Jacob's Birthday Extravaganza

For Jacob's 7th birthday party, he wanted to have a pool party.  

We held the party at the local indoor pool  We invited several of Jacob's friends.

I made some sponge balls for the kids to play with in the pool.  They were a big hit. At first the kids were playing catch with them, then tag. Then they played a game where they would stand on the edge of the pool, then as they jumped in, Kelly would throw a sponge ball at them and they would try to catch it while in the air.

After we got out of the pool, we had some yummy shark-themed cupcakes and other goodies.

Then we went outside for some party games.  The weather was perfect.

We started with a pinata, which has become an annual tradition.

No, these aren't party hats.  They're parts of the pinata.

Next, we played Balloon-Pop Survivor.

Then Kelly taught the kids how to make paper airplanes and we had a contest to see whose airplane would  fly the farthest.

I made cloth goody bags for each of the kids filled with treats and a squirt gun.

The kids all seemed to have a great time.  We're glad Jacob has so many good friends.

After the party, we came home and continued the party with just our family.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jacob again and he opened his gifts.

Andrew got Jacob a LEGO Star Wars set.  I don't know who liked it more--Jacob or Andrew.

It was a fun day full of birthday celebrations.  We love Jacob and are glad he's part of our family.  --emily

Andrew's 1st Day of School

Andrew started his second year of pre-school and is super excited to be with some of his same friends from last year. We are lucky to have such a great pre-school so near to our home. --emily

Jacob's 1st Day of School

Jacob is in first grade now.  He's growing up so fast.  He was excited for his first day of school.  We all walked with him together as a family to drop him off at the back gate. We are so lucky to live in walking distance to school. 

P.S. It has been a few months since school has started and he is loving his teacher and he has made lots of new friends. 

Labor day not camping

We had planned on going camping with some friends over Labor Day, but we all decided to cancel the trip because we were all just too busy with school starting and everything else going on.

So instead of camping, we all met at our friend's house for a nice pot-luck dinner and some marshmallow roasting over a fire pit.  It was the best of both worlds.  We had fun with our friends and made yummy s'mores, but we got to sleep in our own comfortable beds.  We had a great time.  It was a good way to end the summer. --emily

Blueberry Picking

We picked 17 lbs of blueberries. We have consumed all of them! We ate most of them frozen and they were the best blueberries we have ever eaten!
The boys had a great time picking them.We can't wait till next year.  --emily

Geocaching

I've been wanting to get into geocaching for a while now.  I thought it would be a fun outdoor activity for the boys.  For those of you who may be new to geocaching, it is a recreational activity in which participants use GPS devices to hide and seek containers (or caches) anywhere in the world.  The containers typically contain little trinket treasures.  When you find the container, you can take a treasure and leave another treasure for the next geocacher. 

I downloaded a geocaching app for my iPhone, pulled together a box of treasures to leave in the caches, and we were off.  For treasure, I pulled out some old bottle cap necklaces I had made previously for another activity.  On my app, we could see that there were several geocaches right in our own neighborhood.  The boys had a great time finding the caches.  Now we keep our box of treasures in our car so that we can geocache wherever we go. --Emily

Jetty Island

One quiet summer morning we ventured out with some friends to Jetty Island. 
Words can't explain how much I love this place! 

One small boat takes all islanders on and off the island. There's no other way on or off the island. 

The water is only knee high, so it's a safe place for the kids to splash around. 

You can easily walk from one end of the island to the other.

There is plenty of natural "sword" material everywhere.

We restructured this beach fort.

It's amazing how much joy some beach wood can bring.

There's plenty of sand for digging.

Jacob and Andrew sat in the shallow water and dug for teeny tiny clams.

On the boat at the end of the day, and we were covered in sand, soaked in sun, and couldn't wait to come back to the island again. --Emily

First Aid

The American Red Cross came to camp today and taught the kids about first aid. Here Andrew is sporting his bandaged arm. --emily

(No one was harmed in the making of this blog post)

String Birds

Today at day camp we crafted string birds. They were a ton of work and were super messy, but in the end they all turned out so darling. Here they are hanging up to dry.

This one hanging upside down with the blue beak is Jacob's and the one below with a green beak is the one that Andrew made.

Andrew found his! --emily

Day Camp

Today at day camp we had the Reptile Man's son visit with us.

Andrew and his friend, Miss A, got to hold this giant Python. I couldn't post the group picture because I didn't know all the kids. This snake was giant! When Andrew told Kelly what he did at camp today he said: "Dad I held a Panther." It was heart melting cute.

The Reptile Man's son also brought a tortes, an alligator, and lots of snakes. The kids had a great time seeing lots of reptiles they haven't seen this close before. --emily