Do you remember when you were a kid and at the end of the day, your parents asked you, "What did you do at school today?"  And you shrugged your shoulders and mumbled, "Nothin...."  But, after a little more prodding, you revlealed that you'd taken two tests, fallen and scraped both your knees, won an award for Best Second Grade Speller, and that you'd been invited to two birthday parties.  I feel a bit like that now.  If you'd asked me today what the girls and I had done in the month that Gracie's been out of school for the summer, I'd have said, shrugging shoulders, "Not too much..." and then launched into an explanation about how Abigail had a stomach bug and I've had a few work meetings and Gracie made a trip to the doctor to make sure she didn't have an ear infection....You know all kinds of excuses for why I'm lame and I don't do anything fun with my children.  I lament this to Steve quite frequently,  "I feel like I don't do enough with the girls...This is Gracie's first summer at home with me and I'm sure she's bored to tears."  About an hour ago, the girls were asleep on the bed (yes, both of them, at the same time) and I had a chance to look through some pictures from June and I realized that we did, in fact, do a little bit this month....okay, we did more than a little bit....

We went to Lake Shelby:




And to a new park to play that has a bike trail around it:


And to the new Farmer's Market downtown and to the Fish House for lunch:


And to the Water Park - Abigail is much happier this year - she actually agreed to go down a slide:



We made homemade Oreos (these were delicious)



And homemade pizza on the grill (not so delicious, mostly because my grilling skills are non-existent).  And yes, that's Gracie rolling out the pizza dough with a cold beer bottle.  I don't have a rolling pin and I just use whatever cold bottle's in the fridge.  No, I didn't let her drink it when she was done


Gracie had her very first swimming lesson - she loves swimming - my little girl is more than part fish!


Back to the Water Park with Steve.  Gracie showed him that she was brave enough to go down the bigger little kid slides - something she did one time last year and then refused ever to do again...


We had a playdate with Gracie's best friend who just happens to have a baby sister that's close to Abigail's age.


We went to see Aunt Bronie, Uncle Craig, Ruby & Emmie for Ruby's SEVENTH birthday party.  What a wonderful weekend that was - and a series of pictures all unto itself - here's just one, from the actual party:


One of my favorite things we did this month was to pack a picnic dinner and meet Steve and my friend Cindy downtown for a sunset concert on the pier.  Gracie calls it the Sunset Festival.  Here are Abigail and Gracie with Beanie.


Back to the Water Park again.  This time Gracie went down the smallest of the adult slides - the ones you actually have to be 38 inches tall to ride.  I couldn't believe she was going to do it.  I was sure she'd climb all the way up to the top and balk.  Steve went up with her and I waited at the bottom with Abigail and my camera.  Gracie loved them and went down them several more times!


Bake to the lake again - the girls love it here because they can stand up all the way out to the edge of the swimming area.  No waves, no jellyfish, no undertow - just slightly red water from the minerals that feed the lake


We made a trip downtown again to visit the Children's Museum.  And yes, just seconds after I snapped this picture, Abigail chomped down on the play corn....


And we finished off the month with a trip to the Ice Cream Parlor.


So, even though I thought we didn't do anything this month, it looks like we really did have a good month!   I hope you did, too!