Fireworks on the 3rd of July.

On the 3rd of July we went to an Independence Day celebration with a couple of friends.  We had a great time, the weather was nice, and the fireworks were beautiful!

Giving kisses to his favorite sister.

A little dancing.

First trip to the ocean this year.

There is a heat wave in MA right now. The temperature is close to 90F every day.

You'd think I would be okay with it, after living in Texas for 10 years, but no.  I got used to cold winters and cool summers very fast.

We slept in late and then decided to drive to Maine, do some outlet shopping, eat awesome food, then spend some time at the beach.

It turned out to be a wonderful day!  I love living here!

Annika has arrived at the beach and is looking for a spot to sit.

Rock climbing.

Quiet mama, I'm busy!

Ready to play some tennis right after swimming.  Annika HATES missing the ball!  She gets so upset and hits the ground with the racquet!  It's a funny sight.

Saw a brave otter (or something).

And then we had a nice walk by the beach.  

The kids are now sleeping.  They were so busy today.

Annika's FIRST trophy, swimming & cheap fun!

We are so proud of Annika's very first trophy in gymnastics this morning!

She and one of her good friends worked so hard all year and will be moving on to the next level in the fall!

After gymnastics, we went swimming.

We've been spending a lot of time in the pool after getting the membership.  Annika made huge progress already.  At first, she had to hold on to the edge of the pool the whole time, but she is now all over the place, swimming to the deep end of the pool with her bubbles.  Ganden got goggles and is now enjoying studying everything under water.
And, I love sitting in the air conditioned building, without being all sweaty or worrying about the sunscreen lotion and sand everywhere.  If we ever get a pool, it would have to be an indoor one!!! :D

After the kids were done swimming, we found a MUSHROOM by the pool!  What joy!

And then we had a little fun with a Japanese coin bank!

Little things in life make us VERY happy!

MVI 1545 from Ksenia on Vimeo.

Want some cheap fun for yourself?  Get it right here!

And, then, before bed, Annika told me: "If Mario is walking down the path and he sees a bear, he will say to Princess Peach: "Princess Peach, give me a knife!" Then Princess Peach will give Mario a knife and Mario will give the knife to a prince and prince will fight the bear!"

I love how Mario thinks!

Mushrooms

So, G loves Super Mario.  "Angry Birds" are long forgotten....
He's been asking me to buy him some mushroom seeds so that he can grow mushrooms.  Magical Super Mario Mushrooms: green, red, yellow, blue...
Well, I did my best. On June 5th we got mushroom spawns in the mail (Amazon Frustration-Free) and on June 16th (Father's Day) we had a WONDERFUL potato and mushroom soup.  Here are some pictures from our mushroom gardening days:

June 5th - Day 1

(They just pressure washed our house before paining it, so the walls look horrible.)

Smells just like mushrooms!

June 10th - Day 5

June 11 - Day 6

Spraying the mushrooms.

June 12th - Day 7

They were growing like... well... mushrooms after the rain!

June 13th - Day 8

The mushrooms got larger than what you see in the last picture and, at some point, I felt like they began to dry up a little bit, so we made a wonderful soup on Day 11!  I added extra mushrooms from the store (baby bella) and the soup was absolutely amazing.  Here is a simple recipe that you can change to fit your tastes (For example, I didn't use noodles):

http://kartavkusa.ru/index.php/sup-gribnoi

Swim

Every day after school, I get a long sob story from G about his absolutely horrible childhood.... all because we don't have a pool.
So, this week we got a family membership at a local pool.  The membership also gives us huge discounts on swim classes, which alone is worth it, since G is always taking classes there and Annika wants to start taking classes, too.
So, since we can now go swim anytime for free (we used to pay $4 an hour and could only do it on Sunday from 11 until 12), we've been going every evening before bed.

We should have gotten the pool membership years ago!