Artist

During some quiet coloring time with new markers and new composition notebooks, E came to me and said "me draw mom" and here it is; this is ME! I totally see it!

I went in search of a really cute bathing suit at Target last night that I saw a lady wearing during our beach morning. They didn't have it anymore. However, I did find 3 cute dresses. One needs a belt, and I don't have the right one. I went in the giveaway bag Clay has going and got out 3 t-shirts, cut them up and fish tail braided little belt. Now I need to get a little pin or something to fasten it together that doesn't make it bulky. Want the story of yesterdays beach adventure? Well the kids surprised me by saying they would rather go to the beach than the park, so we quickly got ready after playing around all morning and were at the beach just before 10am. We played great for a few hours, switching up who got to have their human legs transformed into a mermaid tail made out of sand. G and I were mermaid sisters the entire time, I even got to be Ariel! Our friends showed up about noon, and once they go there I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to actually get out and fully emerse myself in the water! The waves had been pretty huge at times, water up to my ankles became thigh high with a wave. I went out alone and cooled off and even body surfed two waves. On my way back in I had my arms up just as a big wave was coming. My timing was off and the wave took hold of me, with my arms up and pummeled me to the Ocean floor. My left arm got twisted and slammed in a way that made me instantly in pain! I thought maybe I had dislocated my shoulder, I couldn't really put my arm up at all. I sat on the beach and rested, I was able to move it- but it was painful. I eventually got the kids showered and in the car and drove home, one handed. After taking some ibuprofen and moving it around a little it hurt a little less. I woke up today, still in pain but okay. Still not sure what I did to it! The Ocean is powerful!

Berry Fun

Feels like we have been having a true kids kind of summer lately! Nothing fancy, just doing the sorts of things we did as kids- and having a good time doing it!

Yesterday morning we found ourselves way out in Berry country- picking blueberries and blackberries. With fresh peaches from a fruit stand on our way home this was what I made:
Blackberry Peach cobbler. This was before I poured on the custard, added the crumble topping and baked it. It is now out of the house- after eating some last night I made Clay take it to work so I wouldn't nibble it alllllll day long! My favorite part- the almond extract in it!

Chocolate covered strawberries for the baby shower I threw on Saturday. As pretty as they looked here, the next day they were much gooier looking- that's the problem with making things early (24 hrs) to avoid having my most ambitious helpers "help" me.

Backyard baseball, a whole evening full of fun. E started it inside with this bat and ball, but the way he can connect he two we quickly moved outside into the evening sun.

Is it normal for a 2 year old to be able to HIT a tossed ball- consistently?

This girl is a bit newer to the swing, and making contact with the ball. Dad was really coaching her on the proper basics of stance and swing. It helped, but she got so frustrated when she wasn't perfect at it. She has the competitive streak in her that I do not!

her swing had quite the twirl to it when she started! she got so into it, her and Clay ended their coaching session on the computer with clips of professional baseball players hitting homeruns, followed by strike outs. yes even people who play ball for their job miss the ball, it is OKAY!

Back to berry picking, this boy would somehow get quite a few berries in his bucket- but then they were quickly gobbled up!

G is NOT a berry eater, she did quite a good job picking- but didn't eat a single berry the entire time!

These 2 girls are berry best friends!

I was quite surprised on the walk between blueberries and blackberries to find the snake sticking its head out of this birdhouse. I was not brave enough to get very close, ewwww.

Berry Best Buddies!

Now on to more Summertime activities, mowing the lawn! It is after 8am on a Tuesday I can start soon- before the heat index hits 100 today! Looking forward to one of the best things about summer, family visits!

Gardens

We have been trying to find more things to do these hot summer days. The beach and the park both sounded too hot and like we have done a million times lately, so the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. Our first summer here we were members, we went a ton that summer when E was just a tiny baby and G could run around and cool off in the sprinklers (these were the days of apartment living and not having a yard.) Since those days we have rarely gone, G doesn't even remember our frequent visits! We met up with Gina and S, and started off the day with a friendly Hello to the mermaid (E was too busy throwing rocks into the fountain to bother with a photo.) We rode the tram, and were scolded by the old lady next to me for talking as she was trying to hear the spiel they ramble. We hopped off the tram at the WOW kids garden, and jumped right into the splash pad sprinklers.

they dodged the droplets

observed, perched on a rock like a mermaid

stood in the middle to see how long they could take being sprayed

pumped water, G was mildly obsessed with being a "farm girl"

we rinsed feet in said pumps, numerous times. this guy isn't fond of anything getting in his sandals and bothering his feet- hard to do when we are in bark or sand!

after running in a few mazes (the current attraction they have) we stopped by the butterfly garden. I spotted this dragonfly just outside the Butterfly house.

