10 Reasons We Love Summer

Summer is no doubt my favorite season of the year!

Here are just a few of the reasons we love summer: Reason #1: Watermelon! I was cutting up this watermelon into nice bite sized pieces and they just couldn't wait. So I cut it in half and they devoured it. Deeelish!
Reason #2: Rollerblades are back! After Jake broke his leg rollerblading, our family took an unintended hiatus from using them. But this summer, we have been using them non-stop! The kids are getting so good too!



Reason #3: The Ducks! Luke decided to hold off on the roller blades this summer, so while the kids are racing all over the park, Luke and I alternate watching the kids and feeding the ducks.

Reason #4: Shoes! Okay, shoes go with any season, but this summer, Luke has discovered the joy of wearing other people shoes. And he's very good at it.

Reason #5: Free Lawn Service! So, this probably isn't one of the reasons Jake loves summer, but we do!

Reason #6: Friends! Well, this is a bitter-sweet reason. Our friend, Lisa moved and this is one of our last times together. We miss you already Lisa!

(Me, Bobbi, Lisa, Riley)

Reason #7: The Pool! Need I say more?

Reason #8: The Pool Playground

(Cause those 10 minute mandatory bathroom breaks are killer!)

Jake and Luke

Jake is on the low dive, his friend, Peter is flipping off the high dive.

The boys...and you can see Breezy's coming up for air in the background.

Reason #9: Nights at the Park!
Jake, Luke and Luke

(Bree's here too, she's just too busy to stop and take a picture!)

Reason #10: Grandma & Grandpa's House!

(pictures coming soon!)

The Boing Ding Ding

One night a few weeks ago, Breanna got hurt, so I was sitting on the steps, rubbing her back while she cried and Luke came up to us, started rubbing her back and said to her, "A boing ding ding?" We laughed so hard. He kept saying it over and over. It was just hilarious. It totally made Bree feel better. The next night, same thing, she got hurt, was crying and again, he came up to her and said, "A boing ding ding?" We finally realized what a boing ding ding is...... He just wanted to put this boing ding ding on his face for fun. Yesterday we swam all day at Nat's and we came in to find Breanna's toes rubbed so raw they were bleeding. Luke immediately called for the boing ding dings.

Tanked

I think the phrase Jeromy hates more than any other is "the toilet's clogged"! Unfortunately, it's one we heard in our house a few weeks ago. Usually a good plunge will do the trick, but this time, it just wasn't happening. So Jer broke down and bought the industrial strength Drano. Throughout the course of the day, he dumped about a gallon of it into the toilet. When the last drop fell without any sign of improvement, he grudgingly admitted defeat. And this meant the toilet was going to have to come off. So this morning, after dismantling the toilet and introducing it to the back lawn, here's what he found:Now, we aren't pointing fingers or anything (Luke), but somehow Breanna's plastic cookie ended up lodged in the toilet (Luke). Isn't he a cute handyman? Seriously, I am so lucky that he is willing and able to just dive in there when things go seriously wrong. Over the past 13 (almost) years, he's become a fix-it-all kind of guy. (In fact, he just replaced the door handle of the Corolla and the seatbelt in the Sienna too.) He's my hero!!!

Jake and Bree (especially Bree) are so happy to have their toilet back! Thanks Dad! We love you!!
Luke supervised the project and thought the whole process was very interesting. He's always been a huge toilet fan, but had no idea they could make for such fun outside too. What? It wasn't me!!!!

Hip Hop Power Girl

Breanna thought of the title for this post and she wanted to write the entry for it, so here's what's happening in her own words: Breanna is going to do a real recital and get to dance with her friends. She also gets to get dressed up in her costume and gets to go to the finale with all the screaming which is her favorite part of being in dance.

Breanna put aside her tap and ballet shoes and decided she wanted to give hip hop a try this year. I had no idea this girl would be so great at it! At their dance studio, they don't let parents watch towards the end of the season, because they want to keep everything a surprise. I went to the dress rehearsal today and was completely blown away. She can even do the Coffee Grinder. Here is a little clip from the rehearsal. (Breanna is in the front row, just right of the girl with the brown hair in the center.)

This is Breanna with Georgia after their final performance! Great job girls!

Pinewood Derby and Chocolate Goop

Pinewood Derby was back in March (I think!). Not posting pictures of this would be like not posting pictures of Christmas as this is one of Jake's favorite events of the year, so I'm doing a retro post. His car was fast, but he didn't exactly win. He still had a good time though. I can't believe next year will be his last one!

Waiting intently....
Jake's Fan Club. Luke is taking this event very seriously. Bree's getting ready to some pictures.

On a different note, I thought I would throw a few of these in. This is one of the first good lickin's for Luke. Bree and Jake took about a million pictures of him and they were laughing so hard as the chocolate goop smeared further and further across his face. Would someone please get this sticky stuff off my face???

