Summer activities hitherto unrecorded

As our summer vacation winds down, I thought I'd look back on some of our miscellaneous activities, such as...

Cooking Day, at the aptly-named Cook Family's house: The girls made a salad and a cake, and the boys made cookies and meatballs! Then they made some pasta and sauce... and we had a feast! The kids set the table, and served the mothers (my favorite part!).

What a treat that was.

Another day we all gathered at the Cooks' as well-- this time for a water-color painting day!

I'm always thankful for the artistic input of my friends - because I am very deficient in that area!


Not for lack of attempts, though... We do some painting around here occasionally...
... but it always ends up pretty messy.

So does play-dough for that matter:

Why in the world do my kids think it's a good idea to put play-dough on the WALLS?

It's been a good, active, sometimes messy summer. And every once in awhile, we even had a few sweet and quiet moments like these:

(This particular moment was ended abruptly when Strider noticed me taking the picture and started yelling and protesting. He refuses to pose for "sweet" anymore. "Messy" he has no problem with. None of them do.)