Summer Is Perfect For: A Wedding!

Photo courtesy Chelsea Lee

There’s nothing more lovely than a summer wedding.  There’s nothing more lovely than seeing two people start their new life together.

The Hubby’s baby sister is getting married next week.  We’re taking the entire clan out West to be there for the joyous occasion. I am so excited I can’t stand it.

And I’ve decided that I want to eek out every last second of summer from now until then.  I want to enjoy my children and my husband with no distractions.  No deadlines.  No thoughts in the back of my mind saying “I should blog this.” or “Dangit, where’s my camera?” Just me, in the moment, being available and living it. So I’ll be taking an extended blogcation.

My heart has told me that if I want to continue blogging, I need to make my family my only priority and everything else will fall into place.  I cannot ignore what my heart tells me.

I hope you’ll join me back here after Labor Day.

Summer Is Perfect For: Enjoying A Storm!

There’s something so therapeutic about sitting on the front porch listening to the rain as it pounds the pavement. The smell of rain is one of my favorites. And I don’t even mind some good lightning and thunder if I’m under cover. Owlie seems to agree with me as he asks to go outside whenever there’s a downpour.

On this particular night, his dad was kind enough to let him feel the rain on his hands.  And then on his head!

Watching a little kid discover new things is so beautiful.

Displaying Kid Collections . . .

With RedDog’s recent eighth birthday came the blue and gold uniform of the Cub Scouts.  I love the Cub Scout age because I get to spend extra time with my boys working on some wacky stuff!

One of the achievements RedDog wanted to work on first was starting, displaying and sharing a collection of things he loves.  He has a great rock collection, but didn’t want to “mess it up” by doing anything to display it.  Instead, he decided he would gather a collection of his very coolest Lego figures.

I suggested that we frame the Legos and label them.  He was hesitant because he knew hot glue would be involved and didn’t want to permanently damage his guys.  Then HE came up with a genius idea to use the glue on a two-brick and just attach the Lego figure to that, thus enabling him to pull off a figure whenever he wants to play with it.

His idea means that the Lego figures literally leap off the frame and cast fun shadows behind themselves. RedDog told me the names of all the figures and we attached them with some small sticky foam pads to give the labels some relief also.

The figures are so fun.  Especially the ones that have little accessories, like Harry Potter and his broom, Merlin and his wand or the King who has a goblet in one hand and a chicken leg in the other.There’s even a Lego RedDog with short legs, a hoodie, that signature hair and some freckles.  He might just be my favorite.

Here’s the collection displayed in RedDog’s room with his rock collection.

He’s pretty proud of it.  In fact, at the end of this project, he turned to me, his face beaming, and said, “Thanks Mom for helping me with my collection.  It’s just awesome.”

And so are you, my little Scout.  So are you.

Summer Is Perfect For: Dress Ups!

Hannie B. is having her fun with Owlie this summer! He came up from the basement dressed as a cowboy the other day.  He was so pleased to be in those boots, despite the hole on the bottom. It made me so happy to see him wearing them because they were my father-in-law’s boots from his childhood. He clomped around the kitchen saying “Boots, boots!”  Just when I thought it was time to put the dress ups away for a season, Owlie has discovered them and is restarting the era of make believe in our house. I’m so glad.  I missed it.

Giddyup little cowboy!

Summer Is Perfect For: Child Labor!

Is is just me or is your house a disaster pretty much the entire summer while the kids are home?  No matter what I try to do, I feel like I’m picking up messes ALL DAY LONG!

Last week I’d reached the end of the very messy rope.  So I got up and made a list of jobs for each kid, including the Owl man. The lists were on index cards and each item had a box next to it – because my kids love to check off boxes just like their momma! Each kid went to work vacuuming, dusting, cleaning windows and picking up in general.

We all tackled the first floor on Monday, the second floor on Tuesday and the basement on Wednesday.

Owlie’s specialty? The shark vacuum. He’s a pro now.

RedDog’s specialty? The Swiffer.

Here’s the truth: The cleaning went very well.  There was whining, but the house was clean and I didn’t have to do all the work by myself.  But it only lasted for a few days before it was a mess again.  I’ve decided that it will just be messy until they all go back to school.  It can’t stay clean when all four kids are home all day.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who really dislikes this one aspect of summer vacation.

Summer Is Perfect For: Kid Movies!

Sometimes a Virginia Summer means it’s just too hot and humid  to play outside. This Summer has been off the charts in the heat department. Occasionally when everyone is hiding from the heat by staying indoors, we have to close the curtains and blinds to darken the house, cook up some buttery popcorn and put on a movie. 

