Jackson and his accessories

It's Tuesday morning. Library day on our summer schedule. We must hurry to get there early to get a good seat. There will be a lot of people there today to watch the magic show out on the front lawn in front of our local library...

We're piling into the car and Jackson says, "I need my purse and my gun!" He runs back into the house and 2 seconds later comes running out with his purse, his orange potato gun, and his blue helmet. Classic. And he WORE that blue helmet the entire time we were there!

Jeremy LOVES it when Jackson does not embrace his manhood. It makes Jeremy squirm whenever Jackson asks to "put his dress on", or paint his nails, or carry his purse. I, personally, enjoy the fact that my son can embrace his feminine side and proudly carry a hot pink purse out in public - to the library - where there are at least 100 people there to admire his ensemble. He's confident. He's sure of himself. And he knows who he is. That's all that really matters in life. (And getting a good laugh out of how ridiculous my child looks in his get-up.)

And, just for the record, the gun and the helmet cancel out the purse anyway. It's a man's carry-all. It's not a purse - it's European!

Family Camp 2010 Portrait

We just got back from a week of camping at Shaver Lake. We call it "Family Camp" because it is for families just like ours! We had a blast this year enjoying friends and family.

We swam
we fished
we kayaked
we fought (with water balloons, of course)
we celebrated the birth of our country
we rafted
we slept (not enough)
we ate
and we campfired together for a glorious 5 nights and 6 days.

Doesn't this look like a fun crew?! And that wasn't even all of us! On our peak day we had 95 people enjoying in all that fun. WOW. That was a boatload of people!

No worries, more posts of our week-long adventure to come...

Friendly pool friends

Here we are on an average day - 15+ kids in the pool and a few moms lounging/life guarding on the deck. There are 17 kids that live within our 3 houses next door to each other which accounts for most of the bodies in the pool on any given day. And when you add in friends and neighbor kids that quickly turns into a pool party.

We keep trying to convince our pool service to treat our pool as they would any other community pool, but they just won't agree to it. Something about a "residential contract" or something like that.

Here is another pool friend that showed up on this same day. Buffy spotted him on the chair next to me and all the ladies had a great yelp and squeal because of him. This grasshopper was HUGE! - almost as big as Buff's hand. Sorry for the picture quality - I had only my cell phone camera on hand at the moment.

Like I said, we are out there by the pool on most hot afternoons - grasshopper friend or no grasshopper friend, but definitely with lots of people friends.

lazy daisy day

One of the things I've always loved about summer are the plentiful grassy fields of those white dandelion flowers. While sitting at Logan's summer league baseball game we discovered huge patches of these flowers. I asked Lizzie if she'd ever made a daisy chain before and she said no. How did my girl come this far in life without ever experiencing a homemade flower necklace?!

We promptly set to work and made her a beautiful jewelry set. Tiara, bracelet and ring. It only took a few minutes to teach Lizzie how to make these gorgeous accessories. She got to hear "when I was a little girl..." stories while we linked the flowers together. By the time we were finished she felt like a beautiful flower fairy princess.

Thank you lazy summer days for these lovely mother/daughter moments.

104 days of summer vacation

We're finding good ways to spend our summer vacation - like making an air guitar music video!

How 'bout you?

"Mo-m! Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence!!"

The first boat trip of the season

Logan is our natural athlete. It took him less than 2 seconds to figure out that kneeboard. None of the other kids picked it up as quickly as him. That's our Logie Man!

God Bless America

God Bless America. My Home Sweet Home!

Summer Sleepover

10 boys ages 6 - 12 (and Lizzie)
+1 trampoline
+11 PM bedtime
+5:15 wake up
= some tired boys

2 dozen ham bakes
+1 dozen bananas
+1 gallon chocolate milk
+1 loaf bread turned cinnamon/sugar toast
= full tummies for an hour at least!

video games from 7 - noon = one "happy" crew

All together make for memories of one great summer sleepover

kids say the darndest things

Mommy: Jackson, I love you. You my boy.

Jackson: Yes. And Daddy. Daddy's my frien.

Mommy: Yes, Daddy's your friend.

Jackson: And mommy's my man.

Mommy: I'm your man?

Jackson: Yes, you my man.

Rockin' with the cub scouts

This year was my first time participating in the camp itself. The program directors were our good friends from church and they asked me to do the "Rockin' Cubs Music" station. I knew it would be a big time commitment when I agreed to do this project, but the full realization of how much time did not come until after the first day.

I was responsible for teaching three different music classes (each individualized for wolves, bears, or webelos) to help the cub scouts earn their beltloops and all of the other music requirements in their rank. That translates to teaching 300+ boys over the course of 16 one hour classes. That does not include prep time, the lunch hour, or set up and clean up. Whew! Yes, it was a busy busy week!

It was a lot of time, yes, but it was also very fun. I threw a TON of information at those boys during their time with me. Here's some of the stuff we covered:

1. They learned about records, cassette tapes, cds, and mp3 players (the Elvis record album I had on display was a hit!)

2. They listened to several different kinds of music. I had to make it interesting for these boys so of course, I chose their favorites - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, We will Rock You, Taylor Swift, etc.

3. The boys each made their own musical instrument - a kazoo.

4. They had a great time playing their kazoos and being noisy noisy boys. The other stations set up near us did not appreciate our volume, but what do you expect when it's called "Rockin' Cubs"? Of course we were going to ROCK OUT! And that's exactly what we did.

It was fun to meet so many boys just like my own. I also very much enjoyed teaching my own boys and watching them interact with their teams. I earned a new respect for the people that put on the exhibition that is Cub Scout Day Camp.