I'm On A Boat

When PawPaw said, "We should take the kids out on a boat ride sometime," I said, "How about tomorrow?"  And so began our planning for a morning on the water.  Life jackets on and watermelon in the cooler, we were off for a fun run on Normandy Lake.  In all my years of living so close to such a beautiful lake, I am sad to say this was my first time out on the water.  Now I have boat fever...

I love this picture of the two red-heads.

PawPaw stopped at the beach area to let the kids out for a swim.

And, this might have been the best watermelon I have ever eaten.  

If you judge the fun factor by how fast the kids fall asleep, we hadn't even left our parking space yet when Lucy looked like this.  A fun day, indeed.

Family Baseball Night

Our church planned a faith night at the Nashville Sounds baseball game.  There was worship music and prayer and most of our church family came to cheer on the Sounds.  It was Sam's first time at a real baseball game, and I think he may be hooked.  He certainly was a big fan of the hotdogs.  And the funnel cakes.  And real cokes out of a bottle.  Oh, and Dippin' Dots.  He can't wait to go back.

His first look at the big baseball field almost made his eyes pop out!  

Pretty different from the Babe Ruth fields at our park.

Sam HAD to play this game (which he thought was a bounce house) where you test your throwing speed.  11 mph at three years old; that's some kind of record, right?

The brothers were kind enough to take Sam down close to the dugout with them.  He got to talk to the players in the dugout and even got a baseball from "one of his buddies" on the team.  

Super fun night!  We will have to do this one again. 

Picking Berries

After our great strawberry picking experience, we had been waiting for blueberries and blackberries to be ready so we could go back.  As luck would have it, they were BOTH ready one sunny Friday afternoon.  So, my three best pickers and I headed for the berry farm.

Of course, a competition for who could harvest the largest blueberry would quickly ensue.  

Sam was just the right size to get all the big berries hidden down low.

We really were having so much fun finding the largest berries that the next thing I knew, we had picked $65 dollars worth of berries!  We've got blueberry jam, blueberry syrup, blackberry freezer jam, frozen whole berries and berry cobbler.  Knee deep in berries, I tell ya!

Splash Pad

Kendall and I have been friends for a long time.  Twenty years now.  And our friendship has changed over the years.  Friendship in our thirty-somethings with small children means phone calls that are few and far between.  Text messages that may or may not be answered in the same day.  And playdates, Bahahaha!  I'm learning exactly why it is so difficult for moms to "hangout."  

But, we planned such a playdate this weekend at the splash pad.  These two were pretty big fans. 

H was also a happy camper.  

Little RJ mini, NOT a fan.  So, Nani to the rescue.  She was happy to hold this sweet-cheeks baby while Ken and I adopted the whole "divide and cover" parenting strategy and conquered the splash pad water park with four little ones.

And after we were tired of water spouts and sprinklers, we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  There were heated sprints to the play center, negotiations on how much food had to be eaten before playtime, and mini-meltdowns because one had fries and one didn't.  This picture pretty much sums up our little playdate together….

But, I love this friend of mine.  And her little people.  And our rare playdates together.  

Dinosaur museum

Sam loves dinosaurs.  Like, crazy loves them.  Reads books and learns how to pronounce countless types of them.  So, what does a great daddy do?  Why, he plans a trip the Anniston Museum of Natural History so his boy can see dinosaurs and all kinds of other cool things that the little guy loves…

The Polar Bear was a bit too real for Sam's comfort level.  We had to pass him by pretty quickly.

Dinosaur bones!  

Lucy was all about pushing buttons.

Contrary to Sam's declaration, this is in fact, NOT a mastodon.

Don't we look like we had fun?!

Summer's Here

Nothing says summer like a lemonade stand.  Kayden and Cameron set up their own lemonade stand while their unsuspecting mother was afternoon napping.  They even made their own lemonade all by themselves.  Now, it didn't have any sugar and they were serving it to customers in Amanda's kitchen glasses, but they were happy.  Nani was among the day's customers, and she paid top dollar for the boys' lemonade.  Lucy used more a "sneak some from the side" approach.  

  

Sam and I went to the strawberry patch to pick our own strawberries and visit with the animals.  He was such a great picking partner.  He kept saying, "I'm only gonna pick the rosy-red ones!

And, it wouldn't be summer if we didn't have breakfast on the back porch almost every morning...

and catch frogs every chance we get!

Summer seems to be a time with a lot of relaxed fun outdoors and even more grace for the appearance of my indoors!  

Fishing With Friends

I'm behind (as usual) on blogging, but I couldn't leave out our fishing trip with our dear friends, the 'dorf family.  I am blessed to know them and call them friends.  Our time together is always fun and special.  

We loaded the kiddos up for a trip to our secret fishing spot with guaranteed success on catching fish.  PawPaw's pond is a sure thing when wanting to hook newbys on the joys of fishing.

The boys were all off to a great start, but Lucy and Jude quickly lost interest, 

and snacks and swinging became mandatory.  

Quick juice break for Sam, complete with buffalo in the background.

Then, more snacks in the back of the fan while our campfire heated up.  

Hotdogs and s'mores is the perfect dinner for hungry fisher-people.  

Oh, and I think Lucy and Jude are gonna be big buddies.  They like the same things: swinging, picking flowers, and eating lots of graham crackers.  They are just each others' speed.  It's pretty cute.