End of July Randoms

We celebrated my nephew's birthday with a "Plants & Zombies" theme because he really loves that video game.  Like his sister, I wanted to make the wrapping a little more special and personalized for him.  I wrapped his gifts in some simple lime green wrapping paper that I had on hand (tip: I love to stock up on plain wrapping paper because you can use it for anything!) and then I printed some of the characters from the game and water-colored them.  Once they were dry, I laminated them and stuck them all over the wrapped presents so that he could eventually just take them off and put them on display in his room ... or use them for bookmarks.

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We celebrated my dad's milestone 75th birthday at our house with dinner and his absolute favorite dessert: homemade raspberry cheesecake (which he requests every single year):

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Just a random afternoon doing some "science" with a volcano kit on our back deck:

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I ordered a couple of puzzles online and as soon as they arrived, the kids were quick to set up a table in the dining room and beginning working on one of them.  This was a favorite because the design was a bunch of foods with "butts."

Also noteworthy: This has been the summer of tank tops for Jack.

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Sophia spent part of an afternoon making a chalk drawing of Sponge Bob Square Pants in our driveway.  Like her mom, she can draw anything as long as she has a picture to look at and follow.

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The garden has started to take off thanks to lots of watering.  We should have plenty of cucumbers in no time!

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The girls dressed in PINK to go and see the Barbie movie at the theater.

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During a summer thunderstorm, one of our large trees in the front yard fell down.  Luckily, it fell towards the road and AWAY from the house.

The boys were onsite first thing the next morning for clean-up.

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Another watercolor drawing for Jimmy's wall in his room.  This time, he asked for me to draw a turtle and I was more than happy to oblige.

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4th of July - 2023

In keeping with our annual 4th of July traditions, I pulled all of our bike/scooter/golf cart decorations out of a tote and set them in the garage the day before so that they boys and I could set to work decorating.

The girls do not ride their bikes anymore in the subdivision parade, but the boys were excited and ready to join in:

The girls DO participate in dressing up though and typically choose to ride on the decorated golf cart with Steve and me now:

And of course, Ainsley came over to join in the photos before the parade!

The crab glasses really complete this look!

While I was taking pictures of the girls in the driveway, the boys and Steve were down at the park having their fish weighed from the Big Bass Fishing Tournament.

Jack was moved up to the older age group this year and while he did have a bass to enter, he did not earn a medal.  Steve got 2nd place in the adult category and graciously gave his sporting goods gift card to Jimmy for his first year entering the competition.

While down at the park, with the most beautiful weather, we had hot dogs, competed in sand castle competitions, jumped in a bounce house and enjoyed lots of time with friends.

Lake Life in the Summer:

These boys won the sand castle building competition and earned Dairy Den gifts cards for ice cream!

Later that afternoon and evening, Steve helped set up all of the fireworks that would be part of the display over the lake.  This was the first year that Scenic Lake decided to do the fireworks by themselves and it was absolutely magnificent!  Sophia watched the fireworks from one of the neighbor's boats and the boys and I watched from another neighbor's dock -- one of the closest views around.  (Sam missed the fireworks because she was in Cedar Point with friends; thus begins the life of a teenager with an active social calendar).