Here Comes Summer!

Kate and I took the moms out for a late Mother's Day lunch at the tea room in Clinton.  I wanted to take them here way back when we lived in Clinton the first go around, so it is about time that we got it done!

Our waitress brought Kate her own teapot and tea cup for her "tea".  Kate had plenty to drink that day!  She poured herself cup after cup.

 After lunch we cruised around town in Grammy's convertible.  We visited a couple little shops and had a nice afternoon out. 

 

Memorial Day weekend we got to spend with both sides of the family.  Saturday Mono & Papa and Aunt Jenny came down.  We filled up the kiddie pool and Mono recreated our favorite cocktail from our Girl's Cruise last Fall.  The girls relaxed with the kids while Papa put in a new toilet and ceiling fan.  Thank you, Papa!!  Now we can actually flush the toilet and the boy's don't have to be in the dark anymore!!  (Their bedroom light hasn't worked since we moved here).   Obviously I was too busy chasing kids and sipping drinks because I don't have one picture from the day.  It was a fun one though!

Sunday we packed up and headed to Shelbyville.  We spent two solid days on the lake.  Ben loves chicken legs...so Grammy & Papa packed a fried chicken lunch and we started our first day with a picnic on the lake.  Here is Ben with a "chicken leg" of his own...what a funny boy!

I was afraid the weather would be too hot and the water still too cold to get in to cool off, but it turned out to be perfect.  The breeze was nice and the shallow areas were crisp and refreshing.  Kate and Grammy actually got in the water to swim.  Kate did her mermaid moves and brushed up on her swimming skills.  Ben and I did some exploring on the edge.  It was fun to spend some alone time with Ben.  He is getting so imaginative.  We found lots of treasures (rocks) and even an ancient dinosaur (opossum) skull!.  We skipped rocks and just hung out.  Man, I love that boy!

 Poor Luke was pretty much confined to the boat.  Luckily he handled that fairly well.  We tried putting him in the water once, but it was just a tad too cold for his liking.  I did catch two of his most popular expressions though..."ooohhh" and "cheese".

Day two started with fishing off the dock.  Every time the kids put their pole in, they immediately had a fish.  Kate is so brave.  She even threw her own fish back in.  

Ben, on the other hand, loved everything about fishing except actually catching a fish.  He was scared that the little blue gill was going to eat him.  So, you can imagine how fishing with Ben went.  (He is standing next to me as I type this, he sees the picture below and says, "Look!  That fish is trying to eat me!!"...)

After fishing we got back on the boat for another picnic lunch.  Ben did more exploring and Kate did more swimming.  Then we got the tube out.  Kate wanted to go alone at first.  Then, I went with her for awhile.  She is such a brave girl!  We got to going pretty fast, it was quite bumpy and water was splashing...she just giggled and giggled.  It was fun to be with her.  My cautious little Ben wasn't quite as adventurous.  He made it as far as sitting on the tube, then changed his mind.  He spend the rest of the afternoon worrying that the tube was going to pop.  My poor little worrier, unfortunately he got that from his Mama.  

 

We finished up the weekend with showers and pizza before driving home in our pajamas.  The kids were exhausted and happy.  Seems like a pretty good way to kick off summer!