The Finish to a Great Summer

Wow! What a great summer and lots of fun. Too bad it ended so quickly. Here is a recap of many of the things we did to pass the time. WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF PICTURES AND IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER.

One of our favorite highlights was our very own 'Summer School.' Now with such a fancy name you may be thinking, "Wow, that sounds pretty amazing." Or "How did they have time for that?" Well, before you go on thinking such high thoughts, this summer school was lots of fun and very low key. We did it a few times a week during Christine's morning nap. It was fun to mostly read books, (they each got to pick one each time) do an activity or craft, and do some literacy or math games I pulled out from my teaching boxes. The girls really enjoyed it and I loved having a special time with them. Here are a few shots of it.

These girls can work on ABCs and dress up at the same time!

Bread Art (one of my favorites as a child)
Add some food coloring to milk, paint the bread and toast it. Yummy!

We did this several times... mostly because it involved marshmallows.

Fun letters in play-doe

Math can't be more fun when you get to add and subtract by eating!

Our number wall. We got all the way to 50 and Adriana can now count by 5s and 10s, and 2s to 20!

Our happy... sleepy baby

Another tooth, gone!

Mega haircuts!

Elena - before

Abigail - before

Abigail - After

Elena - After

Sarah - After

A fun day at the lake

Getting buried

An awesome visit from the Shoup family!

Abigail is my very own hairdresser 

Blueberry picking.

A fun girls night of pampering!

Christine starting solids... not convinced it's better than milk

Lot-a-pool-time

Here is the progress of our garden and flowers. It was so much fun we didn't even mind not having much produce to show for it. At least the flowers are pretty!

Family Movie Night!

Meridian, Mississippi and Color Me Rad

My sister and her family live in Tyler, TX and will be moving to Iowa in a few weeks. We've wanted to meet up sometime this summer, but the 12 drive was daunting. We decided to meet up in the middle for a few days. We both have 4 girls so it was quite the girls trip with 10 of us in all! Her girls loved meeting and playing with Christine (and the other girls). My girls loved having older cousins to play with. It was a great trip and we had lots of fun together.

Sadie had a slumber party with Abigail & Elena

Chilling with Margaret

All the cousins

Riding the historic carousel in Meridian 

Abigail

Elena

Adriana

Full group shot

The Merrehope home. One of the only homes left standing after General Sherman came though during the Civil War and burned the city.

Great sisters!

We got back late Friday night and the next morning I had signed up for the Color Me Rad race. We brought the older girls and they loved all the color throwing. Here is a before shot... and then the colors went wild! It was an awesome run, held at a beautiful equestrian park where they held the Olympics back in 1996.

The girls had to give us a little more after the race... and they loved it!

4th of July in Nashville

One Hansen family tradition I loved growing up was having a 'Silly Supper.' We got to eat with crazy kitchen things that you wouldn't normal eat out of and with. The girls have loved doing this a few times. Here are Abigail & Elena eating spaghetti out of mini bread pans and using cutting boards as their plates. Adriana is holding up her big slotted spoon at the bottom of the picture. It is always quite the laughable dinner.

Getting ready for Independence Day. Creating our own Flag Alley, as the girls like to call it.

On our way to Nashville, TN

It rained almost the whole time we were there, but we still had fun listening to music, dancing in the rain, and watching the fireworks from the hotel window.

Gotta love Elvis

We ended up buying a few extra umbrellas which Abigail & Elena loved using.

Our little cowgirl!

Nashville's own Parthanon

A nice way to take a break... ice cream