A day at the beach

I was playing around in Photoshop tonight and created this collage of phone pictures from the beach today.   I recently upgraded my Elements program to Elements 10 from Elements 6 and am having trouble figuring it out.  I have a book for E6 and to buy the E10 book would be another forty or so dollars that I would like to avoid spending.  I am sure the upgraded version can do a lot of super cool stuff, I just need to learn how to do it. 

We had a good time at the beach today.  It turned a bit overcast which we weren't expecting, but the kids still had a blast swimming and rolling around in the sand and then swimming again to wash it all off.  Evan had a sad moment toward the end of the day when he realized that Grama and Spencer had started walking back to Grama's and I wouldn't let him go with them.  What a mean mom I am making my kid stay at the beach for a few more minutes!  He quickly perked up when he saw the Bionicles that Grama had grabbed for him at a yard sale. 

We left Grama's and came home and had a yummy tortellini dinner with tomatoes and basil from our garden!  I was even motivated enough to whip up some chocolate chip banana muffins with the quickly browning fruit fly attracting bananas on my counter.   The kids took showers after the beach and had their jammies on by six o'clock.   I am about ready to join them.  We are anxiously awaiting the return of  Daddy from his golf weekend tomorrow and ready for another fun week ahead.  It is going to be a big week for Spencer with the start of his acting camp on Monday and ending on Friday with his birthday!  I can't believe my baby boy will be eleven!!!

Just another day...

My kids can be kind of weird. Maybe quirky is a better word. I am not sure what the word to use would be. I don't think their "weirdness" is bad.  I am pretty sure that most people think that I am weird - my husband too.   In fact I firmly believe the weirder you are, the better off in life you will be.   You just have to embrace the weirdness and realize that you are who you are - it doesn't matter a hill of beans what people think about you. 

Being that they inherited a whole bunch of weirdness, it didn't surprise me too much to see Hailey ready for her swimming lessons coiffed up like this. 
 

It may have surprised me a bit more to see Evan's choice of ensemble for the day.  The shirt and shorts combo, not too bad, but the socks?  Not the fact that he had socks on - that boy loves him some comfy socks - but the fact that it was about ninety degrees outside and he was wearing those socks.  Granted it was overcast and we did have our air conditioning on for a bit.

Can you tell she had just about had it with the morning photo session?  Speaking of photos...I have not been very happy with my pictures lately.  They all seemed soft focused and not crisp.  I am not sure if my eyes are going (possibility) or my camera is all jacked up somehow from being dragged all through the damp and sand of Florida (another legitimate possibility).  I need to research how to get a camera professionally cleaned.  

Speaking of damp and Florida...we actually got some rain today.  The first rain we have had since we left Florida The Rain State.   It seems wrong to say on so many levels, but it was so nice to not feel the pressure to get outside and do something.  I was actually able to pick up all three kids rooms and organize Hailey's closet.  I even vacuumed all three rooms.  I made a yummy dinner AND homemade granola.  Look at me go with my rain induced awesomeness!!!  I need a few more rainy days really soon to keep my cleaning mojo up.  I am letting the guilt go a little bit because as I was lamenting about wanting to deep clean so much of my house this summer and just not having a bit of time or gumption, a good friend reminded me that in a few weeks school would be starting up and I would have all day long to clean by MYSELF.  I realized she was so right and decided to try to keep the house picked up, but not worry about what others can't see and just enjoy my kids while I have them for the next month and a half.

As I said before, it rained today so the kids were confined to the house and were immediately bored with Wii games and TV so I took Hailey and Evan aside and told them to make up a game and gave them a start to a back story and before I knew it, this was going on....

Hailey was a fairy princess kidnapped by an evil queen who was holding her for ransom.  She escapes the queen's fortress only to be lost in the woods until she meets the huntsman who willingly helps her formulate a plot to take down the queen.

Not to be left out is the evil queen's ninja henchman who is at first after the princess, but soon learns that he is the long lost brother of the huntsman and changes his heart for good and joins in on their plot to free the kingdom. 

They are so weird.  But so awesomely so!

Brutally honest

One of the best and (sometimes worst) things about kids is their complete honesty.  I had another example of that today.

I brought my newly purchased Goodwill side table in from the garage and set it up in the spot where I knew I wanted to put it.  It is stained wood and nicked up, but nothing a little TLC can't fix and I am super excited about it.   Six dollars.  You just can't go wrong.  When I set it in place Evan turned away from his Wii game and said "That looks good!"  I told him I agreed and then asked him if he thought I should paint it reliable black or go a little wild with a burnt orange or a muted red or something.   "Do what you want," he replied.  "I am not really into this conversation anymore."  At least he didn't just ignore me.

