Much ado about summer

(L-R Zoe, Ellie, Maddie, Aidan)

 We've been making the most of summer over the last couple weeks, After sweltering through the rest of July, we spent a nice weekend at my dad's cabin - and Aidan caught his first fish right off the dock! He was pretty excited, but Ellie had to out-fish her little brother with a large mouth bass!

We spent last Sunday with some friends at the Saints game; while we didn't quite make it through the whole game, Aidan got into the spirit of tailgating beforehand:

We also have been swimming, visiting the MN Zoo, playing outside, and just generally being lazy. Dave's brother gave us a trampoline they were no longer using, and the monkeys at our house are LOVING their new toy!

Ellie had been pestering me for a while about getting her hair cut - short, that is. I finally decided it was an easy thing to give in on since it'll grow back eventually, so off we went this weekend for what she calls her "summer cut" (I didn't have the heart to tell her summer is more than 2/3 over); she looks like such a big girl with her new haircut! I have to admit it is really cute and is so much easier to take care of than her long hair. And she's thrilled with it!

I can't recall if I'd posted previously about the kids' swimming lessons at the Y, which ended this past Friday. I took some photos with my "old" camera and will have to get those posted eventually, but until then, I have news to share: Ellie PASSED her swimming lesson!! Allow me to repeat that in case you missed it: Ellie PASSED the swimming lessons she's taken about 6 times now! We're so excited she's graduating from Pike into Eel (don't ask me what Eel entails, I'm really not sure). But she's become quite the fish, swimming underwater, jumping in all by herself, floating on her back, etc. We're so proud! And the triplets took their first swimming lessons - they're Sunfish. Or to clarify, Zoe's a Sunfish dropout but Aidan and Maddie did great and had such a great time! During their first lesson, Zoe ended up going under briefly and got scared, and after that wouldn't participate in the class anymore though she was fine with me in the water.  I'm not sure if we'll enroll her again right away or let some time pass and hope she forgets about it. Sigh....it's always something.

Today we spent a beautiful afternoon at the Twin Cities Polish Fest - though I have to admit, I was SO disappointed in the pierogi that we got there- which was pretty much the entire reason we went! They tasted just like the frozen ones you can buy from the grocery store. Not cool! We were so bummed that we stopped on the way home for a few ingredients and made our own homemade ones for dinner. Still, we had such a fun time at the Polish Fair and had a lot of fun poking around St. Anthony Falls, Nicollet Island, and the Riverfest area, taking pics of the kids. Ellie, of course, was more than happy to let me take her picture. ;)