Camping 101

Here are the top 10 things that I learned on my first camping excursion last weekend...

10. You should check and make sure you have enough tents before the day you actually go camping.

9. You should not get up the morning of your camping trip and realize that your children have nothing to sleep on.

8. When camping at the lake, the bug spray "OFF-Skintastic" just does not cut it. You must have something industrial like "Ultra Deep Woods OFF".

7. It is not good to leave the ingredients for Smores outside where the hot sun and ants can find them.

6. Hearing the phrase, "If you get up in the middle of the night, you might want to take a flashlight to look for snakes" does not exactly lend itself to having sweet dreams.

5. The faster you zip the tent, the less bugs you have sleeping with you.

4. If you wake up in the middle of the night to something large sniffing around your tent, chanting the phrase "It's just a dog, it's just a dog..." can be rather calming.

3. Planning to recreate the Cracker Barrel's "Campfire Grill" might be harder than you originally thought given that you don't have the resources of the Cracker Barrel.

2. Watching Scot attempt to direct the children to set their tent up is a highly entertaining activity.

and the #1 thing I learned on my first camping trip is...

1. Never, never, never go camping in Georgia on the hottest day of the year so far! It was SO hot!

Happy Father's Day!

I hope everyone's Father's Day was as good and peaceful as ours! We had a fun day spending time with family!

Summer is Here!

Summer is officially here! We have been doing all sorts of summer activities. Leah had 2 weeks of swimming lessons and is no longer afraid of the water. Woo hoo! Brady and Christian are enjoying down time from not being at school and have started taking "Intense Martial Arts" (how scary is that? Like Christian needs to be any more 'intense'). We have spent the last few weekends at Lake Lanier enjoying the sun and water and sand. We have made campfires and roasted marshmallows...

Brady perfected the art of roasting marshmallows.

Whoa! That's a serious marshmallow stick Christian! Thanks Uncle Tim for making that! Nevermind that he burned every marshmallow that he stuck in that fire.

We also went to the beach at Lake Lanier and played. The kids said it felt like a day at the beach!

Notice Christian is the one they chose to bury... (Actually, all the children ended up being buried).

And finally, Leah (well, all the children) made a new friend... Vicki's foster kitten. The kids loved that kitten. We tried to explain that kittens grow up to be cats, but I don't think they believe us!

It's been a great summer so far! I can't believe June is half over! We hope to keep having fun and enjoying every minute.

Strawberries!

Recently, we went to pick strawberries! One of my new personal goals as I enter a new stage in my life is to cook more. I've always enjoyed cooking and I just haven't had a lot of time to cook since I work so many evenings. This summer, I am focusing on working less and spending more time with the children. So, in order to focus on my new goal, I decided we would go pick strawberries at a local farm and that I would then proceed to make loads of homemade strawberry things.

So, off we went. The only one of the children that likes strawberries is Brady. However, everyone was eager to participate. Let me reiterate that I have never done this. The most that I've ever made was a strawberry cake that was made with frozen strawberries.

I wanted all the children to pick strawberries, so each one had a bucket. I also had a bucket and so did Scot.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why I didn't realize just exactly how many strawberries that would be. Those children can really pick strawberries fast. I guess that's where child labor came from. We ended up with 15 pounds of strawberries! Wow! That's A LOT of fruit. Especially since the only thing that I really wanted to make was a homemade strawberry cake.

Everyone really had fun and even the children got along and posed together. It was weird...

And I'm not naming any names, but there was one of us that couldn't wait until we got into the car before eating strawberries...

It was a pleasant afternoon and we are still eating strawberry flavored things. I made strawberry jam, strawberry bread, and a homemade strawberry cake. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to go back! This fall... apples!

Happy 85th Birthday Nene!

Saturday we had a birthday party for my grandmother. She is 85 years old this year. The last few years have been tough for her... she was diagnosed with breast cancer and then she began forgetting a lot of things. She has gone from being totally independent to having sitters and spending the night with my parents every night. It's been tough... for her and for us. It's hard to watch someone you love so much decline in this way. More than anything, we want her to have quality of life and we try hard to give her that. So, my parents have thrown her a birthday party for the last several years at their lake house. They invite all of her family from both sides. Everyone comes and spends the afternoon and celebrates her life. It's fun and she really seems to enjoy it.

Brady was out of town camping with a friend this past weekend, so he did not get to come. However, Leah and Christian really enjoyed playing with their cousins in the lake. This is the first year that I have allowed them to swim. In the past, I just didn't want to deal with the wet swimsuits etc.. I'm glad I changed my mind because they really seemed to have fun.

There was lots of food and great company.

We all sang Happy Birthday to her... twice! Because if you make to 85, you should get to hear the birthday song more than once...

After dinner, we went on a pontoon ride around the lake. Leah enjoyed driving the boat. Christian declined to do this.. I guess he's too old..

Overall, it was a great day celebrating a great person!