Tis' the Season... back to school season!
 Open House is always a kick in the summer fun for the kids because they know it is almost over. As much as they all enjoy school, it's hard to go back after all the summer festivities. I was ready to drop off all the school supplies that have been scattered across the kitchen table for 2 weeks now!!! Margaux was 1st and very eager to get to her new school & decorate her locker. It's funny how much they look forward to the idea of a locker. I am confident that Margaux's locker will still look this clean & organized at the end of the year! She is def our little organizer.

1st year alone at the elementary school for Maeve. She was so excited to meet her new teacher Mrs. Peters & even more excited to have a few of her besties in class with her. Including Hazel. Her teacher is so neat & organized... the exact opposite of Maeve! In fact, her teacher last year nicknamed her "Messy Maeve!" We're hoping some of her teachers habits rub off on our little mess maker.

New school for Marin this year as well. So much change, including having three kids in three different schools. Que the crazy! Marin, aka Miss Social always adjusts great. We are excited for her new adventures in middle school! Luckily she's got a great group of friends that she enjoys seeing each day which makes it easier to get up so darn early! She will be the first out the door each morning at 6:45!!! So early!

One week until the 1st day of school. Until then we'll enjoy our last few days of summer. It's been so wonderful but I know we're all ready for some structure & earlier bed times! xoxo

You know the summer is coming to an end when you enjoy your last "up north" weekend of the season. Happy to have spent it with such a fun group of adults...

and cute kids!

They all had so much fun together. It is always so fun to see a big bunch of kids like this {different ages, etc} spend a weekend together & thoroughly enjoy their time together. No drama, just fun!

Our girls were happy to get out on the boat for some lake fun.

Maeve stayed clear of any water sports & hung in the boat with the spotters all weekend.

Margaux got on the knee board & went tubing with Marin, Carly & Cash

Marin & Gary were most excited for the wake boarding. They both make it look so darn easy.

Marin also did some skiing, so she had a weekend full of water time which she loved! It was definitely not as warm as we would have liked but we all made the most of it. The cooler temps did make for great bonfire evenings! We'll take what we can get, thankful it is not snowing! xoxo

Perfect summer night to head downtown for the market & to see the hot air balloons. The girls walked around for a bit trying to decide on which treat they wanted, as soon as they saw these cotton candy creations the littles were sold. Maeve & Layla with the duck & Marg/Hayden chose a minion.

 By 8:15ish the balloons all started to inflate. So fun to see them all so close up. I am not sure I have ever seen a hot air balloon that close, ever. Definitely way larger than I imagined them to be.

 I couldn't stop taking photos! 

 Fun night with a great crew. We had no idea that the balloons are not allowed to fly after dusk & that they just inflated them to see. We were all waiting for them to take off! 

Still cool to see & we were all definitely glad we went. Summer nights are winding down! xoxo

Today the Brown 5 participated in a fun run/walk in honor of our friend Sean. Sean is fighting a battle with childhood cancer & rocking it! We had a big group from home travel down to participate & all wore our matching Super Sean shirts too.

Margaux got crazy excited to see Forky {character from Toy Story 4} show up. Could not wait to get her photo taken with him. And Marin was equally excited to see the Chick Fil A cow. Between her Starbucks & Chick Fil A obsession, I am not sure which one is worse!

Also got a quick visit with grandma Cece before we headed home. Quick little get away!

Earlier this week Marin, Estelle & I headed to Milwaukee for a little girls trip. Kristin was working so we spent the day exploring the city until she was able to meet us. First stop.. UWM!

 So much fun exploring the campus with Marin & showing her some of our favorite spots. Only thing that could have made it better would have been a visit to our dorm. They were closed but I think she would have been shocked at how small the rooms are. Hard to believe she's only 6ish years until it will be her turn to choose a college. If she had to choose now, she'd say UWM! We did some shopping & then headed downtown for a few hours...and enough time for a million pics of Marin & Estelle posing in the city.

