What was I thinking......

We are having a late birthday party for Tyler this coming Thursday.

So the end of school year (near his actual birthday) was SO busy for me that I just needed some down time. Then the summer was kind of laid back and lacking routine...and because of that I never got my act together to plan and complete a party with his friends.
Of course he DID have a party with family and close friends of ours, but not his "school friends". So at the end of July, I told him we were just going to wait until next year, and he was just SOOOO SAD.
And of course, he just melts us when he is sad...
I felt horrible, so I told him that we would do a late birthday, and that way it was kind of an end of the summer party too.
So...Thursday it is.

His theme is PIRATES....which he decided on about a year ago...
I decided it would just as easy to make a pinata from scratch.
Ummmm yeah......

So here is the first step....a box covered in tin foil.

The glue mixture.... A LOT of it by the way. in the end I am betting to have gone through 14 school size bottles.... (they are the best deal right now, or I would have gotten the big jug.

Here are the first few layers.....

They say for a 6 year old...it needs about 6-7 coats. So I have 3-4 left to go.

I will post again as I get farther and it starts to take shape. So that you can see what it actually turns out to be.
IT IS EASY!!!! but VERY time consuming as you have to let EVERY layer dry before moving on to the next.
In the end in probably would have been worth the $10 to buy one...but it is kind of fun! :)

No routine....

Just a little water play, on a hot...summer day....
I can't believe school starts in 2 1/2 weeks!
My friend Lisa, said it perfect. We stay at home moms love routine...so school is great for that...but just when we get used to having NO routine BE our routine...it is time for school to start.
I don't know if I am ready.
However, I know it will BECOME the routine again....

The spray pad at Willis Tucker Park. The favorite summer play place!!!!!

Finally....

When my dad was here last time, in the late spring, he planted some tomatoes with the kids.

Ty and Karman have dilegently been watering, and taking care of these plants. We have, on the three plants, at least 30 fruit, but they WILL NOT turn red!!! Everyday, Ty and Makylie look...and report to me.

Today...on the smallest of the 3 plants, on the VERY bottom, Tyler found ONE lonely red tomato!

Tomorrow, the kids will share it and they are VERY excited!
Can you tell??????

A blueberry a day...Forever!!!

So our family LOVES blueberries!!!

Not only are they SUPER healthy...but the kids just eat them like candy! We also put them in salads, pancakes and of course muffins. When they get to be the best fruit bargain of the summer, (about now) we over buy and then freeze them to use all winter.

SO...this year, we found out that there is a huge blueberry farm right down the hill from us, not even 5 minutes away. So we decided to go picking!

The kids LOVED it! Blueberry bushes are right at their level, and it makes for good picking. In fact, some of the best berries, are low...as adults don't want to bend over to get them...so the kids were able to get those hidden jewels!

I am pretty sure, that the kids could have stayed there all day long.

I had no idea that they would be so open to it, and not shy away from the overgrown paths, and the glistening spiderwebs abound.

Seriously though, I think Makylie ate more then she gathered.

The owner made a joke that they have considered weighing people on the way in and on the way to find out how many are eating. :)

Maky and I stayed in one field that had smaller berries, while Kevin, Karman and Tyler went to a field that had more plump, huge, berries.

And she ate some more.

And some more....

And....ummmm...still some more.

Tyler and daddy switched buckets and they played a trick on me, telling me that he gathered all of those, (which was more then I got), so I was really impressed until he did his belly laugh and said...we FOOLED you mommy!!!

But he still got a whole bunch! and was really proud!

Karman filled about 2/3 of the can too.
She really likes this kind of stuff...always has, since she was little.

**************************************
Oh look....there she is popping another into her mouth.....The girl had to have eaten her weight in blueberries!

I like the smaller blueberries as they are a little more tart. So I scurried around picking only the smallest, yet still ripe, berries that I could find.

Maky was so proud of herself!

A job she can do...even being a tiny little thing!

SO.....we left thinking we maybe had around 5 to 7 pounds.

We figured we were carrying them, and no one was complaining of the weight, so it couldn't be that heavy.

Kevin asked me if I grabbed cash from the car, and I said "yes, as long as we have less then 10 pounds we are good"....

We put them all up on the stand to pay....

***

***

***

***

Wait for it

***

***

***

***

We ended up having almost 13 pounds!!!!!!

We cleaned them all, and then needed to dry them off before freezing....

and here they are!

Picture doesn't do it justice, I know....but it is A LOT of berries!

Oh Beautiful....

For spacious skies.....
***************************
So...I have made it to July, finally. Only one month behind.

