Phone Photo Dump 27

 Last week, when Kris and Caleb went to the Cubs/Cards game, I took the little 3 to IHOP for 57 cent short stacks!

 After pancakes, we browsed the toy section at Target.  Can you find all 3?

So we officially have some ORANGE walls in the basement!  We also have lots of boxes of flooring.  Hoping to get that installed this weekend!

The kids did some art work to hang in the basement...they could use whichever colors they liked, though they had to have at least a little bit of orange in there. ;)

 Final products.  Top - Caleb, Meredith.  Bottom - Shane, Norah.  Can't wait to hang them. :)

 Enjoying the new playground at church this past Sunday!

 End-of-season pizza party for C's baseball team...

 "Make rainbow self!"

She loves her new "penguin"!  She also loooooooves the pool like everyone else. Our "1/2 season pass" just started this past Saturday and we spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday afternoons there.  #poolrats ;)

 When the 4 year old is in charge of washing the windows...

Despite our best efforts at fertilizing and weed-killing, we just couldn't keep up.  So we caved and hired some pros to come regularly throughout the year.  Today was their first visit.  I will NOT be hiring someone to mow the lawn though.  That's my fave chore! ;)

We participated in a church wide food collection last weekend called Canning Hunger.  We went door to door in our neighborhood to ask neighbors to help out and this is what we got!

 Shane was a little too quiet out there.  Little stinker "chainsawed" off some of our hydrangeas.

Last Baseball Game

Caleb had his last baseball game of the season last night.  Unfortunately, this has been a rough summer, weather-wise, for baseball.  A ton of his games were cancelled, and while we tried to make them up as much as possible, that didn't always happen due to schedules and field availability and such.  

In keeping with that same rainy-weather spirit, last night's game had to end early (and abrubtly) as storms rolled in. 

I didn't get a ton of great pictures, as the humidity was crazy and kept fogging my lens.  See?

Buddies...

 Star-Spangled Banner...

Dugout Antics...

#1 Fans?

 

 Just before the sky went black.

 Quick shots before running to the car!  Lighting (and lightening) were crazy!

Phone Photo Dump 26

 Caleb helped pull up the old and super-icky floor in our basement.  He also helped vacuum up the debris & dust.

 Watching Daddy do some work.

Old color is that blue on the far wall.  The new color is gray.  We've also painted some accent walls in an orange (Kris' choice but I must admit I like it!)...pictures of that (and new floors) to come...hopefully soon. ;)

 

 Meredith and her friend at swim lessons.  Twins!

U2 concert for the big people.  Thanks to Kyle for the tickets!!

 Ice cream at Kimmer's and a walk downtown STC...

Inside-Out (such a cute movie!) with friends...

Fun in the sand, waiting for lessons to start...

 With a buddy at Hawk's Hollow...

The Cardinals are in town!  Caleb was super excited to go see them play the Cubs at Wrigley.

The apple doesn't fall far...

 Hard to see, but one night after the kids were supposed to be going to sleep, I peeked in the girls' room to see Meredith in Norah's bed reading to her. While there are times I wish we had enough bedrooms for everyone to have their own, these moments remind me that their sharing of rooms is actually quite special.

 She's becoming quite the little reader.

 She got a new water bottle.  He old one was pretty gross and falling apart, but she was a bit attached to it.  Thankfully, she was happy enough to pick out a new one and trash the old.

 Thanks to Norah, these 2 lovely (albeit a *tad* underdressed) ladies got to go on a picnic and enjoy some applesauce.