Summing Up Summer

This summer has been a lot of fun. In fact, it's been...well...

buckets of fun. ;)

A lot has been going on since the last post. The thought of narrating it is making me, as they'd say in the old days of SNL, verklempt, so please allow photos to do most of the talking. We'll start with daddy's 33rd birthday. It was a homemade kind of celebration...

with the exception of his favorite cake...

Here's a proud little birthday helper:

Next up? A couple of camping trips to state parks. My friend, Van, questions why families do this ;)
It's fun, see?

Then, it was to the beach with Aunt KK and her crew...

We fried up these crab claws for an appetizer one night there. They are worthy of blog space. We're still talking about them, and they weren't hard to make:

A month later we were back, this time with Josh's family. It was wonderful. Here's a favorite...the girls helping with their newest cousin, Emmaline...

In between all this, we've have lots of playground time...

and a visit to the zoo...

                                               

Josh is mastering the art of pickling peppers and okra:

Margaret is mastering the art of caring for her baby, who's name changes regularly. She started out as Audra. I'd never heard of an Audra before. Then, she was Abby, followed by Space. Thankfully, that was short-lived. Now, it's Zoe. We like Zoe. Her baby has a babysitter, too, who's name is Gog. I hope Gog is reliable. With Louise as her understudy, Margaret is teaching newborn care classes on a regular basis...

We've also been spending lots of time with friends at our local pool. Thanks to Meme and Paw-D's gift of swim lessons, Margaret has been a little fish this summer. We've been watching her swim independently in the shallow end of the pool. Very exciting!

All in all, it's been a great summer, and I can see it start to wind down. Margaret starts PreK in less than a month. With just a few weeks left, we're going to try to keep up the fun!