 Dinner at one of our fav restaurants & then we headed back to the hotel. Wednesday morning Katie drove down with her kids & our littles for a zoo day. Holly & Charlie joined us too. It's been a few years since we last visited the zoo, always enjoyable & the kids all had so much fun together. The baby giraffe was definitely a highlight of the visit. Adorable.

 After the hot day at the zoo, we headed to the pool to cool off before Katie & her kids headed home. Our girls had so much fun repeatedly going off the diving board, both low & high dive. (Maeve stuck to the low, no surprise) Fitz & Sloane were so darn cute. Sloane kept telling me it was the best day ever which I think all the kids would have agreed with her.

We spent another night with Anguils because the girls were just not ready to go home. I think all three of them would move into their house if we would let them. Holly & Charlie took us to see some new murals that had just been painted...more photos for the girls!

 And a visit is not complete with out Chick fil A. Our girls are officially obsessed. Marin asked for extra packets of their signature sauce & will hide them so no one else uses them, haha. All of the girls & the Anguil crew had a fancy Chick fil A dinner outside together. Just love this bunch of kids & their love for each other. 

Today it was time to head home & I had to bribe them with Starbucks to get them all in the car! No one was ready to leave. Until next time Anguils! Lots more fun summer memories made in the past few days. xoxo

Our girls have been practicing for over a week for a production of Moana. Aadi worked very hard watching the movie & making her own script. Once she was done, she hosted a casting night where the girls had to try out for the parts they wanted. Marin got the lead, Moana. Margaux was Pua {the pig no surprise!} and Maeve was Hei-Hei a cute little bird. The whole play was wonderful. The kids worked on memorizing their lines, the cast made props & they worked hard to make their costumes just right. Here is the program that was passed out to all the attendees...

 Love that she even had the families write messages to the cast in the program. The whole production was done around Veraghen's pool. I wish I had a photo of the audience. They drew in a big crowd! Probably about 40-ish people there including Katie/Mike, Sloane, Fitz & my mom and dad.  A few action shots of the play as it was happening.... love that Margaux was crawling around in a pig costume.

 The whole cast after the play was finished. They were all so darn cute in their costumes.

After the play there were Moana cupcakes & refreshments for all {adults included} Honestly, so proud of these kiddos. It was really a great & very entertaining show. They all did great with their lines & the dancing was fantastic. Nice work crew! xoxo 

Last night we brought the girls to the drive in movie theatre. Double feature The Lion King & Toy Story 4. Doesn't happen often that both movies work because typically the earlier movie is for kids & then 2nd is an adult-ish movie. We'd seen Toy Story a few weeks ago but they loved it so much they were begging to stay for both movies even knowing it gets pretty late. 

Lion King started around 8:45. Kids were snuggled into the back of our cars & full of candy/snacks before it even started.

 Toy Story didn't start until almost 10:45 and the kids were all still wide awake & excited to stay... except Bhodi who fell asleep on the way to the drive in & never woke up. He missed both movies.

Late night but low key which is what we all needed... movie was done around 12:30am and we all had fun! Maeve & Marg didn't make it to the end of Toy Story, they were out cold about 1/2 way through. Thankfully we had already seen it. Margaux just woke up {11:15am} and the other two slept until 10/10:30 this morning. Lazy morning for everyone but Gary who was off to work by 7am. The kids would love to go one more time before the end of summer. Such a fun way to watch movies vs sitting in a theatre. Hopefully we can make it happen our weeks are winding down. xoxo

Night out for the adults last night. Michael Ray concert downtown & drinks with friends.

 We're paying for it a little this morning, but it was worth the fun!

Hard to believe it is almost August. Why does the summer go so fast? We need an extra month, wish I could snap my fingers & make it happen! xoxo

Another 1st for Gary. Door County Triathlon with MyTeamTriumph. Something he has always wanted to do & it finally became a reality today! Gary, his friend Kris & one of Kris's friends formed a team together & were matched with Kayla. 

