Our version of Wipeout...

Our next door neighbors have a swimming pool. We don't go over often, however Brennan had been begging to go over. So one really hot day last week, the boys had gone over in the afternoon and then after I finished tutoring, Bren, Dad, and I went for an evening swim. This is how it turned out. I stayed safely behind the camera while they did daredevil tricks involving a diving board and a large ball. To get the full effect, you'll have to click on the pictures to see them in their original size. Some of the facial expressions are great.
The goal was to land on the ball like this... It didn't happen very often.

Many times it ended up like this...

They had fantastic fun. Sometimes I feel like I'm raising 3 boys instead of just two...

Happy Father's Day

to my dad! I love this picture of us. It was just taken early last week when he and Dorothy came for a few days. We were at a ballgame of course.

Unfortunately I live a couple of hours away from him so I don't get to see him all that often. With our busy schedules we don't get over as much as I'd like to. I did call him and get to talk to him this evening, and I'm so thankful for that.

I think I'll just jot down some random things about my dad in honor of him this evening...

*My dad is very handy. He's always been able to fix things and I have many memories of him tinkering in the garage in his workshop area. They say you often marry a man like your own father, and in many ways, I did. My husband is also very handy.

*Dad loves to be outdoors. We had a cabin along the Cedar River growing up, and most of my childhood we owned a fishing boat and a Bayliner. We would often go out boating and fishing. I learned to love to fish from our many fishing vacations to Wisconsin and other places. Dad always takes a yearly snowmobile trip every winter and also likes to hunt. Just several other ways that my husband is like my father.

*My dad worked at the same job his entire grown-up life until he retired- Liberty Trust and Savings Bank. He would often walk to work when it was nice, and he'd come home at 11:30 for lunch. Mom would have his sandwich fixed and sit down at the dining room table with him for the next 45 minutes. He always sat in the same place at that dining room table for meals for all of the years I was growing up too!

*My dad loves a good joke. He doesn't just laugh, he cackles! His laugh makes me laugh! Funniest Home videos, Wipeout, and Home Alone can get him going!

*He always liked the windows clean. He loved to Windex them (our windows at home were spotless!) and he absolutely hated it when we would draw in the dew on the car windows and streak them all up! Of course, I'd do it anyway.

*When I'd go to kiss him when I was little, he always puffed out his cheek for his kiss.

*I got him the Gun Digest magazine every year for Christmas and no matter how cleverly I disguised the package, he could always figure out which gift it was! Made me so mad!

*He's not a big talker. If he talks on the phone too long, his "ears hurt." : ) He's a man of few words and always has been.

*He would take the whole family on great vacations every summer. We would often go for two weeks at a time. We drove of course, and part of the fun was getting up at 4 AM to hit the road early. We went all over the US on those trips and made awesome memories. Hauling 5, 4, or 3 kids (depending on who was still living at home) on a road trip for that length of time must have been physically and mentally draining (now that I'm a parent, I can see that!). Our vacations were never lay-on-the-beach-and-do-nothing sort of trips. No, we had an agenda for each day, and we packed in as much fun and activity as humanly possible during our time! Over the course of my growing up years, I saw numerous president homes, national landmarks, national parks, rode many a roller coaster, went to countless museums, watched dozens of Major League ballgames, and visited close to 40 states. Wow! I have realized in my adult life how very lucky I am!

I could go on and on with lots of memories, but I'll sum it up by saying he gave me a great childhood. He and my mom provided a safe, loving, fun home to grow up in. I am thankful for how hard he worked to provide for our family.

Dad I don't think you read my blog, but I love you! Happy Father's Day!!

blessed Saturdays...

I love a Saturday without plans. We rarely get one. Usually our summer weekends are filled with baseball games, however this year Bradley's tournament team played in a spring league so we're not doing tournaments every weekend.

Ahh.... summer- I'm really enjoying so far...

*took Bradley golfing yesterday- I got him a pass at a golf course just 10 miles from our house so Bren and I went out and walked with him before the rain began

*been tutoring, but my schedule isn't too packed- I have several students around dinner time and early evening so it frees my days up, so I can go to...

*Bradley's Jr. High baseball games- they play during the day time. So far they are 2-2. I'm so glad I have a job that is flexible that allows me to be able to go! Poor Gary hasn't seen any of his Jr. High games yet, and might not be able to since most of them are at 10 AM.

*Bren is almost done with ball. Gary and his Pirates team finished 2nd in the Rookie League, so they're pretty happy about that. This coming week is the year-end tournament, and then he'll be done with ball.

*Bradley got into church camp at Hidden Acres! He and his friend were on a waiting list, but they got in, so he'll be gone from July 5-10 there.

*Brennan is signed up for swimming lessons in July and is planning on going to basketball camp here in Carlisle at the end of June. He has been showing a lot more interest in playing catch and baseball. He and Bradley have been out in the yard doing that almost every day. Yeah!

*My dad and Dorothy came to visit for a couple of days earlier this week. They got to see both of the boys play ball. It was great to have them here.

*I've been doing a bit of scrapbooking!!! YEAH FOR BEING ABLE TO STAY UP LATE!!! That's when I do my best scrapping! Last night I did a mini album from our camping trip last summer. I've done a couple other layouts and I'm planning to share those soon! I've also got lots of pictures to download, edit, and share. That task is on the to-do list.

*Gary is busy working on the deck. Last summer when he resided the house, he found some issues with the deck. So he replaced all of the flooring, now is working on the steps, and has to replace some of the lattice work. Hopefully he'll be done with that soon, however there's always another project waiting in the wings!

