Haircuts and Landscaping

Soccer began for all three big boys.  This picture is our first practice for Luke and Liam.  Our first game was cancelled due to rain, but hopefully we will have some pictures soon.  

Fun day at the pool with friends

Aiden and his buddies at the pool

John's landscaping project.  We are putting mulch in the front yard and moving all the rock to a flower bed and garden area that John is building in the backyard.  

Removing all the rock in the front yard and transporting to the backyard with the rock vacuum.

There is more than one way to pick up rock!

Liam's long hair.....IS GONE!

Liam is getting it chopped

So much better

He got a big trim for sure

Luke is in the dunk tank at our neighborhood carnival.  We have the carnival each year to raise money for families who have children battling cancer.

Down he goes

Aiden's picture before the haircut!

POST HAIRCUT!!

Looks awesome!

Luke, Liam, and Aiden are enjoying Vacation Bible School at church this week.  Finn and I are enjoying a slightly less chaotic schedule and a bit more quiet during the day.

John began a big landscaping project in our front and backyard about two weeks ago.  We have thankfully made a lot of progress and it is already looking a lot better.  Last weekend we rented a giant machine that picks up rocks.  Many of the flowerbeds in Minnesota are filled with rocks rather than mulch, but we really prefer mulch so we have been trying to move and repurpose all the rock.  As you can imagine, moving rocks one shovel load at a time is a LOT.  It is exhausting work and very time consuming.  John found a machine that you can rent to help us with moving all the rock.  It was still a long process that required a substantial amount of manual labor.  We were also very thankful to have the help of some teenage boys and their Dad.  As of Sunday evening, the rock is officially out of the flower beds, the old bushes have been cleared out, and all we lack is some leveling of the flower beds and then planting the new bushes.

We convinced Aiden and Liam to get new haircuts this week!  We did away with the long hockey hair and they look so much cleaner.  Luke and Finn are not interested in cutting their hair anytime soon, but they both have curly hair like me so I am not sure a different haircut like Liam's or Aiden's would actually work too well.  For the time being, we have two with long hockey hair and two with short hair.

Baseball, Camp, and a Parade

Luke and Liam's baseball team won second place in their end of year tournament!

They had a water gun fight at their last practice.  It was hot and humid outside and lots of fun.  The parents surprised the boys and attacked with water guns!

Heading off to overnight camp for the first time.  This is three sets of fraternal twins.

Loading the buses

Luke and his best buddy, Charlie

Liam's cabin with his buddies and counselor Alec

Luke and Liam at baseball (cool picture taken by a friend)

Gaga ball at camp.  One of Liam's favorite activities

Campfire 

Liam's cabin

Maple Grove Days Parade  We had a lively group of 10 boys!

The moms at Maple Grove Days parade.  We were supposed to take a selfie and send it to that TV station and they put us on TV.

We have enjoyed several fun activities since my last post.  I will begin with Luke and Liam's baseball tournament.  Luke and Liam's baseball season ended the day they left for camp (more on that later).  They played in a tournament and their team finished in second place.  They really enjoyed the season and learned a lot in the process.  It was fun to see their team get so much better in a few short months.  Liam really enjoyed pitching and did a great job actually throwing strikes which isn't easy to do at this age.  Luke loved being a catcher and playing first base.

Less than an hour after the tournament game finished, Luke and Liam left for their first overnight camp experience with our church.  They rode a bus about 2 hours north of here to a Lutheran church camp on the Shores of St. Andrew.  It was only three days and two nights so it was short enough to give them a camp experience without really a chance to miss us too much.  Liam said he missed all of us, but Luke seemed to do just fine.  They had a lot of fun with several close buddies and enjoyed swimming in the lake, paddle boarding, gaga ball, bonfires, chapel services and probably staying up way too late!  They returned home without showering or brushing their teeth, but thankfully they managed to keep up with everything they brought so overall it was a success.

Lastly, we all attended the Maple Grove Days parade in our town.  The boys really enjoy the parade and all the candy and other things they are able to gather along the route.  We went with several friends and had a lot of fun.

Happy 4th of July!!

Roasting s'mores with our friends

Epic summer picture and the epitome of Luke!

Finn's favorite thing to do...sit by the fire

Shrimp Boil

Grandpa/Grandad had a Birthday!

Fun with Cousin Calvin

And sometimes too much fun!!

Driving Range with Calvin

Calvin 

Lots of boys on the driving range

We visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on a warm summer day

Hot boys on a bench

Balancing

Hold on tight!

Calvin said "Everyone bow to the mighty Rooster" and so we did!

Finn

I think on the other side of this sculpture there was a sign that said, "do not touch."  I am not exactly sure how they will ever enforce that.  We never saw the sign before we suggested that the boys go climb on it along with the other 10 kids before us!

The super cool putt putt course

We had a very fun 4th of July this year.  Uncle Jason, Aunt Sarah, and our cousin Calvin drove up to Minnesota to spend a few fun-filled days with us.  We had a great time and I think everyone was pretty tired by the end of their stay.  We enjoyed a swimming party complete with a shrimp boil, swimming, fireworks, and smores at a good friend's house on the 3rd.  On July 4th, we made a visit to the newly renovated sculpture garden in Minneapolis.  In between the activities mentioned above, we went to the pool to swim a couple times, hit some balls on the driving range, and went to see a movie.    The week was topped off with a babysitter who kept the boys for a few hours while we enjoyed a nice dinner out.  Thanks for visiting, McClures!  The boys are already excited for you to come back and see us soon!