Playground, Popsicles and Pretend Sharks

Auntie discovered a fun little spot for us about 30 minutes from home. It has a playground and a small beach area, perfect little ones. The kids had lots of fun. Kaia had a blast trying out all the swings.
The boys enjoyed eating (and wearing) their Spiderman Pops. They were the furthest away from the Ice Cream Truck, but somehow ran fast enough to be the first ones in line when it stopped. Something about that bell...I ought to get one of those!

All the kids spent a lot of time in the water, having a grand ole time and no, this is not a real fish, but everyone who has seen the picture has thought so.

Rainy Day Fun

After having sooo many rainy days this summer, it does get "old" doing the same old thing, so last Friday we went bowling; it was actually Evan's idea. Evan thinks the shoes are silly; silly or not, they look adorable on little kids...not so cute on Mommy though. Why do they make bowling shoes so "silly" looking...must be so you don't steal them....hmmm? I'll have to google the answer to that question and post at a later time.

Little Miss was determined to carry and roll the ball down the lane completely on her own. Sometimes it took awhile to reach the pins, but it always eventually got there.

E started to practice putting his fingers in the proper holes on the ball-somewhat challenging for a little kid, but he's working on it.

Birthday Fun in Celebration of Pepere

Fun was had by all at Dad's Birthday Celebration. I don't think the kids sat for more than 1 minute at a time for the entire 8 hours we spent at Uncle Ron and Auntie Stacie's house. Stacie is the master cake decorator, as you can see by her beautiful cake (and it was yummy too).

The boys spent some of their time making silly one minute videos with the digital camera.

Dad liked his hand-made present from his grandchildren.

I enjoyed taking pictures of some old wheel barrows hanging out in the yard.

The food, prepared by Victor and Stacie, was delicious and I was even able to enjoy some leftovers today. There's nothing better than a summer meal prepared on the grill...

as there is nothing cuter than my nephew staking claim of his umbrella. Shortly after, I had to confiscate the umbrella before someone lost an eye...he wasn't too happy :(

....and my favorite photo of the day. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

July 25, 2009/ Guess who is turning 60 today!

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you have a great day filled with celebration. You're the best. I love you!

This picture is about 10 years old, but still a favorite. Some of my best memories are of my dad and I dancing, even way back when at all of those Girl Scout father-daughter dances. I'll have to try to dig out one of those classic photos.

Z...

...ebra, the newest member of our family. Evan often has random thoughts about things and one day he decided he wanted a goldfish. Ok...well, that doesn't seem like a big deal. Get a gold fish and a fishbowl and we're all set. Apparently, most fish can not survive in a fishbowl (now we know why we never had our goldfish for more than a couple of weeks). So, $100.00 later, here we are with our 10 gallon fish tank and our new fish, appropriately named by Evan, Zebra. I like to refer to him as "Z" for short. He will have some friends in a couple days, as we are adding them in slowly to give them time to adjust. I will be sure to update you as the family
continues to grow and flourish (let's hope).














I'm wondering, do fish ever sleep? This little guy hasn't stopped swimming! He kind of has the same personality as his five-year old owner.

Summer has arrived

We have flowers from the gardens...

I always like to have cut flowers around the house and it's so much fun in the summertime when we get to cut them right from our gardens. Evan picked and cut all these flowers to bring to Avo's house.

baseball caps...


pretty summer dresses...

and of course, Del's Lemonade...

Two boys and a sprinkler

Evan is lucky to have cousins very close in age to him. Every morning when he wakes up he asks for one of them to come over to play.

Today was fun-filled including a little cooling off in the sprinkler. This was definitely the highlight of the day for both boys.

Glimpses of Summer

Is this summer? The weather still doesn't seem quite warm enough, but we'll take it!!! We've been trying to squeeze in all the fun activities before the sun goes away again.

Although I've been known to be a bit overly cautious, no I do not typically require my children to wear helmets when swinging, however, I don't think it's such a bad idea.

The little man is almost completely back to himself. He's feeling much better and has some of his energy back...yippeeeee!



















Kaia tried out the new Splash Pad at Capron Park; she had a blast, but next time we'll remember our bathing suits.

My Handy Husband

We contemplated what swingset to get for soooo long. We finally bought one months ago and it's been sitting in the garage in boxes. After clearing and leveling some land and trimming some branches off trees, the project was ready to be tackled. Victor took lots of time last week to put it together (with some help from my dad). I think it turned out great and the kids are loving it too! I will post some more pictures when the area around it is completely finished.

The Party Crasher

This cute little fellar dropped by our cookout on the fourth. The kids were thrilled to see him. We've had many visits this year from the animals we share our land with...deer, groundhogs, wild turkeys, bunnies and my personal favorite (not really), snakes!

In a funk...

Evan hasn't been himself for almost 2 weeks now. He's been fighting the virus monster. I'm getting impatient to see the sparkle in his big brown eyes.

Mud Bath Anyone?

Yes, she was dirty, but the smile on her face was COMPLETELY worth it! Besides, with all this rain we've had, what else is there for a 2 year old to do? From the stories I have heard from my parents, I found great pleasure in getting completely covered in dirt too. Like mother, like daughter I guess.