Beating the Heat

I'll be the first to say, I am a complete wimp when it comes to the heat. I prefer to go from one air conditioned place to the next. The boys, however, don't see the fun in sitting around reading a book while being calm and quiet in an air conditioned house. So, here's how we beat the heat! How about you?

Blowing Off Steam

One thing that I have always done when Kyle is off on a business trip that is a week or longer is take on a project. It makes the time go by all that much quicker and it's fun to surprise the hubby when he gets home. Usually it's a larger project that I work on through out the week. This trip I have a lot of projects that have added up over time that I am trying to knock off one by one.


Tonight...Steam cleaning the carpets!!





I get entirely too giddy about clean carpets. What can I say, I have two boys and cream carpet. I have to enjoy those few minutes that they are clean!!

Beach Bums

The hubby is out of town on business for the week and the boys and I are on our own. So, we hit the beach for the day to escape the heat...boy, did we do that! Notice the coats? It was cold! We had some great fun though and we're blessed with some sunshine towards the end of our day.

We had a great day! But the boys and I would always love to have our favorite man there. Here is to you daddy...

We miss you!

Stars & Stripes

A snapshot of our 4th...

St. Paul Rodeo - we enjoyed the morning with our friends at the St. Paul Rodeo. The boys seemed had fun but were most enthused about the poop everywhere. Ahhh, life with boys.

We watched the fireworks on the Willamette in Portland. Collin wasn't so sure about the fireworks as he huddled behind the glass to watch the show. Brody just nestled into mom and soaked it all in.

Happy 4th of July!

Lemonade Stand (part 2)

We had two very successful days of business at the "Lemonade Head". We made our lemonade, arranged our cookies, set up the signs and cooler and opened for business. We had many kind friends and neighbors that came to support our little entrepreneur.

It was a fun day...but for mom, a bit exhausting! Kyle was my hero when he walked through the door with this at the end of the day....

Man, I love that guy!

The next day, we head to Kyle's work at Gerber Legendary Blades where we were requested to do a delivery. We already had an order for a half gallon of lemonade and a dozen cookies (Thanks, Jim!) along with a few other orders. We came with a pretty good supply but sold out quickly. As always, we were completely spoiled by everyone who came and let Collin ring them up at the cash register and was introduced to the concept of a tip. Collin was presented with his very own logo put on stickers for his cups and cookies (Bill and Erika, thank you!) so now he can make "thousands of dollars".

Overall, he learned a lot and we had a great time working together as a family and making his Lemonade Head business into a reality. He's putting some money into savings but was able to spend some on a Lego set. He spent a weekend pouring through the Lego catalog trying to figure out which one it would be and here it is.

Way to go buddy! We are so proud of you!

Lemonade Stand (part 1)

For months, Collin has been talking about his lemonade stand that he planned to do during the summer time. He has schemed about what he is going to sell and working through the design in his head piece by piece. This week we put it all into action.

Step 1:

The sign - He came up with the name himself! He thought $10 might be a good price for a cup of lemonade but we talked him down a bit.

Step 2:

The Money: It was a great review of money for us. We put in a "bank" so that he can have change for customers. We did many practice sessions on different scenarios that he will need to provide change for. Ahhhh, the teacher in me loves the mini math lesson! ;)

Step 3:

The supplies: We made some cookies and took a trip to the store to gather our lemonade supplies.

Step 4:

The stand: Collin had some grand ideas about what his stand was going to look like. He went on and on to Kyle about this elaborate wooden stand with shelves on either side that they needed to build. Kyle and I just looked at each other and smiled as $$$ flashed before our eyes. The guys brainstormed for a while and came up with this! Nice job guys! It's a winner!

We plan to set up shop today! So start digging in your pockets, under seats and the bottom of your purse and make your way to "Lemonade Head"! Two darling boys will be waiting for you with some refreshing lemonade and fresh baked cookies.