We only lasted 4 minutes in the butterfly house, not only because we were waiting to catch the tram on it's way past (which only comes once each hour) and also because after being told they could GENTLY touch the caterpillars a little boy who will remain nameless SQUISHED said caterpillar as I turned to get a magnify glass. A young volunteer in the inclosure didn't miss this act! Boy knew it was not nice, as he got very shy and wouldn't look at the volunteer as he murmured "sorry!"

Surrey

After Elliot and Clay had 2 hr naps today, we needed to get out and do something. What? We always want to go to the beach, but it ends up being so much work to load up and honestly the kids are getting a bit tired of getting all sandy. We went to "Beach Street USA" (the resort area of VB and got out by the big nice park in the sand. Instead of playing we spotted the beach bikes and thought it would be a fun time. Of course they only take cash, so Clay had to go blocks away for an ATM (the hotels didn't have one?) The kids waited, impatiently I might add.

E became a regular old lamp post climbing "Spiderman"- yes he called himself that!

we rode on the designated bike lane, even stopping like total tourists to ask someone to take our picture!

Our turnaround destination was an ice cream shop. The ice cream may have won vs E, at least thats what his clothes say and the stop at a shower say!

Another family pic of us out on the Surrey! A must do from now on, this was our 1st time!

This was our view, they helped drive- good thing my steering wheel wasn't connected to anything and was just for pretend!

BBB

Big Boy Bed is in full swing! Sunday I ordered the side rails that convert the crib/toddler bed into a full size bed, and they came today! It was the perfect day to spend in the house getting everything taken apart, put back together and piles of blankets and mattresses made- we had thunder and rain like you wouldn't believe. After a quick trip to Home Depot by Clay and the Big Boy for slats we were able to really get the bed together. I hauled the mattresses from the toy room to E's room, as Clay watched me laughing- because I am just too darn impatient to wait till dinner is over and have him help! Got the box spring, bed skirt, and top mattress all on the bed... HOLY COW the bed was high! It was almost 2 inches higher than our bed. If you know E at all, and know what a climber and leaper he is than you could probably figure out that it this tall bed wasn't the best of ideas. Off came the box spring and now just the top mattress sits on the bed, and it is a much more reasonable height. New sheets washed and duvet on, the bed looks pretty good. G, E and I all sat together reading bedtime stories on it and there was plenty of room. E going to sleep on it easily at bedtime, well that is another story.

with both mattresses, notice it is almost as tall as E!

activities

Summer is here, and at times it is just too hot to hang outside and play. So we have to come up with lots of other things to do. After grocery shopping today we came home and dug into the craft bag I put together for the kids use (ie: cleaned out my craft stuff and gave them lots of scrap paper, fun shape punches, glue, kid scissors, somehow they got some scotch tape too) Gabby is really into the scissors and tape.

a picture of my Pretty Girl (posted on FB, and then realized Aunts would want to see it)

Designer at work, she made this dress herself for Daisy. I had to help tape it on Daisy.

E wanted to show his mean face, along with his 1st barbershop haircut- done with clippers (when Clay got his cut too at the Navy barbershop)

Backyard painters, on canvas and in their underwear.

working, such a big boy!

Finished pieces of art! Gabby's is the green and brown, a team effort on the pink and brown and Elliot's is the blue.

Celebrate!

What a weekend- and we still have tomorrow! Our good friends made the trip down from DC to visit us on Friday, and it is always such fun when we are together. We took them to the beach after a lunch BBQ at our house. Gabby and Geo were so excited to see each other, and Elliot was excited too.

we spent 4 hrs running, jumping and rolling around in the sand and water.

reunited!

Gabby has proclaimed that if she marries Geo she isn't changing her name.

Tradition when they visit- crepes for breakfast! what you don't see is the fresh whipped cream.

the breakfast bunch

today we had visitors with us at the beach- wild animals! we met Clay at noon, he had gotten off work and been fishing for an hour already. The kids and I stayed 3 hrs, Clay stayed after we left with his friend..... they caught over 15 skates and 50 croakers. can we say sunburn? The back of Clay's calves and his face are RED. I can't imagine what his red haired friend ended up looking like! I gave them 50SPF sunscreen too!
We left the beach and stopped for an ice cream treat. This boy fell asleep within 10 minutes, ice cream cone in hand! the boy was wiped out, sticky face hands and leg, and still covered in sand.