Now you see it...

... now you don't...

... now you see it...

err, kind of...

... in pieces...

at our neighbors house...
... Yep, during our vacation, it seems our trampoline also decided to take a vacation...

... helped out by the tornado that swept through minnesota while we were gone.

... we got a call from one neighbor telling us that our trampoline was no more... getting demolished in the huge storm.

... some other sweet neighbors gathered all the pieces and had them sitting on their back porch, and when we came back, we found every piece except for one spring...

can you believe it?

yea, me neither!

Some pieces had been put through the ringer, and we scouted out a welding guy who did a little magic melding and put some of the pieces back together,

... and after a lotta gathering and jerry-rigging (literally!)...

... and self proclaimed 'parents of the year' awarding...

The tramp is BACK in action!!!

much to the joy of the children.

and the parents.

So honey, what did you do all day?...

... oh, you know, the usual -

a little gardening...

(I wish this was chocolate spread all through her mouth... it's not... she got a little 'too' into the gardening and decided to test the tomato plant soil...)
... fed the kids
... packed for the trip...

... yep, pretty much run of the mill day around these parts...

WOmans best friend...

Yes, this is a roomba...

Yes, you've seen those dorky infomercials

Yes, it does sound a bit corny...

Yes, I did, in fact, dive in to the roomba family...

Yes I did get an amazing deal (c'mon, you know me, I don't buy anything unless it's an amazing deal!)

and YES, I love, love, LOVE my roomba!!!

I mean, really, what's not to love??

... it cleans up after you

... you can push it's buttons without any repercussions

... you can leave it alone for hours on end and your house will actually be cleaner when you come back

... it even puts ITSELF away (I think it may be the only thing that actually gets put away around here lately!)

yep... woman's best friend.

The squeals of summer...

... are some of my favorite sounds in the world.

I love to have the doors and windows open and hear the kids outside.

especially when they are running through the sprinklers...

... yes, they ARE running through the sprinklers... in my jackets...

(before we learned how to turn on our sprinklers on demand, they were programmed to come on at 6:00 in the morning.)

... the kiddos really wanted to run through the sprinklers...

... once we learned how to turn them on, the kids have been going at it nonstop in the afternoons :)

... jumping on the tramp...

... yes it is dark in this picture - we set up the tramp after fhe one night, and they couldn't wait to test it out...

... and then within 24 hours one of them poked a hole in it with his action figures...

... so it got sent into the shop for the whole next week...

... which to the kiddos seemed like the longest week in the world (even though I reminded them that they had successfully lived their entire lives up to this point without a trampoline...)

... and even some of both...

... which is the latest top activity on the kiddos list.

ahhhh...

Bring on the squeals!!