July, Sometimes Sun, Sometimes Rain...Always Good Times

So far in July, we have been all about visitors. We have had a lot of fun hosting family and friends for lake time, project time and just hanging out.  It is hard to believe that July is now half way over...but I refuse to get stuck thinking the summer is flying by, there is still so much time before school starts- which is good for us and not so good for our girl. 

Maarit is now asking about 2 times a day when school will start.  I think we are going to need to make a reverse count-down for her.  Usually kids count down until summer starts, her count-down is for when school will finally start.  She misses her teachers, friends and, I think, her routines.   Swimming and T-ball, although lots of fun, just don't quite measure up to art class, music, math and science time. 

Gus is loving summer and he has been upset when it is his day to visit daycare at Nancy's. He would spend all day, every day outside digging in the sand, playing ball and finding rocks to throw. We are trying to keep him in a once a week routine with daycare, just so the fall isn't such a shock. He has had his ups and downs. Usually he smiles when we say we are going to go see Nancy and then he cries when he realizes he is going to stay there.  Those Tuesdays have been a nice time for Maarit and I to have some Mommy&Daughter time. We go out to breakfast and run errands together.  Justin and I are even able to get a house project started (sometimes finished) on those days.  Actually, when I look around our house and thinking about how it looked when we walked through a year ago, I am amazed at all the work we have done. 

Pictures from our July so far include these sweet ones of Papa and Gus having a nice snuggle.  Gus loves the guys in his life, he has so much fun playing with papa, grandpa and his uncles.  It is so fun to watch him seek them out and build those boy bonds.

We went for a walk/rollerblade for Maarit a few days into July. This was the only decent picture I took that afternoon. It was a rare almost hot day, as you can see by Gus's rosy cheeks.

This is what summer looks like most of the time.  Maarit is building sand castles so Gus can come and knock them down.  Gus is hunting for bugs and 'fish, fish, fish!' with his net.

This is the tree I sit under while they play.

After dinner one day, Gus found the sour cream container and licked it out like a puppy. He was having so much fun, we just let the mess happen.  He loves all things dairy: milk, cheese, sour cream, whipped cream, ice cream, cheese curds.  Obviously he has some connection through me with Wisconsin dairy roots.

Gus, Maarit and Daddy before they ventured out to the Fourth of July parade in Aurora.  Maarit got a ton of candy!

And then promptly she lost her 3rd baby tooth. This one was a bleeder!  Ick!  I get the job of pulling them out though because Daddy doesn't do anything that requires sticking your hands in other people's mouths.  =)

We were really lucky to get this little piano for free from a family friend who no longer had space for it. Maarit and I are planning to take lessons. She is really excited. The first day we had it she sat down and wrote a piece of music and then played it for us.

My friend Cori visited us over 4th of July.  We had lots of fun playing with the little ones, taking long walks, talking, finding the hugest leech in the wide world and relaxing.  

After Cori's visit, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit and help us finish up some projects. Grandpa worked hard outside all visit and Grandma sewed Maarit a beautiful dress she plans to wear to the Mattson family reunion barn dance next week. Of course hanging out with Grandpa gave us a good excuse to visit A&W a few times, and to hit the park in Aurora afterward. 

These are picture of Gus on one of those hang and slide contraptions at the park. I love this sequence of faces. He is so unsure, then he just loves it.  I am amazed that he could strong-arm and hang on the whole way across by himself!

Maarit likes it too!

Gus went down the huge curly tube slide, by himself.

And so did Maarit, which is actually a huge deal because she hated tube slides up until a few months ago and would not trust them because she couldn't see the bottom.

Gus helped Grandpa and Daddy work on the new post for the deck.  He is awesome with a hammer.

Maarit getting snuggles from the men in her life. So much love.

Last weekend the Erickson's came to stay and Erin, Olivia and Will visited too. Here are the girls welcoming home the Daddys after their paddle down the chain of lakes.

I love Maarit's big jump in this picture, not only is she already lots bigger than Lucy and Olivia, but with this huge jump she just towers over them. So cute.

Lucy and Maarit watching their Daddies paddle in.

Olivia, Lucy and Maarit on a canoe adventure of their own. 

There was some conflict about the direction they should paddle and the weeds were not cool. They required some rescuing.

After all the fun, the next morning Harpur brought us this chipmunk.  Justin took a picture because it was literally the first thing Lucy and Sarah saw when they woke up.  Harpur is amazing, he is at minimum, 15 years old, but likely between 15-17 (they were not sure how old he was when I adopted him 14 years ago), he has no front claws and yet he has caught 2 mice in the house, a shrew and mice outside and now this big guy.  Go Harpur!   Freeing the house of vermin!  (Although I like chipmunks and was a bit sad to see this guy go, Justin doesn't like them so he was glad.) A funny Maarit-ism I want to remember always is that she sometimes calls chipmunks "chinpunks" just getting the word wrong.  So cute.

Our next adventures will take us to the UP in Michigan to celebrate being part of the Mattson clan at Papa and Nana's new farm.  I will turn 35 (what????) and Maarit will have her 6th Name Day celebration all within the next week.  It will be a big end of July party.  Hopefully some time soon the weather will turn to summer?  It is currently 6:00am and 43 degrees outside.  Ouch.