Webelo

After an amazing week at scout camp, Jake officially became a Webelo. He was so excited for pack meeting. Here he is getting his awards for stuff he earned at scout camp. BTW, scout camp was fantastic this year. Lisa did an amazing job organizing so many things. They boys did bowling, the rock museum, tennis, golf, horseback riding, flag football, computers and hiking. It was so great. Jake loves to be outdoors and scouting is his thing. Way to go Jakeiddybee!

And now for the real moment he was waiting for.....The famous flip as he got his Webelo neckerchief. (He loved the stuffed bobcat that you can see next to him laying on the drum.)

Jake's buddy Caleb getting ready to drink the "blood of the wolf". The look in his eyes really fit the moment! This was not your ordinary pack meeting. There's Jake's blond head that I just couldn't crop out of the picture.

2 boys earned their Arrow of Light. They did a big ceremony and shot fire arrows into the air. Very cool!

My Perfect 10!

Jake turned 10 on May 26th! It's impossible to believe his age now holds 2 digits. I wish that my scanner worked because I would love to show some pictures of Jake when he was a baby. He came out with a head full of brown hair! He was one of the cutest babies EVER. He was always smiling. And his smile was not just any smile. He was one of those babies that somehow made sure every muscle in his face was smiling. He was so HAPPY!! He has that smile still. But now it's a more selective smile that usually surfaces when he's talking about bugs or animals or pokemon or webkinz or jokes or dinosaurs or video games or ketchup.

Here are a few fun pictures of my Jake's big day. Man, I love this kid! And except for the one shortcoming of his being so intent on growing up, he's my perfect 10!

Jake decided to do a Survivor Party with a few buddies. The boys drew bandannas for teams and it was Jake and Peter vs. Luke and Caleb.We had a treasure hunt which led to water balloons. A few tosses and then it was war.
Here's the obstacle course. They liked this so much, they asked to do it over and over. Here's the scooter race.


Hoops. (Yes, that is a soccer ball. We improvised.)



Ten seat drops while getting sprayed with the hose.Run over to the rock wall, climb up, then slide down.


When I put Jer in charge of the hose, I pictured the boys getting "misted". Such a mom word. He completely drenched them. Thank heaven for Dads!
We set up a bunch of cans with a team name on each one. The boys had to shoot down the cans of the other team w/o knocking their own cans down.

Mushed worms, rat droppings, crushed beetles.... no survivor party would be complete without the food contest. Caleb won this hands down. Peter threw up.... well sort of. In doing so, he inspired the other boys to do some serious fake puking as well. Ah the joys of being 10!!

The muddy earthworm birthday cake.

These guys picked the perfect presents for Jake. He's had a blast playing with everything.

Happy 10th Jake! Thanks for making these past 10 years the happiest!!! We love you!

The Hunt

This Easter was especially fun with Luke. He got right into it and Jake and Bree loved helping him as they found more than their share of eggs!

This next picture depicts my favorite part of Easter this year. This was taken the day before Easter. That morning, I was trying to get things ready for our Easter dinner. I was busy making a fabulous dessert which ended up being more complicated and time consuming than I anticipated. I realized I was running out of time to have the kids color eggs. So in desperation, I handed Jake the box, eggs, some vinegar and bowls and said, get 'er done!! And guess what? They did! Without help from me. HAPPY DAY!!!!!!

Now about that fabulous dessert that I spent ALL morning on. I asked Jer to try it before our guest arrived. He took a bite and with great pause, and head hung low, he said, "It's not good." You could almost hear the tremor in his voice as he said it. Then he asked if it was lemon sorbet. It was cheesecake.

Boy was I glad he tried it first!! It's still in my freezer even as I type. I couldn't bear to throw it out after all the hours it took to make. So if any of you are up for some Lemon Sorbet, come on by!

Two!

It's actually Mother's Day today, so I thought I'd steal a few quiet moments to catch up on some long overdue posting! By the way, since it is Mother's Day, I'll just take a minute to say that I have the greatest mom in the world. She's SO fun and seriously just a girl's girl! And at the same time, I have been through some pretty difficult challenges in my life and she literally drops everything to support me when the walls come crashing in. I love you Mom!!!

Now back to the topic of this post! There's this little guy I'm kind of crazy about and he turned two about month ago. He has been the most easy-going, happy baby and to say we adore him would be the understatement of the century. We just ooze with happiness whenever we're with him! So without further adieu here's Mr. Two on his big day:
Presents from our friends! Thanks guys!!

Grandma and Grandpa you rock!

Cash from Aunt Nat! Sweet!! There's an Elmo out there with my name all over it!

Luke loved opening presents! It was impossible to get him to look at the camera because everything else was so much more interesting!

We love you Luke!!!

Happy Birthday!!

PS - The day after he turned 2, we were hangin out in the backyard and Jake and Breanna taught him to do this:

Look out big boys....here I come!