I’m embracing the camera once again, and if you know me very well then this is shocking! J

I’m not much of a camera embracer.

A camera run away from-er or a camera operator, but not typically a camera embracer.

But I am vowing to change my ways. {don’t get any wild ideas about actually trying to get a good picture of me, Dan}

Here’s proof:

Me and my little three year old man.

He’s a definite camera embracer.

And a mighty cute one, I must say!

• I’m a little sad that summer is coming to an end, but I’m really ready for more of a routine.
• School starts this year on my birthday. How fun.
• My baby is going to be a second grader. His last year at the Primary school. How on earth?

  

• I’ve become one of those old people that can’t believe how fast time is moving.
• ♫♫Do, do, do, do, do, Inspector Gadget… ♫♫
• I took D3 to the doctor Friday and he has allergies and she put him on Claritin.
• Just like both his mom and dad.

  

• The doctor told him he was very smart, because he was having a conversation about grass allergies with her.
• I wonder if he will be a doctor? I wonder what his future will bring?
• I wonder if I have ADD the way my mind bounces all over the place?
• I wonder if anyone will actually read a stream of my thoughts?

  

• I’m excited to go to the lake and spend some time with my mom next week. And have the boys run around outdoors and swim.
• I’ve spent half of my weekend reading my book and ignoring the enormous mountain of laundry I need to tackle.
• How can four people accumulate so much laundry??
• ♫♫Go Gadget go…♫♫

Monday we headed to the park. It was so insanely hot, but we stayed about 45 minutes to an hour. Luke swung for the longest time. He just loved it. Poor Daniel got too hot and it made him feel really rotten. We were drinking water the whole time, but it’s just too darn hot!

Tuesday we made a marshmallow catapult. It was a fun little activity.

Here are our supplies ready for us:

Dan saw us working on it and decided he could make it better. And he really did.

He used a ruler (with the ends predrilled- for the rubber band) instead of the second pencil as the catapult. Then we didn’t even need the little cap to hold the marshmallow, it just layed on the ruler.

The kids got a big kick out of it (and I did too to tell you the truth).

They stood there trying to fling marshmallows into each other’s mouths for a while.

Wednesday brought on waterballoons. Whose idea was this?

It took me forever to get into a water balloon filling groove, so the kids played in the pool while waiting on me.

Then they had fun throwing balloons at each other for approximately one minute.

It takes a heck of a lot longer to fill the balloons than it does to pop them… but they had fun.

Thursday was Watermelon Day. It was supposed to be last week, but uhmm… it didn’t happen. It was a pretty low key themed day. I took all my ideas from right here.

We colored half a paper plate to look like a watermelon.

Can you tell whose is whose?

I also made an icecream snack that looked like a watermelon.

Here’s the link of how to make one and it is so much cuter than my pitiful little teeny tiny version, but we enjoyed ours!

Luke wouldn’t eat it! He was too freaked out about the seeds, even though we kept telling him they were really chocolate chips.

The last thing we were going to do for watermelon day was bob for watermelon. Daniel got a big headache though so we skipped out. I think we’re going to be headed to the doctor with him. He has been having headaches and sneezing his little head off.

I guess it was a mini watermelon theme, but another fun summer week. We are getting closer and closer to being ready for the routine that the school year brings!

I have a bit of a Food Network and HGTV addiction. It’s as if I actually cook and try to decorate my house or something.

So, I’ve been following The Next Food Network Star and HGTV Design Star.

Three comments: Love Aarti, like Brad and Vern is a jerk. I don’t know if he really is or he’s just amping up the grumpy attitude for the TV.

So I’m watching those two lovely shows, but the best show of the summer is:

I’m loving  Hot in Cleveland. It’s a funny show and Betty White is hilarious!

We have also started back with Netflix this summer which has been great. Dan and have been watching movies almost every night- we were (and still are) so behind on movie watching!

The kids are loving the fact that we can watch things instantly. They have found their favorites for sure.

I’m not sure how many times Luke has watched Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo! He LOVES this movie and quotes it and everything. J

And Daniel has found a new love:

I never even knew there was a Super Mario Bros. show (Dan of course did). It’s from the 80s and Daniel loves it, which is too funny to me. It even has an awesome 80s rap as a theme song. J

Oh, and how could I forget the kids favortie summer show?

They love Wipeout! They also like to *play* Wipeout, so we have to be careful with that one. 

So, we’re covered with our Summer TV watching.  Goodness knows we have to have shows to watch.

It got me thinking about how much I love that I have a handful of my Mawmaw’s recipes handwritten.

When I was getting married, she went and got her little notepad and pen and started writing down a few recipes for me.

Some of her favorites, some of mine favorites that she would fix for me.

My very favorite thing for her to fix was her vegetable soup and cornbread. So yummy!

I will never forget my surprise when I read to open up 5 cans of vegetables and dump them in a pot! I’m not sure what I thought she did with her recipes, but I surely didn’t think they might actually be easy to follow! J

Now when I make these recipes (even if they are just mixing cans of vegetables or dumping a box of cornmeal in a bowl) they don’t taste nearly as good as when she made them, but I love that I am able to make some recipes that remind me of my Mawmaw. And even more than that I love that she took her time and wrote out her recipes for me so that I could attempt to cook for my new little family.

{And just so you know, ten years later I am still in the ‘attempting to cook for my family’ phase!}

By far my favorite moment was the last song, When the Coast is Clear.  I loved, loved, loved the new Gulf Coast lyrics.

The temporary cap seems to be working for the time being, but the Gulf Coast region is certainly still in need support in the way of finances, clean up and lots of prayer.

One Love One Ocean shirts @ LuLu’s

Katie@ Marriage Confessions Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fundraiser

National Wildlife Federation

I think we have officially entered into the time in the summer where we have been together a lot, our schedules are completely different- staying up late and sleeping in and the boys are starting to act up.  Lots of fussing and fits and time outs this week.

The kids pulled their cards for this week.  They pull from a stack, so they are surprised with the card they choose.

Monday we took a mental health day and stayed in our jammies most of the day.

Tuesday the kiddos picked the card to make cupcakes.  Much to Luke’s delight.

After the kids argued over cake mixes and frosting at the grocery store (our theme of the week- arguing, that is) we decided on good old Funfetti vanilla cake and chocolate frosting.  There were only two crying episodes (and neither were mine) during the making of the cupcakes, so it was semi-successful.

Wednesday was the day to hand wash the car.  Much to my delight this time.  My car was filthy.

There was only one rather large time out involved during the washing of the car, so another semi-successful activity.  Ha!

Thursday was to be Watermelon Day, but the kids behaved so terribly on Wednesday that they lost the treat.  Guess we’ll have to see how that will go another day!

Well, there’s the short version of our week.  You never know what you might get at our house!  Hopefully next week will be filled with much more agreeable family members. 

I had my cell phone with me, so we took a couple of pictures as we were hanging out at the park.

Here we are trying to both cram our faces in front of my cell phone.

I’m thinking that all of my {embrace} the camera pictures in the summer will involve sweaty people. It was h-o-t. Only 9:00 in the morning, but already 90°.

It was a fun few minutes each morning and a bit of exercise to boot. Now, there’s a novel idea!

We went through all of Daniel’s legos yesterday and sorted them. Every. Single. One.

He has a ridiculous amount of legos.

He’s been wanting an easier way to sift through them to build something, so I went and got some storage containers and we went to town.

Now if he dumps these containers or starts mixing legos I think I might cry.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, though. So, I’m wondering how long this organization shall last?

A week? A day? A month? We shall see…