Summer Days

All dressed up...and ready for tea! Each summer when the Iowa cousins come to mammer and popper's house for the week, it's always filled with fun for the kids! This particular day, mammer had planned to take the ladies and the grandkids (no guys allowed) to a suprise tea at a bed and breakfast! The food was amazing and so was the 1800's brick house that it was held at! The kids loved getting all dressed up for the day!




Tyler and Ally gave us a few laughs pretending that they were both nearly peeing their pants while waiting on their little cousins to come out of the restroom! Now come on...is it really that bad? Notice the smirks on their faces?




Kamryn tried her best to ba a "fancy litle princess" and it did last for a little while, but eventually her "true inner self" got the best of her and she was tearing around the B & B in no time! (Let's just say that a room full of tea cups and china, was not the place for 4 adults and a whole slew of kids to be!) We quickly ushered them outside (before the owners did it for us) and snapped a few more pic's in the flower garden's!


Mammer and the "Precious 8" ...Ally, Kenzie, Kamryn, Jarett, Gabi, Tyler(holding Ethan) and Nicole


If I could read Nicole's mind, I bet she would be saying "This tea party is great and all...But I'm tired of being so up-tight. I'm gonna just relax and prop up my elbows on the table!"





We do drink a lot of tea in our family, but we don't always dress in princess attire to drink it! The girls have enjoyed going out to the garden beds to pick fresh tea and tomatoes! Here is Nicole in all her glory after cutting this tea for me to make iced tea!


CLOWNING AROUND...Ha! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself) The girls found some old face paint and asked me to "decorate them" Thankfully kamryn was pleased with just a small butterfly on her arm!
When the cousins come out, we usually have a slew of summer b-days to celebrate. This year aunt Tami and aunt Brooke decided that instead of the typical b-day spankings, tape would be much more fun. After catching them and having help holding them down, Ally and Jarett were successfully TAPED UP!
This is what happens during a busy week with the cousins when I get side tracked and walk away from the sink...(note to self-shut the water off BEFORE going outside to pick tea!)

The cousins spent most of their time just down the road at mammer and poppers house. But they spent several days at our house instead. I couldn't resist gathering them all up for a quick pic before bed and thought to myself...these kids could actually all be mine! I abruptly shut that train of thought down though, before a panic attack came on!

We spent most of our summer enjoying the outdoors! This was an evening spent on the back porch with friends and their kiddos! The little munchkins always like being together, despite the fact that they often fight like siblings! (Chloe, Niki, Kamryn and Seth)