We started the month of July with a big step and moved Rachel to her big girl bed. She loves it. :) She still falls out sometimes, but she looks pretty grown up when she's sleeping.
Fort building has been a pretty popular activity this summer with all the hot days we've had.
We had a fun 4th of July celebration! On the evening of the 3rd, we set off some of our own fireworks. It took a little while, but Luke finally started to like them! He even did a sparkler on his own. Rachel covered her eyes through most of it. :)
On the 4th, we got together with the Holthe side of the family. The girls (Grandma, Becky, Julia, Rachel, and I) went to Seward to the craft fair while the boys (Grandpa, Paul, Garrison, Luke, and Matt) went golfing. We all ate lunch together. After lunch, we went home to get ready for our friends to come over! The kids played together and ate lots of good food! Here are some of the treats we made.
Having fun trapping each other in the laundry basket.
We attended the wedding of a good family friend on July 7th in Columbus. The kids had a great time following Tom and Kelly around the reception. We could hardly get them off the dance floor!
After the wedding, we drove to Omaha. On Sunday, Grandma, Tom, Kelly, and I took the kids to
Chuck E. Cheese's to eat and play. Everyone had a great time! We left with tons of prizes!
After our fun afternoon, we got together with the Krings family at a mini-reunion. My Aunt Betty was here from Arizona, so it was so much fun to spend some time with her. The kids were exhausted when we got home from our busy weekend!

From here, it seems like we have been going like crazy!! The very next day we went to Fullerton to visit Aunt Betty for the afternoon before she had to leave. Luke spent his mornings at the Community Center doing "Tot Time", where he had a great time playing outside and doing some crafts. On Thursday, my mom, the kiddos, and I took dinner to my cousin Megan and visited her new baby, Rider. The kids loved holding him and snuggling him. :) On Friday, we went to the zoo to meet Jenni, my friend I worked with in Kansas, and her family. We had a great day seeing the animals and catching up. We continued on Saturday with a fun afternoon/evening with the Brodine and Jakub families playing and eating! Sunday was a fun pool/pizza/ice cream day with great friends! Of course, with all the activities, I completely forgot to take pictures of any of this.
Phew!! The craziness continues with lots of upcoming activities!! We have lots of stuff to do before we settle back in to our school routine. Hopefully I can catch a few minutes to update a little more often!