Just Summer

We have been having a great summer so far. It's been nice spending time outdoors, and exploring. The kids especially enjoy spending time outside.
About a mile from our apartment is a big park with a wading pool. So we walk there a lot and to cool off in the water.

There is also a really great splash pad pretty close to us that the kids love. I was worried that Dorian wouldn't like it, because he didn't like it when we played in sprinklers with our neighbors. But, he took to it almost immediately.

 The library system around here is totally awesome! They have so many summer story times and activities. They even bring in local performers and have shows for the kids. Joslyn especially loved the butterfly story time/craft day, and both of the kids loved the puppet show!

On the weekends we have tried to go explore the city a little bit more. After visiting Gold Medal park on Independence day we decided we wanted to go back and look around more. There were some sculptures in the park that the kids liked.

Right next to Gold Medal park is an ice cream shop that everyone around here talks about, called Izzy's. So we decided to try it out (I'm always up for trying new ice cream places ;). The Izzy scoop is what it is known for, and that is basically just a tiny scoop of ice cream on top of your other scoops. We got each of the kids their own Izzy scoop.

and Isaac and I shared an Isabella scoop.

It was pretty expensive, and I wasn't super impressed with the place in general, but I did really like their green apple ice cream. It tasted like a jolly rancher!

Another day we were driving by the U of M St. Paul campus, and we found these!

We thought they were pretty fun!


A few weeks ago, Joslyn had her last day of preschool! We did a little co-op preschool with some of our neighbors, and it was so much fun! We'll probably do it again next year!

Aren't they the cutest??

Fourth of July

This year, we didn't have any clue what we were going to do for the 4th of July, so like 2 days beforehand we were talking to our neighbors, and we decided to get together and barbecue, because they weren't doing anything either! It ended up being a lot of fun.

We weren't planning to keep the kids up for fireworks, but after the barbecue they were both so tired that they napped until after 5, so we decided we would check out the firework show on the Mississippi River. We went to the park right on the river. It was super crowded, but we had a pretty good view, and the kids both loved it. While we waited for the fireworks, Joslyn did some sparklers, and we ran into some of our neighbors!

Waiting for the fireworks to start

After the show we had to walk about a mile back to our car, and the kids we're both so worn out.

We were hoping that they would sleep in the next morning because they were up so late. And they did a little bit, but we we're still up by 6:30. Maybe our kids will let us sleep in someday, but it's not looking like it will be any time soon! Haha
Hope everyone had a good 4th of July!