Summer...

One of my college roomates, Brooke, is marrying Nate, a man who used to go to our church. It's a small-world thing. I hadn't seen Brooke, hardly, since college, but this connection reunited us. She came over for dinner the other night on Nate's motorcycle. The kids wanted a ride. 

I think the Big Guy was having a hard time letting go of his little girl (who was in her pajamas at the time) when she got on the bike. 

He was brave though and finally let her go. She loved it!

So did Sam, of course.

They'll be talking about this all summer. 

Claire and Annabel have been sewing a lot lately. They made these beach bags on my sewing machine together, with a little help from me.

They also made napkins. Napkins were much easier and they liked using the zig-zag stitch. 

Speaking of sewing...REAL sewing...Claire had a sewing day (2 actually) with her Grandma and they made this dress for her American Girl doll. Wow! I was impressed. And intimidated. 

We made a little sandbox and put it in our parkway. It was an immediate kid-magnet and has gotten much use already.

The best part has been that Sammy has picked up a few more neighborhood buddies in the process. Pablo and Isaiah are Sam's new buds.

Something we are very excited and hopeful for is the possible acquisition of a real YARD. Our house is on the left and our neighbor's house is on the right, with a garden in the middle. 

This is the garden up close. It's as wide and deep as a city lot and the lady who owns it is trying to get rid of it before she lets her house go into foreclosure. She might even sell it to us for a HUGE steal. So...we are dreaming of all the things we'll do with that space if we get it!!! (chickens anyone?) 

Matt's parent's bought this hoop for Sam a few Christmases ago, but we didn't have a backboard and couldn't think of a good spot to mount it. But we finally found one!

This is the front of our house and the steps that lead down to the basement.

We bolted the hoop to this wood and then used industrial strength zip-ties to tether it to the fence. Walah!

We also put up this tiny pool in our backyard. See the funny leaning evergreen tree behind the pool? We attempted to move it from the middle of the yard to the back of the yard, but it's a little, well...unsteady. Haha!

And, we've figured out that Wella's favorite food is corn on the cob! We're trying to eek out every bit of summer fun that we can in our tiny city house. So far, we're doing okay!