Wordless Wednesday - Who Needs a Pool?

. . . my little men spent hours on Saturday dumping pitchers of water over their own heads. ah, life's simple little pleasures. . .

(and did I mention that both of them HATE to have their hair washed and rinsed during bathtime?!)

more wordless fun at 5 Minutes for Mom. . .

Wordless Wednesday - S'mores

we may have used a little too much marshmallow. . .

more wordless fun at 5 Minutes for Mom. . .

Wordless Wednesday - Popsicle Party

more wordless fun at 5 Minutes for Mom...

Wordless Wednesday - Fun in the Sun

Summer: Splashing, Slides, Sailing, Spoons, School Shopping

Three cheers for a fun summer! It has finally arrived here in Oregon - it made its very late appearance in early July. We don't mind the heat because now we are finally getting to all our summer activities! It has been a bit of a challenge with our schedules - the Nerd was out of town all last week, VBS is all this week, and the Drama Queen and I will be headed up to Canada for two weeks in August.

Still, there was time for the Drama Queen and the Beast to take their very first ride on a paddleboat. I am not sure what was more exciting to them - the actual ride or getting to wear a lifevest.

I did not trust the Spud to stay in his seat on the paddleboat; but he amused himself for quite a while with a partially-deflated ball and wading pool. The kid is so crazy he was doing belly-flops into the pool and laughing hysterically!

Our friends ( the cool ones with the pond and paddleboat and big backyard) set up a homemade slip'n'slide complete with little inner tubes and dish soap to make the kiddies (and some grown-ups, ahem) slide faster. The Drama Queen daintily danced her way down the slide on her tippy toes each time. Perhaps she missed the point, but hey, she had a great time!

And who needs expensive plastic toys when a couple of spoons and some food cans will entertain the little hooligans? Traditionally, the kiddos have beat their little hearts out on pots and pans, but to save Momma's sanity, I persuaded them that the coffee can and the oatmeal can were just as fun. As apparently they were, for the kiddos spent over an hour playing their "drums". (Note: Make sure you are using empty cans or at the very least, firmly secure the lids with tape. Mischievous children will be sure to open the cans and distribute their contents liberally. )

And while I have been getting my fair share of the sun too, I have mostly been spending my time on The Framed Frog orders, paperwork for the Beast, and planning for VBS puppet theater.

That, and waiting eagerly by the phone on Friday because my baby sister ( in Canada) had her first baby! Little Delaney Hope is so beautiful, and my sister is already an amazing mom. I am so excited to go see her in August and monopolize the baby. :)

Also, the Drama Queen and I have already been hitting the stores for back-to-school shopping - getting uniform shirts and a lunch box at Old Navy and crayons and glue at Target. (giddy with school excitement!)

Exciting times! And speaking of exciting times, I now need to rally the troops and make a trip to the post office. It will be epic, I'm sure....

Did You Have as Much Fun as We Did?

Hello all you people on the other side of the computer! This is the Drama Queen, guest-posting for my momma today. In case you are wondering about my mad typing skills as a four-year-old, I am just dictating this, thank you very much. If you were wondering about my excellent grammar, well, I just have a knack for it. Really and absolutely.

So how was your Independence Day celebration? I hope you didn't spend it inside watching Fresh Prince of Bel-air marathon (or whatever was on!) We had a great day! Momma let me wear my red cowgirl boots with my patriotic outfit, which was cool. She unfortunately also insisted on yanking all my hair up on top of my head into a ponytail with a red ribbon. She said she knows it hurts because Grammy did it to her too when she was little. I don't get it!

Momma tried to get a really and absolutely great picture of us on the church steps. She always does this when we are wearing matching outfits. I of course was listening and trying to keep my brothers in check, but you know brothers. Annoying!

See, when I'm by myself in the picture, it turns out great! (except The Spud's head is showing a little. Momma needs to crop him out!)

Momma said she will always treasure this picture because the Beast never sits still long enough! I don't really know what she meant but I laughed anyway. Grown-ups like it when you laugh at their jokes, and then they are much more willing to give you stuff.

After church, we had a barbeque right out in the parking lot. It was a lot of fun, and we stuffed ourselves with hot dogs, chips, cookies, and cupcakes. The Spud shared his food liberally with his clothes and his stroller. Haha! Again, I have no idea what that means, but just laugh, okay?

While we were eating, we got to see a whole bunch of people do different stuff on stage for us. There were people singing and reciting poetry and talking. It was cool. I liked when the big kids got up there and sang. Soon I'll be in school and I'll get to do that stuff too!