*It's been very rainy, cloudy, and cool lately- almost depressing. I can't handle clouds for too many days in a row. It definitely affects my mood. I NEED SOME SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!

*I've just been enjoying time with the boys lately. We've been doing more reading, chatting, and just hanging together. I pulled the mattress off of the pull-out sleeeper, and we put that on the living room floor. We will all pile on that and snuggle and watch tv together. It's nice to feel like we have some down time to just relax. It seems the school year does not allow for much of that.

*The boys want to go to Sleepy Hollow today to golf, but it rained all night last night, so it's awfully wet. I need to do a little more laundry and take a walk down to the post office to mail some things for Gary.

I always hate posting with no pictures, but it'll have to do today! Maybe later I'll get them uploaded.
Toodles!

A recent family photo

I'm tired tonight, so no big post to share. This is a recent favorite picture of mine- taken last weekend. I didn't do any editing to it yet, so once I lighten it up, the color should be better. Love these guys!!!

birthday party recap

Now that I've had a good 48 hours to recuperate, I will post the birthday party happenings. Brennan seems to have gotten the raw end of the deal many years. His birthday usually falls somewhere around the Memorial Day weekend, and for the last 6 years or so, Bradley has been in a baseball tournament all during that weekend. Many times Brennan's birthday has been spent at the ball diamond, so we haven't done many friend parties. I wanted this year to be different. We were brainstorming ideas, and he was definite that he wanted a WWE party (for those of you who don't know what that is, it's the World Wrestling Entertainment). He is very into that right now. I thought it would be nice to invite all of the boys in his class instead of just a couple. Being a former teacher, I felt so awful when a child would have a birthday party and only a few kids were invited. Now I know you can't invite everyone all the time, but even when kids are told not to talk about it or make others feel bad, trust me,everyone always finds out, and kids can't keep their mouths shut. I remember some of those sad faces on the kids who didn't get invited and then had to listen to the others talk about all of the fun they were going to have. It always broke my heart. So Mom's idea was to have the party on the last day of school. School was dismissed at 11, we would walk to our house and have the party until 3. Mistake # 1- parties should not last 4 hours!!

Here is the cake I made- yes, I made it! Dawn, you should be proud of my piping and everything! My friend Dawn helped me make one of my first "real" cakes a few years ago for my mother-in-law's 60th. Anyway, the middle has the WWE logo. If you can't tell, it is to resemble a wrestling ring. I used Oreo cookie sticks for the post (which, by the way, are absolutely delicious!) and just red string for the ring. The little dudes are some wrestlers Brennan already had. I was pretty proud of my little cake, and it tasted quite good as well!

Here is the party set-up- the "calm before the storm." WWE abounds with plates, napkins, cups, hats, goodie bags, tablecloth, and balloons (of course, the balloons were popped within 30 seconds of the boys sitting down- do girls do this too????).

I was panicking at about 9 AM while I watched it pour, thunder, and lightning. I fully intended for us to have some (or as much as I could) of our day OUTSIDE!!! The boys were to bring their trunks and towels for slip n sliding. Thankfully the Lord answered my prayer, and it did clear off for a couple of hours during the party so we did get that in. Here they are ready to slip and ready to slide.

First activity was a water balloon toss. Then the water balloon fight commenced and the over 70 water balloons I spent almost an hour filling and tieing until my fingers were numb were gone in a matter of 3 minutes. Mistake #2- Don't waste your time with water balloons. Just go straight to large mammoth water guns and hoses. Much less work!

The boys had fun on the slip n slide! When we finally got a system going, it ran smoothly. Eventually it got a hole in it, which I can't say I'm too surprised at, but we just put the sprinkler next to it, and it worked just as well.

Mistake # 3- Do not assume the cat will enjoy being thrown down the slip n slide as much as an 8 year old boy does!

And what's a party without crafts??? I thought it would be fun to have the boys make their own championship belts. I traced one of Brennan's wrestling belts onto black foam to make the belts. The shiny gold middle is cardstock sprayed with gold spray paint. Then I printed off some WWE logos for them to glue in the middle of their belts. Some chose to color and decorate them as well. Finally I got velcro to fasten them. It worked pretty well and the boys seemed to like this.

Another craft we did (I forgot to take a picture of Brennan's) was making them into wrestlers. I printed off pictures of famous wrestlers. Then I scanned their class picture into my computer and printed off their pictures. They cut around their heads and placed them on the wrestlers' bodies. I tried to print them in sizes to match the wrestlers' heads as closely as I could. Some of them came out really well! I'll have to post Bren's if I think of it. His was pretty good.

Here are the boys modeling their belts. You can click on the picture to see the larger image.

Mistakes #4 and #5- Do not necessarily believe that the permanent adhesive on the back of the velcro pieces means it sticks well. As soon as the boys tried to take them off, one side of the adhesive pulled off and stuck to the other, so I had to go back through them and staple each one individually, as if I didn't have enough to keep me busy. Also do not wait until 10:30 the night before the party to begin assembling the craft projects. This will take 3 times longer than you think it will and you'll be up past 2 AM still not finished.

After the crafts, we had cake and presents, and then the rest of the (long) afternoon was spent trying to take Bradley down, and playing Rock Band or other various loud games. Unfortunately it started to rain right after I hung the wet towels and swim trunks out on my front deck, so we had to be inside for the last hour or so.

All in all, it went well. Lots of chaos, lots of noise, and lots of mess, but what did I expect with 9 2nd grade boys???? We did have a rough spot in the day with Brennan in tears, but I think we got it resolved. Do I think it was nice to invite all the boys in his class? Definitely. Would I do this again soon?? Doubtful.