Lake Minnewaska 2010

Auntie Rachel took the kids for a nice ride!

Anneke and Joseph worked for a long time on this project.

Fishing off the dock at sunset.  Beautiful!

Justin was killing the sunnies.  Literally.

Every kid caught at least one fish.  We packed a TON of fun into one day.

The great Minnesota get-together

We had a pretty good time. However, after skipping our nap, a nearly 2 hour commute to get there, and all the food, fun, and farm animals you can pack into 4 hours, it was enough for this year.

Raising baby butterflies

The kids have been raising butterflies from caterpillars this summer.  We had four cocoons going, all from black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars.  The first one emerged from his cocoon late last week:

He sat on our dill for a long time before he was ready to fly off.  We still have three more to go!  What fun.

Giverny or Minneapolis?

And now, the finished masterpieces:

Picasso had his blue period.  2010 is Anneke’s “nest” period.  (In case you can’t tell, this is a painting of a nest, with no birds in it.  This is all she will draw or paint right now.)

If you’re going to San Francisco…

Chicago

Rowan and Anneke’s first big road trip!  8 hours from home!  The adventure begins:

Anneke ate more fettucine alfredo than I ever thought possible at our first stop, in Eau Claire.

Even Rowan was impressed.

We spent one night in Wisconsin Dells.  Not sure what happened to Rowan’s pants.

The next morning we did a little swimming at the hotel pool (above: Rowan on the froggy slide)

Anneke was more into posing on the froggy slide than actually sliding.

Chicago was hot, but snowcones were perfect.

Playing dress-up at CJ and Krista’s.

Hopefully Imogen the bunny has recovered by now.

Super fun fountain at Smith Park, Ukrainian Village

Waiting for the L with Uncle Dan and his dog Emerson.

The farkle family visits Cloud Gate, aka the bean.  We had a fun time!

Busy weekend

We went camping with Mom’s family Friday night

We had the whole beach to ourselves at 8 a.m.

We came home early because Anneke wasn’t feeling well, so we got some things done around the house, and Rowan even helped clean the bathrooms!

Anneke was feeling a little better so she helped with the kitchen sink.

Quite the week thus far…

We started off Monday with a little Canoe ride on Lake Cahloun.

Tuesday, a little pasta necklace fun in the morning, then a trip to the library and the park in the afternoon.

This morning, an impromptu trip to Como zoo…

…followed by a lunch at everyones favorite, Jimmy John’s.

Happy Fourth of July!

We spent July 3 in Pease, playing with bubbles and hanging out with Grandma.  We went to the fireworks, but the kids got really scared and we had to leave early.  After such a late night, we decided to just stay home all day on the 4th:

Grilled chicken and fresh green beans from our garden.  Good stuff.

Hikers

Dad took the kids hiking at Wood Lake Nature Center today.  They got a lot of use out of one of their birthday presents: binoculars!  Click the arrows in the bottom right corner for full screen mode: