summer sights

Here are some more photos from this month....

July 19th, our aster plant's first bloom: July 20th, our li'l slugger, Benjamin ~ he just loves playing sports!:
July 21st, we have lots of hostas blooming:


July 22nd, some of our purple liatris... the bees and butterflies love this stuff! : July 23rd, I walked into Em's room and found B "reading" a chapter book, just like his big sister!:


July 24th, our echinops ritro (globe thistle) plants finally started blooming: July 25th, the kids and I stopped at Crabtree Nature Center and went on a little hike. We saw Canadian geese, cormorants, ducks, sea gulls, herons, and... in cages... a turkey vulture, great horned owl and red-tailed hawk:

Then we went out for lunch with our friends Karen and David, to celebrate Karen's birthday. Here, Karen is reading a story to Ben and David:

July 26th, a busy, fun day! We started out at the Summer Celebration parade:


Then we headed over to the park for more fun! All 3 kiddos went on the big slide twice:
Em and Nick rode this:
and then Ben rode on the kiddie train:
We also saw a reptile show and Nick volunteered to help hold some snakes:


Em held a few, too:
(Ben wanted nothing to do with the snakes! LOL) We went home and played in the pool, then later headed back to the park for fireworks:
July 27th, Ben played with bubbles in the morning:

and in the afternoon, we played in the pool. Nick and Em tried out the new snorkel, goggles, and flippers that our neighbor Marissa gave them:


While in the pool, Nick rescued a cicada who landed in the water. It was kinda neat to see it up close: