Getaway

This past weekend we we're invited to a friends camp on Beaver Lake in the Adirondacks. A group of friends went for the weekend. We spent the night on Saturday and the kids had a ball!!! They were in and out of the water all day. They went on a boat ride and Ava also got to go on a muddy four wheeler ride. It was very relaxing and peacefull, even though we came home exhausted. I don't know how that happens! haha

Boat Ride

The kids enjoyed some boat rides on the lake. Brendan wasn't to sure about it at first!!

Summer in Full Swing!!

Boy summer has been so busy that I have gotten behind on here. I had a lot of catching up to do. Ava completed two weeks of swimming lessons and now she is swimming in the deep end. She learned to swim underwater and to float on her back and her belly. We are still waiting for tennis, teeball and soccer, arts and crafts and vacation bible school to start. I guess August will be busy. I though all of these activities would be spread out throughout the summer when I signed her up for them (they are all free) but I guess the instructors procrastinated and they will be in august. We have been relaxing and enjoying summer this month though. Brendan just loves the adventures of playing in the sandbox and slides, visiting the beach, swimming and getting wet outside. Ava has been trying to capture a firefly with no luck yet. She is so close to riding her bike without training wheels. She had also been busy making fairy houses in the yard. I will have to get some pictures of them. Check out the book FAIRYHOUSES by Tracy Kane. That was Ava's inspiration. I remember making lepracaun houses at camp. I remember how excited we would get when we would check on them in the morning and see tiny footprints in the sand. (thanks to Uncle Steven)! I was thinking about sprinkling some glitter around her fairy houses one of these nights! We took a trip to the Aqua zoo and then we stopped at a nearby arcade to play some games. Brendan's favorite attraction was the coin operated carousel. Look at that smile!!Hope you are all having a great summer!!

Brendan was in his glory looking at all of the fish. He recognized this orange clown fish from the book Finding Nemo that we read a lot. He kept asking where Nemo's Daddy was. The kids got to pinky touch a starfish and other underwater creatures.

Fireworks in a bowl and homemade icecream

We finally experienced making our own icecream by shaking a bag of milk, sugar and vanilla around a bigger ziplock bag of ice. The kids enjoyed shaking the bag but they really enjoyed eating it. It was well worth the work! We also made fireworks in a bowl with milk, dishsoap and foodcoloing. Brendan wanted to add the foodcolring too and you can see it all over his hands. Ahhhhhh!

White Mud

A couple of day ago we made "white mud". We found the instructions on the family fun website. It is a mixture of shredded toilet paper, shaven ivory soap and water and it is a lot of fun to play with and a lot less messy than the regular mud although it is still a bit messy!

Car Parade

On Sunday there was an antique car and tractor Parade. Brendan loved this. It began with all of the tractors followed by a long parade of classic cars and trucks.

Parade

We enjoyed this years French Festival although it was a bit rainy. We started the day by getting a breakfast of french pastries sold in street carts. We watched the parade and then had a BBQ with family and watched the fireworks. This is a short video of tidbits from the parade.

Fireworks

Here we are enjoying the fireworks. I love the cropped photo of Matt and baby Sam! Beautiful!

Playing in the yard

Here is Brendan playing outside with a storm headed our way. We have had a lot of those this summer!

Happy Birthday Matt! We hope you have a great dinner and a great day!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Jenny! We hope you are having a great day!
Can't wait to see you for your Birthday/Anniversary fireworks!