Momma and Daddy are not the greatest at planning our fireworks adventure each year. When they FINALLY decided where we were going to see fireworks, it was way too crowded, and there was no parking. I cried, but Daddy promised me we would get to see fireworks somehow. We went back home where Daddy set up a bunch of chairs and got out a big pack of fireworks and sparklers. I was really good at the sparklers - see how I am teaching the Beast how to do it right in the picture?

The Spud was a little scared; so he didn't do any sparklers with us. But he had fun watching us and the fireworks that Daddy set off. And, as it turns out, we were able to see a lot of fireworks in the sky through the trees near our house.

Here is another example of my awesome sparkler skills! It was so fun, and I am glad we had such a great day!

Let me know in the comments about your fun celebration and maybe even a link to your post about it. I love looking at the pictures, and Momma will read them to me.

Oh, and don't forget about Found It! Friday this week! The inspiration is daisies - here's hoping some more of you participate this week. :)

Found It Friday - Summer Picnic

It's time for the second edition of "Found It Friday" - a fun meme in which an inspiration is given and readers participate by sharing five things related to that inspiration. Please join in by writing your own post about this week's inspiration - summer picnics - and then linking up here. I am looking forward to seeing what you think of when you think of summer picnics and hoping to glean some great ideas for the upcoming Fourth of July festivities!

1. Picnicking means planning some activities for the young ones. Mine happen to love sidewalk chalk and bubbles! Above is a photo of homemade sidewalk chalk. (tutorial at Mad Maggie Designs)

2. Be sure to have plenty of drinks at your picnic! We always have lemonade and soda, but my favorite is iced tea. I found this new Cherry Pomegranate black tea at the local grocery store and finished it off in one day! And I love that it is made by a company based in Lancaster County, PA, near my childhood neighborhood. I grew up drinking Turkey Hill teas and lemonades and eating their delicious ice cream. (tea by Turkey Hill)

3. Sometimes it's just way too hot outside to have a picnic. In that case, don't abandon the picnic plans! Just bring your picnic indoors. Spread out a tablecloth on the living room floor, serve up your regular picnic fare, and turn on Animal Planet.

4. You need to have the proper utensils at your picnic, especially if you are serving up baked beans or sizzling steaks from the grill. Why not make your own incredibly cute and useful picnic utensil container? (tutorial at Clearly IStamp)

5. Or, for a fancier picnic, you may want to make some picnic flatware rolls. Especially if you've got sewing skills! Each one rolls up with its own set of flatware so they can be handily stored in the picnic basket. The best part is choosing the fabric - I do love the sunny lemon and verdant greenery fabric used here. (tutorial at make it do)

I am totally ready for some summer picnics now! Go ahead and link up your summer picnic post below and be sure to visit the other posts for summery inspiration!

next week's inspiration is: daisies!

Summertime. . . and The Livin is Easy

We had the privilege of attending my husband's uncle's wedding this past Saturday. The Nerd himself was out of town on vacation (yeah, we take separate vacations - more about that in a later post. -grin-) I then was in charge in three lovely littles by myself at an outdoor wedding on a very large property. My in-laws were awesome and helped as much as they could, but it was all I could do to sneak a few photos here and there. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Beast: "I am so over this tie. and all the smiling. Can we go now?"
The Drama Queen: "Hmmm...how can I come up with a new way to ask Mom and Dad for a puppy?"

The Spud: "You got to be kidding me, right? I don't see any cheese! What am I supposed to smile about? Now if you had said, 'Say Cookie' or 'Say Mass Destruction', I would have been all over that."

The Spud managed to drink his soda out of the can on his own quite well. Well, if you don't mind several streaks down the uber cute tie and a brown puddle on the porch. (no, it's not beer, people! It's cream soda!)

The Beast paused long enough for a cute shot with the man of the hour . . . and his soda. What can I say? I knew it was going to be a tough gig - allowing the kids to have soda helped me maintain some of my sanity.

Other random facts about the day:
1) please note the Spud's adorable loafers. I found those on sale at Wally World for just $3.
2) the Drama Queen picked out her own dress because it "sorta matched Momma's." (also a great bargain for $6 at Burlington Coat Factory!)
3) the sun and crazy activity had really gotten to me, so naturally I had to stop on the way home and get a Northwest Chocolate Cherry shake with expresso from Burgerville. Have you all noticed they have started printing the nutritional information on your receipt?? My splurge of the day ended up costing me 1100 calories! (guess who didn't eat dinner that night!!)
4) a HUGE thank you to my in-laws, who despite their exhaustion too kindly took the littles off my hands for the night and brought them to church the next morning. ahh sweet no-kid time. It was glorious!