in the good ol' summertime

We've had a good August so far. :) More of my summer flowers are in bloom, like this purple coneflower: My new phlox plants:

My white liatris:
and my purple liatris:
Emmalie cooked us a gourmet dinner earlier this month, using recipes she watched them make on Food Network. She spent 3 hours working on it, but it was worth it ~ very yummy!
She made cream of asparagus soup:
Herbed flatbread:
and balsamic-glazed apricots with ricotta clouds:
On the 2nd, we took the kids to Six Flags. We had perfect weather, and the kids had a blast! Ben and George went on the bumper cars:
While Em and Nick went on the Condor. (They love anything that spins!):

Later all of us but Em went on the Roaring Rapids. (She doesn't like getting her clothes wet.) The line was actually short for a change, so we went on it twice! We were SOAKED after that!:
This was something new... a ride where you can squirt water at the people on ships:
while they squirt water back at you! I took Ben and Nick on this, and we got even more wet:
Since we were so wet already, we decided it was a good time to go to Hurricane Harbor!


Later, Em, Nick, and I went on this, to spin dry:
I took Ben on the kiddie roller coaster, Spacely's Sprocket Rocket. He looks sad or scared in this picture, but that's because he had just banged his lip on the safety bar. :( He did enjoy the ride!
Then he went on this all by himself:
He went on this a few times, too:
George and Nick on Spacely's Sprocket Rocket:
The 3 kids in Wiggles World:
Nick and Em on another spinny (and upside down) ride:
We ended our day on the carousel:
On the 5th, Benjamin had his last day of Kids' Corner camp. They had a picnic lunch at the park and played at the splash pad, too. Here he is with one of his teachers:
Last week it was Nick's turn to be chef, and he made this tasty meal... macaroni and cheese soup, banana bread, and orange Jello salad. Yum!:

We still have a couple more weeks to squeeze in some summer fun before school starts, and we plan to do just that! The kids and I will be heading up to Minnesota this Wednesday. We are going to meet Dad and Christine in Duluth, and then on Thursday all six of us will drive the rest of the way up to the Boundary Waters. It will be Ben's first time camping (other than sleeping out in our backyard once last summer) and canoeing. He is so excited, and the rest of us can't wait, either!! :)