Flamingo Birthday

I've decided summer birthdays are tons of fun. You may not get to celebrate in school, but there are so many fun things you can do to party when it's warm and sunny outside. 

We went to a flamingo party for one of the cousins and it was so fun and cute. This flamingo floatie was loved by all.

... even Zeke, who originally didn't want anything to do with something so incredibly pink.

Nora is a little fish and had a great time with the waterslide. 

Cousin Pals

We had cousins in town for 2 weeks in July and my kids were in heaven! They spent pretty much that whole two weeks at Grandma's playing. That is all they wanted to do, and they had a blast. I'm so glad that these kids love each other so much. I think they are at ages where they are creating wonderful memories and lasting relationships. 

Nora and Alyssa loved that they were twinners in fun new dresses.

We took the cousins with us to a library magic show and 3 of them ended up on stage with a variety of drinks poured from an orange juice container. Zeke really got root beer and Kylie really got strawberry milk. This wizard was pretty good, we couldn't figure out how he did his tricks!

Ashlynn's family got a puppy and all the kids were so excited to play with him. He's still a baby though - Zeke was bummed when the little guy zonked out right away.

I have no idea what game this was or why Nora thought it would be good to flop over the roof of the Cozy Coupe, but I couldn't resist taking this picture.

Everyone pile on Aunt Heather! Nora sandwich!

I love the cousin train. They're so dang cute. 

Lake Trip

One awesome Saturday morning, we went to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa and a bunch of aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

Nora was in the water pretty much instantly. She loved wading and floating in the raft with her cousins.  Zeke spent most of his time either floating in the shallow water or in the kayak. 

Aaron flew his water plane.

Zeke wanted to kayak alone. I wasn't sure, because I was worried he would get too far out. But there were a couple of people who were willing to kayak close and keep track of him, so I decided not to object. I'm glad I let him try, because he got really good by the end of the day. Definitely a huge accomplishment for him and I'm proud of him for sticking with it. Because we wouldn't let him kayak himself into the deep water, Grandpa towed him out. He loved it!

After our adventures, we had a picnic on the shore near these cute sunflowers. 

It was a wonderful day and the kids keep asking when we can buy our own kayak so we can go back all the time!

Loertscher Reunion

Loads of fun at the Loertscher reunion this year! 

Of course there were train rides (although Zeke may think he's on a roller coaster in this one...)

Nora adored the slip-n-slide. It was so fun to watch her. 

Zeke didn't want to get his whole self wet, so he manned the water cannons. 

We wore our matchy family shirts and found it impossible to get a good family picture in them. 

And the kids spent a lot of time in the big swing with their cousins and their new family friends. There were some families here this year that don't usually come and Zeke made fast friends with one of the boys his age. There seemed to be a gang of 8 year old boys (who are 2nd cousins) running around together and they had a blast.