some of July

Despite the fact that we didn't feel we'd have time to have fun in July, what with moving and all, we managed to squish a few activities in. One fun thing we did every week was try out a new playground. We found a list of 'Imagination Playgrounds' on the county website, and hit them up. there were more than we could get to (and some were pretty far away), but we were VERY impressed with the playgrounds we went to! this one had a woodland-wonderland theme. unfortunately, I only got 2 pictures:

crazy-long slide! (something like 50 ft, going all the way down a hill)

 

little play house

There were misting flowers to cool off in (and a skunk that sprayed water), lots of bugs, a little treasure hunt (looking for animals and bugs and things), and all kinds of 'tree houses' and things. We had a list of dozens of people from school, church, and other playgrounds that we met along the way that we invited to join us... most weeks we didn't have more than a couple friends, but this one happened to have almost everyone come for at least part of the time. I think it was a favorite for most everyone too!

we didn't always have far to go to have fun either! nothing like a water-fight in your own back yard!

I couldn't pick a favorite picture either, so here's three :)

clearly it was dad vs 3 big kids... I'm not sure who 'won' but I know they all had a blast!
(pun intended)

Getting ready for another Imagination Playground visit... this one clearly had a pirate theme... and I forgot to bring my camera to the actual playground

the kids really got into the dressing up, and they brought a bottle with a map in it... and notice afton's cutlass? the bubbles were a huge hit with the summer-camp that happened to be there the day we went (over a hundred kids! we didn't actually stay more than an hour, we went back to one of the other parks, it was just too crowded!)

but it was enough to tucker out this little pirate! I love his beard and mustache :)

Though I knew there was some construction happening on our street (something with water pipes), I was really surprised on 2 separate occasions to look out the window and see that I was trapped in my own house! that's my driveway... I once had to drive across the grass, and once I managed to sneak between 2 giant machines on a metal plate... nerve-wracking and frustrating.

if only I had nowhere to go!

and one of our favorites:

Daddy's birthday!!!

no pictures of presents or cake, but I think he looks pretty happy just the same :D

And just a few more random pictures

just mowing the back yard while not wearing pants

you may have noticed Rayna wore this dress in a lot of the pictures... it's her Elsa dress from her birthday, and I think she just about lived in it all last summer (she was done just in time for Halloween where she didn't want to wear it)

 

one of our sunflowers! Malachi wanted to plant them, so we did, and they were gorgeous! this one was over 7 feet tall! unfortunately, they weren't quite ready to harvest when we had to move, but still, gorgeous :)

and one more IP, this one with a dragon/medieval princess theme:

this was the belly of the dragon, it was really cleverly designed playground, with a dragon tongue slide I particularly liked

and some dragon eggs. the kids were playing with caterpillars from the bushes all around us. there were hundreds of fat white caterpillars, I'm not sure what kind, but I'd probably call them the 'infesting-kind'

And for those of you that remember Malachi's problems with hair-cuts, we had another idea to get him more amenable to people touching his head.

Chalk. He likes having colors and things to make his hair special, so it gets me touching his head more often, and presumably it'll make haircuts less traumatic too...