 Eric did the swim with her, Kris did the bike & Gary ran 13.1 pushing her. So fun to watch & a beautiful day to spectate. The girls spent some time by the water while waiting for Team Kayla to arrive in transition. Door County is just so beautiful.

Then it was time for Gary to take over. We had so much fun cheering them on. Brought a smile to our faces seeing Kayla waving to us each time they went running past.

 We had lunch together in Fish Creek & then headed back to Egg Harbor to meet up with Amber and Griffin before the big finish.

 Really an amazing experience even as a spectator. Seeing their team cross the finish line was so moving. Gary had pushed her the entire 13.1 miles & then a few hundred feet from the finish they were able to get her out to walk across the finish line together as a team. So great!

One picture of Gary with Kayla after the race. She was warm & so happy to be done. We've connected with her & look forward to keeping in touch and maybe another race together in the future. MyTeamTriumph is a great organization & we were happy to take part in this race with them. Great job team Kayla! 

A little bit of summer fun with friends the past few weeks. Shanna, Brody & Hendrix are here visiting from Australia. We so enjoy our time with them. This week a trip to Bay Beach. Marin, Estelle, Marg & Brody on the giant drop ride...

Maeve & Bellamy were content on the merry go round.

We've been fortunate to spend a lot of time with them over the past 2.5 weeks swimming, bonfires, etc. but tonight it was time to say our goodbyes. They leave tomorrow to head home. 

Always so much fun & they play so well together. The time always seems to go so fast too! 

Earlier this week the little girls joined the Montgomery's for some slip & slide fun. Just love this photo of the girls. Maeve was convinced she didn't need a shower after wards because there was soap on the slip & slide to help them go faster! haha 

And the summer would not be complete without a little fun for the adults as well. Last night was our annual bike to the bar night with the neighborhood ladies. Always so much fun. We definitely need to do this more often, such a fun group of friends.

Loving our summer adventures! xoxo

Happy 4th of July!!! LOVE this holiday & everything that comes with it. The Brown's officially have enough red, white & blue to outfit us for a month! 

 I love seeing how much the kids all change from year to year. I'll have to start posting progression pics with all the years together! Can't wait to complete our clan with baby Acre in a few months.

 Love this crew so much & always one of our favorite weeks of the year together. 

We spent the week/weekend tubing, fishing, eating/drinking & swimming. One must for our chicks is a few night swims. They love the calm of the water in the late evening & not having to apply sunscreen. This particular swim Sloane chose to go skinny dipping. So many laughs, esp since it started while it was still light out.

While Maeve was gone with Eva a few weeks ago she developed a love for fishing. She learned how to cast & perfected the art of putting a worm on the hook w/o touching the worm. This past weekend was another story. My dad had her digging for worms {bait} and she was handling them like a champ.

 Wasn't long before she caught one & it was a big one! She was pretty darn excited!

On the 4th we all went to the parade. Kids love the parade tradition & the weather was actually quite mild which made the parade far more tolerable. Added bonus, so much candy!

 After some time swimming & boating the sun finally set and it was time for fireworks. Missing from all nighttime firework pictures is Maeve who was in the house losing her mind in fear. She would not come outside at all. The show went on without her while she was safe inside.

Love these girls & the great dollar store fireworks! 

The weather could not have been more perfect. So much time on the water for the girls & friends. They balanced their time with the King/Nick crew & also had a great time with Connor, Ansen & Sienna our friends from Lake Tahoe who we see every 4th of July week.

 Jumping in the lake & tubbing time. Sloane's first time on a tube & she did great.

 These kids could spend the whole week on the golf cart. Always so much fun over at Nick's cottage. Look at all these chicks!

A first for this year was the Venetian Parade on the lake. Our girls & the Drew kiddos {from Tahoe} decided to enter the parade this year with a construction float. They had so much fun & are already brainstorming ideas for next year's parade.

Always a great time. Happy to be home & of course already have laundry started! Time to relax & unwind. Happy 4th!!! xoxo