The middle of July

After the fourth, our summer shifted in to camp mode.  The week after the holiday, the girls went to Conner Prairie camp for the week.  I have no pictures of that as I was busy enjoying my alone time at Meijer, Costco, the gym and at Starbucks.

The girls did complete the summer reading program at the library and earned these crazy glasses.

Then it got hot.  Really really hot.  Our best friends, Paige and Taylor were up north at their family cabin in the UP so we had to come up with ways to amuse ourselves inside.    We decided to harness the power of the sun and make some crayon art on the driveway.  Did I mention it was hot?  We came out every half hour to check the progress and the 3 minutes we were outside resulted in an instant sweat.

This is the beginning.  We hot glued crayons onto a canvas.

And the power of the sun melted them in just 6 hours! 

On the yard front, we started harvesting from the garden.  I sliced open this pepper to find a happy face inside.  No Virgin Marys or Jesuses to be found yet.  But Have a nice day.

This was the sad state of the yard during the height of the drought.  Amazingly enough, most of it has come back now that the temperatures have dropped and we have received some rain.  Like I said, Jim, it was just dormant.  Glad we didn't spend too much time dragging hoses around like our neighbors. 

One day, we decided to make some matching skirts for the girls and Annalise's American Girl doll, Audrey.  They wore them to the pool.

Quiet afternooon at the pool.  Many times this summer, we headed down there only to have to leave because a thunderstorm was rumbling off in the distance and the pool was closed.  I think that happend at least 5 times without us getting so much as a sprinkle of rain.  So we had the diving board to ourselves.  The girls practiced their artistic dives.

One last breath before she hits the water.

And we taught Annalise to dive this summer.  By the end of the summer (before school started), she was getting pretty good. Better than her old mom.

Evie is a pro at diving.  Now she wants to learn to flip off the board.  I see a head wound in our future.

And while Evie was away at Girl Scout camp, Annalise had her very first sleepover.  The girls constructed an elaborate fort out of sheets and attempted to sleep in it. The circulation wasn't so great in there and they both ended up in a bed at 3 am.  But other than that, a complete success!