Another much less flattering example happened a few days before school got out for the boys.  Hailey and I were walking home from a trip to the beach and one of our neighbors drove by in a convertible and waved out the window.  I waved back and Hailey asked me who I was waving to.  I told her it was her "big girl" friend Casey's mom. 

Hailey: She looks cool in that cool car doesn't she?

Me:  Yeah, I said she does look cool.  Then I started signing to the tune of "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne - "Casey's mom has got it going on..."

She thought that song was about the best thing she ever heard so I started singing again but this time I changed the words to "Hailey's mom has got it going on"

Then Hailey joined in the singing with her own version:  "Hailey's mom has got to go on a diet!"

See what I mean?  Brutal honesty.  She is lucky I didn't drop her off at Casey's house to live.

Waving goodbye

This afternoon we waved goodbye to Aunt DayDay, Uncle Mark, Mira and Lainey as they motored their way across the lake back to Wisconsin.  We were all sad to see them go because it doesn't seem like any amount of time is ever enough to get our fill of those we love. 

As we waited for the boat to come into the channel, I shot some images of things I saw out the car window. 

It is always a game to see who can spot them first.  Will they be up top?  Will they all be up there or are they afraid Lainey will run over board?  They were all up there today, but I am sure they had a pretty good grip on that little Lainey!

Synchronized waving!  "Hey you! I know you!  I know you!"

I don't know if they could hear us screaming "Goodbye" at them, it might depend on the way the wind was blowing, but we could hear Mirabel screaming "Goodbye Hailey!!!"  through most of the channel.  Cutest ever!

Daddy was wandering around on a geocaching mission, so I used the spare time to steal a few shots of the kids.

When Dad didn't show any inclination of coming back soon, we walked over to the submarine museum and played a bit on some of the equipment.

This picture of the boys horseback riding on the torpedo just screams "Dr. Strangelove" to me.

So we waved goodbye to our family and the month of June in a span of one weeks time.   Summer is flying by.  Our June was amazing -- and once I get through the almost 1500 images I have of Florida -- I hope to do a post of my favorites.   For now, we get ready for the rest of the summer and clear out some room for more amazing memories yet to be made!

Last days

My boys have their last day of school tomorrow.  I am still in denial that this school year is already over.  Spring break I could maybe believe, but summer vacation?  

I took their last day of school pictures today because I am thinking that tomorrow morning is going to be a bit chaotic with the last day and the fact that as soon as they get home for lunch we are heading south to Disneyworld.  Not a bad start to summer vacation huh?

Spencer on the last day of 4th grade

Spencer on the first day of 4th grade.

I really don't see a huge change in his appearance this year.  Unless of course you count the fact that I now have a monthly check to write to his orthodontist.

Evan on the last day of 2nd grade.

Evan on the first day of 2nd grade.

Evan doesn't look that much different either except that now he has big grown up teeth filling the space where his two front baby teeth fell out.   By the way, I apologize for the lighting in both the before and after's being all kinds of atrocious.  I guess we have bad morning light around here.

Daddy has been out of school since last Friday, so both yesterday and today the boys convinced him to bike with them to school.  They did it last year on the last day and loved it.   I guess a new tradition may be born.

Evan getting ready to bike with his monster helmet and Disney pin lanyard.  He is a boy all about the accessories.

Heading off to school on their Seussical contraption.  If you think this looks crazy, you should have seen him later that afternoon when he went to pick them up.  He had the Burley attached to the back bike so Hailey could ride along.  I don't know how he pulled all their weight up the hills in our hood.

Now I must get back to packing.  Our adventure starts tomorrow!  Oh how I wish my kids were old enough to watch National Lampoon's Vacation.   I feel like Trent and I are going to be quoting that a lot in the days to come.  Walley World, Dad???

Aloha!

Since my message to the kids on the chalkboard this morning was "one more week until you are out of school", it reminded me that I have yet to post pictures of Hailey's last day of school which was (cough) a couple of weeks ago.

When I say "pictures" - I actually mean "picture" not because I don't have multiple pictures, I just don't seem to have any time.  You know things are crazy around your house when you have to actually write on your to do list for the day: Blog SOMETHING!

Hailey on the first day of school - September 2011

Hailey on the 2nd to last day of school (it was Hawaiian Day) - May 2012

She looks older and sassier.  She looks like a little girl that is ready for Kindergarten - whether her Mama likes it or not.  

Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Men fought and died

Everyone is fighting

Memorial Day is a time to celebrate

Other countries time

Red, white and blue

In your heart

All the people are happy

Love

Days to love

America

Your time to celebrate!

-Evan (age 8)

We had a wonderful Memorial Day complete with a small town parade, hot dogs on the grill for lunch and a steak dinner cookout at Grama Dune's house.   The kids (and Daddy) even got a much needed soak in Grama's hot tub.  

Silly boys!