Our Summer in Pictures--Third Installment

I bet you were hoping thought I had forgotten about our Summer Picture Series....I know that you have been anxiously awaiting the third installment. You probably have been losing sleep wondering when I would post it...well, have no fear the Third Installment is here! (Note: I seriously have been trying to finish this post for about a week, but Blogger has been giving me fits about uploading photos, ugh! Seems to be all sorted out now though!)

This episode finds us enjoying some of the more simple pleasures of summer...evenings spent at the baseball field, playing outside at the grandparents' house, the joy of brand new kittens, playing with friends on the spray-ground...follow along with us as we relive the last couple of weeks of July.

More fun at the softball games! Above: The sweetest 3 spectators in the stands!

Collecting softballs

Drew's favorite part of the games was the dirt!

He is actually not eating straight dirt in this photo, there is a grape in there somewhere...

Uh-OH! Now the grape is in the dirt!

The best part of the game is playing on the field after the grown-ups finish! Above: Darcy is playing in the dirt.

Jack hitting the ball.

Darcy playing with the softballs & really still just playing in the dirt!

Sophie getting ready to hit the ball!

Sophie running the bases!

A different night, same spot on the bleachers!

The kids also had a lot of fun playing with new kittens at my parents' house.

Jack has a new friend!

Sophie & Drew were playing some sort of game in the grass...

It involved a lot of running with your hands way up in the air!

The kids also got to pick peaches off of a little tree in my parents' back yard.

The tree is just their size!

Yaya helps Drew pick one

Now he's got the hang of it!

Fruit Inspector

There are more balls on this tree!

Yaya bringing in the harvest!

Sophie making a new friend!

Hmmm, Drew thinks he'd like to pet the "kiggy"! (You should have seen how fast that cat scat!)

A couple of weeks before school started we met up with some friends from Darcy's class last year to enjoy the spray-ground at a nearby shopping center...it had threatened to rain, but turned out to be a perfect day for splashing!

No better way to enjoy the fountain than running through it!

 Drew loved the randomly squirting water!

  I love this shot because it looks like Sophie is drinking the water...thankfully she isn't!

 Which one will squirt up next?

 Darcy spent a lot of time doing her favorite thing, JUMPING!

Oh, and her other favorite thing, running! 

 Drew was just trying to stay on his feet!

 Jack doing an "experiment" to see if the water would lift up his shoe! 

 Where did the water go??? 

 Just being cute!

 Sticking their toes in the other fountain!

Girl talk... 

 Jack spent a lot of his time climbing...

 ...and swinging...

 Everyone enjoyed playing on what we used to refer to as the "fancy playground" because it doesn't have normal things like swings & slides.

 

  

And to finish off the month of July, we hosted a play-group for our Sunday School class at our house one sunny & HOT morning! I love this photo of the parking lot in our front yard! Looks like Minivan Central! 

 I think all told we ended up with something like 35 kids & 11 moms....

 The kids bounced!

 They slipped & slided...a LOT!

 They played ball!

 And in general there was just lots of mayhem & foolishness, I mean, FUN!

 Moms trying to chat & keep one eye on the kids!

  Drew trying to find more things to drag out to play with! 

 Moms in the Shade!

  Everyone heading to the front lawn for the big water balloon fight!

 The water balloons are in the cooler

Everyone gets some balloons... 

 And the fight is ON!

 Time to re-stock!!! 

 And finally, time to spread the blankets & eat a picnic lunch in the shade!

 This is Jack with his cheeks stuffed full of grapes...and of course this is the picture he wants me to take of him! 

 Aw, now that's better!

 Whew, well that finally brings us through July! I was SO hoping to have our summer wrapped up before October, but I think I just have a couple of weeks in August to cover before we are done...don't act so excited...I see you doing that happy dance out there!! Until next time...