What we've been up to...

This summer is flying by, we've been so busy!  This is more like a photo dump then anything...

Sometimes we need to use ALL the band aids for scrapes:

                                       

We've been seeing these house finches at the feeder a lot lately:

 And I was able to finish this little area.  I found this bird bath along the side of the road for 20 bucks!  I had been looking around for a while but the cheapest I ever found one for was $60.

 And then I planted some Aubrieta around it as well, which should look very pretty in the spring.

 Watching the birds at the feeder:

And we've still been seeing lots of butterflies around.  Swallowtails and monarchs and painted ladies and red admirals, and a bunch of others!  Watching them out the window:

 They love the butterfly bushes in front of my windows:

Tiger Swallowtail:

A couple weeks ago I took the day to drive down and visit my good friend Debbie, in NJ.  I got there later then I wanted to because I got lost (blah) and hit traffic.  The kids had fun playing with each other.  Danica and Joanna built birds nests together:

Katy and Tristan taking a drive together:

After lunch we went over to her parents house and swam in the pool for a little and then came back and had Popsicles.

Then Debbie took us on a little tour of where they live.  They had some barn swallows in their barn and we got to see two nests with babies in them and the mom and dad swooping around outside, waiting for us to leave, it was pretty cool.

Last Thursday we went over to Ricky's cousin's house for a game day.  She and Patty had organized a carnival themed game day for all the kids.  It was so much fun!  They had set up all sorts of game tables with prizes or tickets to win... waiting for the fun to begin:



The "photo booth"

Face painting:

Lunch time was a menagerie of awesome carnival food; nachos, chili dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, caramel apples, etc.

Katy stole my caramel apple:

::insert maniacal laughter here::

After lunch the kids did some relay races and earned more tickets.  Then they were able to cash in their tickets at the prize tables and go swimming for a little.  It was such a fun day!

This past Saturday we drove up to World's End State Park for the day.  Of course we had to stop at the ranger station.

And then we swam in the cold Loyalsock creek for a little.

Actually it wasn't too bad once you got over the initial shock of cold

Even the big guy went in!

It's a beautiful spot for a swimming hole.

And on the way home, all the driving and fun wore them out :P

And some really random pictures:



Katy will still fall asleep anywhere.

and she's figured out how to climb up on the counter... oh joy (sarcasm).

Ricky found me a road bike to train with.  It's pretty old but still in good shape.  My dad, sister and I are planning a ride down to the shore this fall so I wanted something to train with that would get me used to the feel of a road bike.

Town wide yard sales were a couple weekends ago and we found all these books for free!  There are some really good ones in that pile too.

I was able to get rid of some baby things we weren't using anymore.

We kept my sister's puppies for a couple weeks while they were in Maine.  It was fun to have them, they were so cute and roly-poly but I was ready for them to go home too :P