Break out the summer...

 Hydrangeas...

 ...lemonade

 ...and seashells

Perhaps a bit on the crowded side for this little shelf, but it's kinda how our summers feel...good crowded...

 And my favorite new wall. Not that it's gorgeous deco-wise, but the functionality and organization of this little Ikea shelf just gives me a little zing every time I look at it. Thanks to Heather for her free printables of the monthly primary themes and articles of faith. Then thanks to THIS site for doing an adapted, favorite quote from Elder Bednar (for FREE!) that sums up a lot of the goals we have for our family right now. The church magazines finally have a permanent, home at reachable (boys/us adults) & unreachable (tots) levels & then our current FHE chart w/ dry erase marker tucked behind (hoping to get a cuter one on there sometime soon as well as changing up the color of the too-stark-n'dark 'D'). Swoon..

 Last awards ceremony...Jyson being recognized for being in the play

 and Jaydon for being on the principal's honor roll all year. They both had really great years will fabulous teachers, may the trend continue into next!

 

This sums it up for how these menfolk felt during the proceedings. Seriously, we both have some strong, not-so-fond opinions about awards 'you're-awesome-you're-not' ceremonies to begin with & then the fact that they are basically a long mtg in Tony's eyes just seals the deal. Come on, just pretend Tony my dearest...

There we go!

 At least she was happy...she stayed with him the whole time (once she found out that Jaydon was too far away to go for a visit)

 And it seems we always go to our favorite wood 'castle park' as a last 'friends' good-bye before the boys leave for the summer, but they were too busy running to get a picture :)

 The airport was harder this time around. Ari saw the boys go through the tunnel & loved talking about how they were on the airplane, but as soon as it took off into the sky she burst into tears, "come back boooyys!" Every few days since then she'll ask, "time to pick up a boys?" No, dear, not yet...

The ward had a carwash, bakesale, yardsale for their one a year fundraiser for girls/boy scout camp so we took the opportunity to snap a pic by the semi getting washed.

And we had our own ginorm garage sale...made a few hundred off my junk & donated the rest to the ward sale. I feel lighter, somehow :)

 

"Come buy our bookshelf!" *cuties not included*

Blog-worthy

On June 10, 2013 (last Monday) Ari announced:

"I go twinkle, Mommy!"

Hallelujah, child, yes you did (age 4 is just around the corner after all)...

A field trip with my boys

Ever since we moved here I've wanted to go to...

Lucas Oil Stadium!! Just kidding. Sorry folks, but most times I could care less about sports (this is home to the Indianapolis Colts). However, I do love tours of places with cool facts & there was no shortage of those...

 Jyson in the cadillac of all locker rooms

 Jyson & pal posing in Peyton Manning's official spot

 The field with retractable roof (in 11min!)

 The 'father' of all ceiling fans

 Legal tagging, Colts style

 The turf we could only stand on one foot of or someone would start yelling--they're currently prepping for an international Lacrosse tournament so they paint over the Colt's insignia on the turf & then spend a few months removing the paint...apparently they do it on a very regular basis...wild...Even wilder is that they will bring in TONS (literally) of dirt for monster truck rallies, have it then haul it back out a few days later! Glad I'm not one of their grunt men, I think it would drive me crazy! And they can't ever vacuum it, just use big magnets to get the dangerous stuff out since it's special turf...how tedious!

 Cuz more is always better...

Now on to why I REALLY came...the Indianpapolis Children's Museum with Bronto greeting us...

 Lunch on the way...

 Cool 3 story art sculpture

 Have lunch with the three bears? For some reason the boys didn't linger long...

 I found it quite hilarious that the game boy is now old enough to be be a museum

 Hanging with the watershed exhibit

 Or underneath the Terrarium

 Or outside it...we're all about prepositions

 More neato water stuff...

 The water clock

 This was so rad...glass art (the boys are lying on a slowly turning seat) & then you could look at a chart & try to find all these different ones they have pictured

 Or have friendly fight with the sturdier pieces

 Train collection

 Hey ma, I'm behind glass

 Special gravel mix that can literally be dug at & removed with archeological tools to discover 'fossils' below...they refill it every few months or so

 Dinsosaur transformation

 The Hot Wheels exhibit: we spent loads of time here :)

 One race track

 Car with removable /re-designable magnet art

 

Jyson spent a good 20-30 min drawing a car based on some templates provided & the light box

 While Jaydon raced...

 And I pondered what the point of a hot wheel covered in diamonds was/is...

 Cool cars, alright alright

 Then we attended 'design a hotwheel car' school to learn the process...

 Design a prototype on paper first,

 recreate it on a white, actual car

 and then test them for speed and ultimate awesomeness!

 Graduation

 Buh bye dino...hope you enjoy the crazy rain as much as we...didn't...between that and s sad accident we were an hour & half late & had to miss our anticipated BBQ at some friends :(

 The next night we had a fire roast of our own to make up for it

...pictured: turkey bacon, Amish stuffed sausages & cheese...I had to shut my eyes to take the picture (not big on greasy meat)

It was part of our last grand hurrah since the boys left for the summer about a week later...