I got these great popcorn containers in the dollar section at Target. They make it feel official.  I try to keep some Dum-Dum lollipops or licorice on hand which puts the movie-watching experience right over the top for the kids.  Then we put on an oldy-but-goody, like Star Wars or the Princess Bride.  Who doesn’t love something sweet, something salty and a good show?

Paris, Anyone ?

{Photos courtesy of Jaclyn Peterson}

I recently joined two friends in throwing a bridal shower for a young woman I truly adore.  She’s not a fussy gal, so a simple shower was in order, but we still wanted to make it memorable and personal.

Our bride to be spent a semester studying abroad in Paris and is majoring in French, so we decided a little Parisian flair would be  perfect for the shower.

I headed up the décor by sewing up some garland, rounding up a few Eiffel Towers and crafting some whimsical flags to label our crepe bar ingredients – in French, of course! We added some frilly details to the flowers with ruffled tags that included a French quote about true love.

We enjoyed crepes, quiche, croissants and cheese.

An understanted shower, but so much fun. It was a simple, simply lovely day for a very lovely bride-to-be.

 

Summer Is Perfect For: A Lemonade Stand!

We finally did it! A real, no kidding, legit lemonade stand.  The kids had a blast, we raised money for a good cause AND there was much deliciousness to be had.  Here {in no particular order} are some Dragonfly tips for a great Lemonade stand experience:

1. Make your prices clearly visible.  Hannie B. and I whipped up a few cardstock signs on the computer to attach to our stand. She chose the color palette and font. I did the rest

2. Add in some goodies to sweeten the deal! We had cupcakes, snickerdoodles and rice crispie treats individually wrapped and ready to go.  We also sold little candy cups for a quarter each.  They were a hit with everyone, especially Owlie.

3. Sell lemonade to help others! We donated half of our proceeds to our friend Chris’ foundation which helps offset the medical costs of pediatric cancer patients.  The kids were more than happy to yell, “Buy some lemonade! Help fight cancer!” And patrons were willing to buy lemonade to help out, too.

4. Jazz your stand up with inexpensive décor! The Hubby helped us make our stand using some cheap crates from WalMart and a 50 cent board  and some dowels from the remnant pile at Home Depot. We can reuse these pieces anytime the kids want to have a stand in front of our house. 

We added a little garland from scrap paper we already had and some Lemon napkins from my cloth napkin stash. We even had a few leftover tissue paper flowers from this party that hung from our umbrella. All of our goodies were displayed on cake plates. It was, as Hannie B. put it, “so cute”.

5. Invite some friends to help out!  We did our Lemonade Stand with our friends the Mecks.  Which is a good thing, because otherwise it would have just been my kids fighting and bugging eachother. Their kids are hard workers and besties with our kids. I’m pretty sure there was giggling, candy eating, lemonade drinking and some salesmanship going on.  It was HOT and these kids kept it going for two whole hours.

6. Advertise! I put the message out to my local friends on Facebook that we were having a Lemonade Stand. We also had the kids  ride this go-cart around with a sign pointing to the stand. Good ol’ yelling at cars as they drove by worked pretty darn well too.

A few other things that worked well:

• a cooler full of ice so we could indeed sell “ice cold” lemonade. 
• Lots of extra lemonade. We made a few gallons and stored them in a cooler. When the stash on the stand ran low the kids just refilled it.
• Cups with lids and straws! We found ours at Target.
• A good location.  We actually drove down to our neighborhood park which is on a major road near our pool.

A lemonade stand is truly a quintessential summer kid fest.  We had a great time!

Summer Is Perfect For . . .

A power blackout and candles.

Yesterday we had a freakishly quick and powerful storm sweep through our town.  Within fifteen minutes the sun disappeared, the rain and hail came down in sheets and our backyard looked like this:

In case you’re wondering, we don’t normally have a tree growing up our deck stairs.

Our power was out for about three hours and the kids were excited to get the candles out to light up the house as it got dark. Such an adventure!

Sometimes a power outage is just what the doctor ordered.  No TV.  No video games.  Just the family figuring out what to do without technology.

Once the round two of the storm cleared up, we spent the evening cleaning up the yard as a family.  Surprisingly enough, Mr. Owlie turned out to be the biggest helper.  That little man loves to work!

Now that the rain is out of the way, we’re ready for our Lemonade Stand today. More on that tomorrow!

Happy Birthday To You (To Me) . . .

It was three years ago that the idea of a sister was born in my mind. Three years (and a few days) ago that a sister of real flesh and blood walked through the door at my parents house and became a reality.

So very much has happened in the past three years.

And I can say with certainty that 1095 days later, I am a better person, living a happier life because I know and love my sister.

Happy Birthday (in my mind) Melissa.

Want to read more about my new(ish) sister? Go here, here, here, or here.