Really nice!
Oh well...at least they are getting posted. I don't think I have too much more to actually CATCH up on, other then the 4th.
So here we are!!!!

SUCH a cute happy fourth picture of Ty and Maky.

Karman was still at camp...we took the ferry over in the morning for the closing ceremony, and to pick her up. She is the 2nd one in from the right...in the black. They are doing their closing skit.
While she was gone she was invited to a friends house for the fourth. So we no more then picked her up and dropped her off at her friend Rae's...where there was a neighborhood party.

I Love Makylie's leggins. :)
**************************************************
We had a friends Mark and Erin, and their kids Sean and Mason over.

Our tradition is to just stay home, have a nice BBQ, and (because fireworks are not illegal in our particular area yet) watch the nice spread that some of the neighbors put on. It works out nicely, because we are right here at the house, and if the kids wear out too much, they can just go to bed.
HOWEVER, before that....the kids had a great time in the slip n' slide!

They splashed and slid for about an hour.

Then dried off....

Then we had our BBQ...Erin brought over a pasta salad, and we had green salad, corn and watermelon and some DELICIOUS steaks!

Notice the husbands are sitting alone outside....I am not sure how that happened.

We got all set up to watch fireworks...
Makylie watched in anticipation!

We had some home-made strawberry pie and ice cream while we waited.

Mason got tired....Makylie got tired...

Night finally fell...

So the boys found it appropriate to put on a magic show for us.

It was the cutest thing about the whole day....

They came out with huge smiles, just so ready to impress....

And they had a hat and a ball...and they said....

"Are you ready for the Tyler and Sean show?"

We said, YES!

"OK...Close your eyes!!!"

We all just laughed and laughed! We were to close our eyes so they could perform their magic! No Magician Secrets Revealed needed on this one!!!

Oh but they are SO cute!
**********************************

Then Makylie just couldn't wait any longer. It was just after 9, and she was just done. She knows when she is ready for bed...and she is the only of all of my kids, that will just go. No worries about what she is missing...SO.....

Off to bed she went....basically, just in time for the pretty explosions to start!

My camera, surprisingly, took some amazing shots. I got far more then this...I set it to manual, and night, then set the shutter slow, and they were really great!

And these are all, from just the end of our driveway.

We had a great day.....

Though I know how late this is....We hope everyone else did too!

What is Peace?

Still catching up....

***************************************

June 28th, we headed out to the ocean while Karman was at summer camp.
It was so much fun, and so relaxing...I wish I could go SO much more often, I wish we could have stayed longer too!
The kids had a wonderful time. Mommy and Daddy felt so connected. The weather was cold, and windy...but it was just so nice to get away, even if only for a couple days, and not worry about a thing. We don't get to do that very often, but it was so needed!

Love this picture!

Daddy buried Makylie's legs.

Tyler, surprisingly, really liked to chase the waves. His belly laughs lit up the beach!

Ahhhhhhh...I love them!

Wind power.

The kite flying was so much fun! The kids really loved it. They have never been able to fly a kite before...and the wind was perfect!

Love, love,love this picture. I was so far away. I had my zoom lens on. There was a saltwater haze...I just love how it looks. It was one of only two times that Maky went down to the water.

We collected all kinds of shells and treasures on the beach and wrote our name.

Then we tried to put our feet in. It didn't work like I had hoped.

Sandcastle happiness!

The kids really thought it was cool that we could write in the sand. Makylie was really enjoying it! We did these to frame.

Of course, since Karman was there, we made one for her too! :)

This was before our nice dinner out.

Oh my, Tyler was so cute walking Maky to the waters edge. She was really afraid, because it really is SO powerful. As soon as she realized that, she didn't want to get too close...but she did walk a little closer with big brother protection!

This is a deer that we saw eating on the side of the road. I love this town!

This is the night scene from our hotel room. It was SO windy, and it just sounded like a tornado outside, it was really neat! You couldn't even stand on the balcony, because it ws so windy you couldn't catch your breath. It was pitch black at this time, but this is what the night setting on the camera picked up!

Still, not really a representation on just HOW windy it really was!
*******************************

The kids LOVED the pool. The whole trip I honestly think this was their favorite part.

Seriously,

An endless ocean that literally takes your breath away, and makes you remember just how TINY we are in this HUGE world...a town where deer walk on the street...pure soft sandy beaches filled with all of the seashells you could ever want...kites as far as the eye can see...beautiful sunsets...minigolf and small town cuisine...

NOPE...nothing compared to the small hotel pool.

I love their innocence!

There were model ships all over the hotel.

This is what we could see from our room's balcony.

That is Peace...

Ahhhh, We so would like to go back.