first weeks of summer

Summer is here and HOT.  Our days have been randomly filled with bits of fun.  I seem to remember lots of bickering and rivalry, so I'm glad these pictures tell a different story.

There's our girl in a sea of orange flames.  She has a heart for God that is nothing short of inspiring...she begged to do Vacation Bible School and already wants to do it next year.  VBS knows how to work a theme...this year was National Parks and the kayak sitting in the church foyer made us want to jump in a river every day.


Three scientist at work.  Isabela's had this crystal growing kit for several months, but the directions are pages thick.  Great to do with a friend.


Poor Joaquin had a soccer tournament on the hottest day ever.  The fact that they lost five out of six games didn't bother him too much....he was with his best friends and that's all that matters.



We beat the heat with sheet forts.  Joaquin is somewhat of a fanatic about them being a certain way, so these often end up with various kids in tears, but they are still fun.



This one involved way more blankets.


We picked 3lbs of blueberries at the farm up the street.



One of the farmers went running up a row to "mark a yellow jacket nest".  That kind of cut my adventurous spirit in half.



They weren't so sweet while we were picking, but after a few days in the fridge, they were delicious!  Time to go back!



The kids were busy working on something for hours one day.  That is the best kind of play!  They had made up a 'baby club' and were creating different activities for Diego to do.



Joaquin and Isabela were the teachers.  Love the room number and the rainbow!



We hit the $1 movies yesterday, but came out $20 later.  Have you seen Happy Feet 2?  I cried twice, but I really must be getting old because I couldn't understand what they were saying half of the time.   I've never been good at deciphering cartoon talk.  Maybe that's why I never really liked them.

BUT...as we were leaving, a guy was handing out flyers for a lego contest.  Twenty-five minutes, the most creative one wins.  So we decided to try it out at home.

Joaquin keeps all his legos in one basket and rarely plays with them.  But he liked this challenge.


We spread them out all over the rug and had fun finding the guys and their heads.



Isabela created a cool jail after watching some of the videos on the lego website.



This one wasn't feeling too good one day...but thankfully, nothing really came of it.  Just lots of hugs, and I can always use one of those.

 What have you been doing to keep cool this summer?