Beach picnic

Last Saturday, I talked Jason into taking us to the beach for the afternoon.  I packed up our picnic and we were off.  Unfortunately the tide wasn't perfect - it was high tide so there wasn't much beach for the boys to play on and the surf was really rough so they didn't really go in the water.  They were a little disappointed in not being able to go in the water but it was pretty cold so Jason and I didn't want to get that wet.

I love this picture - he caught the ball - sand and all

Enjoying our wonderful dinner on the beach.

My sweet boys - let me just say how difficult it is to take a picture with both of the boys looking at the camera.  It gets exhausting!!

I loved our evening out.  It was so much fun.   However, I think next time we will try to find a different part of the beach that isn't so crowded because I'm sure the boys will be asking to go back but Jason and I will need to be prepared to get in the water.

Game night starts back

Jason and I enjoy playing games - mostly Jason so we have tried to have a monthly game night with some of our friends.  Well, we have been pretty slack on it but last Friday we started it back up again.  The kids have a blast playing with each other and with 4 kids they got along great.

We played a new game Quelf, which Jason and I had played at his mom's the weekend before and it was quite fun.  It's one of those games where you just do what it says and worry about what it made you look like later.  We laughed so hard at all of the crazy things that we had to do - from me being Tara's cheerleader every time it was her turn, Adam being a drill sergeant towards Stephanie, Marshall creating a new Halloween mask and Jason having to act like a gnome (who knows how they act and talk).  Needless to say we laughed so hard that we actually didn't even finish the game - but Tara was in the lead most of the time.

 Stephanie and Jason playing Paddy Cake

Marshall showing off his Yoga moves

Marshall wearing his homemade Halloween mask

Allye doesn't no what to think of his new mask

Stephanie giving us a sales pitch on "trying something new"

 Adam showing off his piano moves

Game night was so much fun and we are looking forward to having it again soon.  We all need good laughs every now and then.

Hot Days = Big Air

When it gets around 95 degrees around here, I start looking for things for the boys to do inside or we are at the pool.  What better place than somewhere that has 6 bouncy houses INSIDE = BIG AIR!!!  The boys love this place so we headed there last Thursday for a couple of hours of fun.  Of course we had to make a couple of stops before - no trip into Jacksonville is wasted with gas prices as they are.

Anyway, they took off time we got in the door.  Of course I forgot my nice camera and then the battery was dead on my small camera so all I had was my phone which doesn't take good moving pictures.

Trevor wasn't too keen with this big dinosaur.

Look at this sweaty boy - yeah he was having a good time

Of course they wanted me to slide with them so here we go.

After all of the playing, they were famished so we chose Arby's.  It's always a toss up as to how the boys will be when we eat out.  They were great at the restaurant and Brody ate an entire regular size roast beef with no problem.

We had stopped by Fresh Market which meant small bags of candy they could enjoy while in Target.

They had a great time and it was really nice to be able to get out of the house.

The final goodies from the garden

The week before the tropical storm hit we pulled some of our last squash from our garden - they were pretty big.  

My freezer is now filled with 4 or 5 bags of squash and the same of beans.  When we arrived home after the storm I didn't really think our corn was going to survive.  However, about 50 ears were able to be salvaged.  I was so excited to have some corn, which is one of the main reasons we wanted the garden.

My little helper helping me prepare the corn

Trying to enjoy the corn a little too soon

Finally ready to eat

Final thoughts about the garden:

• next year may need to be a little bigger
• don't plant the squash, zucchini, & cucumbers right by each other because one won't survive - our zucchini didn't produce anything
• plant the rows a little further apart
• plant more peas because Trevor LOVES them

I am very happy with our first garden and am looking forward to planting another one next year.  Yes, it can be a lot of work, but it's great to have fresh vegetables.

A few funny pictures to leave you with.  One day at lunch, I kept telling Trevor to finish up his chicken nuggets and he kept telling me he was tired.  I assumed it was a way for him to not have to eat his food.  I needed 5 more minutes to do something and then I would take him to bed.  Well, I look over and this is what I see.  I guess he really was tired.

Our little friend camped out on the back of my vehicle.

Summer is off with a bang

The boys are so excited to start working through our Summer Fun list so of course it's difficult to not do anything on days.  Our first activity marked off our list (besides Star Wars Weekend) was to make gummies.  I purchased this make your own gummy pack for one of Brody's birthday's but I forgot about it, so I just put it away for a different time - which was last week.

They were pretty excited to be able to make the gummies because they have seen the box sitting around.  

The gummies were pretty easy to make

 Shaking the bottles of warm water and mix

All finished and ready to put in the fridge to harden

Time to eat

I guess they enjoyed them, they didn't offer me any and they were gone before I knew it.

That evening we decided to have family movie night.  Brody has been wanting to watch his new movie he received for Easter.  Since it's summer time the boys don't have to be in bed at 9:00 so the bedtime is a little more negotiable.  When it got time to watch the movie, Brody asked where Cale was since it was family movie night.  He was VERY disappointed that all of our family wasn't coming over to watch the movie.

Sitting and eating popcorn while watching the movie.  Trevor didn't watch much of the movie and by the end of it he was playing with one of our phones just so he would be quiet.  This child just cannot sit still - I'm sure he is going to get into so much trouble when he gets in school.

The movie was pretty good and kept Brody entertained.  They were so excited the next day to mark a couple of things off our summer list.