Way back in June/July...

...I took a whole bunch of pictures that I never blogged!  Here we go...

Max made a tea party for all of the little Squinkie animals....and his baby spinosaurus.

Max and Nora wanted to be a king and queen, if I remember right.

Tirzah is just fun to take pictures of. :)

The weekend of July 1st we were supposed to go out to Ohio for my cousin Sam's wedding.  That Saturday morning was a farewell/retirement party for Judy, my former boss at the library.  Since we were going to miss the party, I made her a cake and dropped it off on Friday.  We will all miss you, Judy!

It says "Retirement Chapter 1."

Oh, and a side note on the wedding...we stayed in Indianapolis Friday night, intending on getting there Saturday afternoon.  Well, on Saturday morning we got a call from my dad saying that just about everywhere between us and them was out of power...Latty, OH included.  That meant no air conditioner on one of the hottest weekends this summer. :(  We turned around and drove home and prayed for everyone who was in Ohio!  As it was, Sam and Laura still got married and we even got to see them several weeks later.

We harvested some things from our garden, despite the hot and dry weather.

We played outside (kinda)

Max got this dinosaur excavation kit for his birthday (I don't remember who gave it to him) and we finally got around to doing it.

Greg did pretty much all of the chipping away/digging out.  Max did a great job of brushing off the dust.

The finished skeleton!

They promptly named her Sue.  How original, right?

We goofed off.

We ate (and froze) a lot of sweet corn!

Tirzah ate her first plum.

We visited Brett, Laura, Bryce, and Joni one weekend in Kansas City.  Saturday the kids played with some water balloons.

Max figured out he can pop them with his teeth.

The innertube was a MUST for the kiddie pool, of course.

We played "Rotten Egg," which my kids had never done before.  This is the 'good egg' pile...

...and here are the 'rotten eggs.'  (I promise that it's just coincidence that my kids are the rotten ones!) :)

We all went out for barbecue, since we were in KC, after all!

Sunday morning Greg even got the kids lined up for some pictures.

Not always lined up the right way. :)

Bryce and Joni remind me so much of Max and Nora.

These two were buddies...Max loved going to Sunday school with Bryce.

What a crew!

Philip had come down to KC for the day to see us, so after church we went to Peachwave for some yummy frozen yogurt.

It's always hard to say goodbye to Uncle Phil!  (Thanks for a great weekend, Brett and Laura!  We had a blast!)

Max and Nora have spent many days taking care of "animals who don't have their mommies or daddies."  It's one of their favorite games.  In this picture, though, Nora was pretending to be a kangaroo.

At the end of July we served lunch at church.  We decided to make chicken salad again, and it turned out quite delicious!

I'd say that was mostly because Greg did the seasoning and mixing. :)

We had John and Heather's kids over for supper one night when they were staying with Dad and Mom Rassi after their baby brother was born (I just realized I don't think I even have a picture of him!  Bad Aunt Mary!)  The dress up clothes were, as always, popular.

What a brave knight!

Max gets a Ranger Rick magazine and notices the crafts in them now.  He really wanted to make the hermit crabs, so I finally got the supplies and did it with him and Nora one night when Greg was gone.

They did much better with painting than I expected!

Max's are on the left, Nora's on the right.

Max has not gone to bed well since tax season this year.  (I think it's because we started the habit of them lying in front of the fireplace as their special time with Greg and then falling asleep and me moving them to their beds.)  Anyway, for a while he kept sneaking into Nora's room to fall asleep, especially for naps.  One day I found him here:  UNDER her bed!  Since then, we have moved him to the top bunk of her bed and things are much, much better.

Tirzy says, "When can I move down with the big kids, Mom?"  :)