! SERIOUSLY? I'm supposed to dump that two foot tube of sugar down each of my kids' throats?! 

Despite Pixy Stix resembling the Washington Monument in size, we are having a nice holiday. The boys loved the parade! Maybe someday they will learn that there are parades that last longer than one minute and forty three seconds. :)

Life around the house has been good. We enjoyed spending our days outside while the beautiful weather was here, and now that the humid 100 degree days have arrived, we are spending much more time indoors. I'm still plugging away at my latest hobby of decluttering in my spare time. Overall, I feel like I am in a somewhat calmer stage of life right now. It may be the break we're getting from "baby mode" for the first time in four years, or perhaps it has to do with the boys getting a bit older and requiring less maintenance. Of course, we still have our weary days and I find myself discouraged at times. But God is always faithful when I look to Him!

Have a good rest of the summer!