The Keene Family

It is rainy here and it's the end of June, so people are getting cranky. Like every single year. Get over it and have some indoor fun. I'm just happy to be home with my kids. Today we had sleeping bag races! It started like this... When I saw that things were going smoothly and they landed safely in the pillows at the bottom of the stairs, I went to vacuum. When I came back, it looked like this: I called it before anyone had any injuries and we ended on a high note! We also had fun painting the staircase walls and hallway upstairs. It needed it so badly! JT and Haley were great little helpers. Now that I'm officially off for the summer, we're getting done special projects left and right. I sealed the tile in the bathrooms too! I like getting it done early so I can relax and enjoy the rest of summer without a to do list. Hooray for time at home!

When we heard our friends Gracie and Tyson hadn't seen Tangled , we just had to invite them over for a movie night! Getting our pillows ready So excited for our friends to arrive. Everybody say "Tangled!" Gracie and Tyson got a new car. It kind of matches mine. Aren't we cute parked in the driveway together? :)

If you have kids you know that a good park is a wonderful thing. Heritage Park has a huge play structure, a covered eating area, clean bathrooms, climbing rocks, and a large field surrounded by a walking/biking path that you can see from the field. We met some friends there this morning for play and had a great time!

You can say it: Kickball Champions of the World. Last week we had a double header during nap time at a different location. The kids played and I got Haley to take a nap on the field. Then we had some people from the team (who are also in our small group) over for a barbecue. It was fun! Haley and Gracie have matching dresses. :) Then, this week was Father's Day and we had the kickball championship. We won! Father's Day lunch JT smiling dutifully, Haley just woke up from nap. That's better! In between games My favorite player is the handsome guy at short stop. :) Champions! We stuck around at the park after the games and barbecued with friends for Father's Day. The weather held out and we had a great day!

JT is a great helper (so is Haley, but JT is more capable just based on age). The other day we did a bunch of work together. We are pretty much done with indoor playdates for the summer and our small group is over, so it was a good time to get organized. Both kids cleaned out their toys and made piles for garbage, give away, and gift away (that's the difference between donating and gifting to a younger friend). Then during Haley's nap I put JT to work. He did a great job! "Mowing" the lawn Scrubbing out the fridge Mopping the kitchen Organizing the play kitchen His reward: play time with a new tape track in his room! ...and one random picture of Haley playing tea set.

We have had some decent weather and are enjoying being outside again. Tonight we went and played tennis with three other couples while the kids rode bikes around on the extra courts. It was so much fun! We haven't played in a long time so there wasn't anything amazing going on, but it was a good use of two hours of a lovely evening. We didn't plan to be this coordinated! JT has been pretty diligent in the watering. Our garden is doing well. We hope to harvest something eventually. :) We have had one strawberry and can see tomatoes on their way. The flowers look beautiful! We had to raise the seat on JT's bike. Rather, he had to raise the seat. We broke out his tool box and he picked out the right size wrench and screwdriver for the big job.

We got back from North Carolina and had a one-day turn around for Jim's birthday party, also known as "Kicking Off Summer" with our friends. With most of our family out of town for Jim's birthday, he decided to just spend the day skiing on our favorite lake. We invited some friends for a barbecue for dinner and some of them came to play on the lake with us as well. We owe the Robertsons a thank you for letting us use their house for the fun on the lake, and my parents and thank you for letting us use their house for the dinner. My parents were out of town, so we crashed their house without their knowledge and sent them a text photo of all of us in their yard. :) We got there early and skiied as a family of four.  Then the Bonnells showed up with their new jet skis, which was super fun! Love this one! The kids went tubing. JT continues to love the water! We were also successful getting Elisa up on a slalom ski. It was a great afternoon. ...