Father's Day

A few weeks ago Justin made the comment that it's not fair that mother's day falls during the school year because the kids make all this cute stuff and by the time father's day comes its summer so there's no cute homemade stuff.  Well, the kids and I took care of that.

We started father's day off with some decorations and presents. 

 Check out the ties on the wall.  I bought some outdoor themed construction paper and the kids cut out the ties and put some sticker letters on them (click on the picture to enlarge it).

 I found this idea on pinterest.  I took two poster boards and cut out the letters and words.  We waited for a sunny part of the day and the kids held them up so I could take the picture. 

 I printed these on the computer for them to fill out about Justin.  I'm going to print the same ones each year to watch how they change.  This one is McKayla's.

 This one is Seth's.

 Justin's Aunt sent me this awesome idea a few months ago.  I took Huck's hand, stuck it in ink, and stuck it on the baseball (easier said than done).  I wrote his name on it with a sharpie and wrote Happy Father's Day 2012 on the opposite side.  Justin loved it!

After opening presents we had Justin's favorite breakfast, biscuits and gravy.  The rest of the day was spent playing with the kids and relaxing around the house.  For dinner we headed to one of Justin's favorite restaurants, Seinyard.  It was delicious!!!

Pictures from dinner...

After dinner we grabbed a couple movies for the kids and milkshakes from Baskin Robbins.  We really had a great father's day.  Hmmmmm...now how will we top it next year? 

Summertime, and the Living is Easy

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE!!! I for one cannot be more excited.   A couple weeks ago I planned and created our Summer Chain of Events.  We were scheduled to start our activities on Monday but since Huck made his arrival over the weekend, we started on Tuesday and doubled up our activities.  This was an extra special week because Nana, Grandad, and Mima got to share it with us. 

Here's how our first week went.

Our Chain



Monday, June 4th: On the schedule for Monday was making homemade ice cream (we actually did this on Tuesday). This was a really simple recipe and the kids really enjoyed it. Justin helped them with this project. Click HERE for the recipe.

 Eating their yummy ice cream

Gotta have sprinkles!



Tuesday, June 5th: As of Tuesday we were back on track.  The kids have asked several times over the school year to go to the public library.  Since they go at school and we are always busy with sports and other activities, I never made the time to go.  On Tuesday Justin took two happy kids to the library where they each picked three books.  Seth has really gotten into reading in the past few months so he has already finished one library chapter book plus another store bought one (more on that later).  We're going to try to go the the library every Tuesday this summer. 

Reading one of his books



Wednesday, June 6th: Wednesday was a cooking day.  This time it was McKayla's turn to cook dinner.  They both enjoy helping me cook so I thought it would be a good idea to let them pick a meal and do most of the work.  McKayla chose to make lemon pepper salmon with rice, broccoli, and carrots.  She did a great job and we all enjoyed it. 

Thursday, June 7th:  Now it was Seth's turn to cook.  He chose one of his favorite meals, breakfast for dinner.  We made tons of food.  On the menu was biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs with cheese, and cheese grits.  Yes, I realize there is almost nothing healthy about this meal but Seth LOVED it and so did everyone else. 

Friday, June 8th: Nana got to take over on Friday. My mom LOVES to read so she was thrilled to hear how much the kids enjoy it too. After camp, we picked them up and headed to Barnes and Noble. They each got two books and a cookie. Huck got two books too. When we got home Nana, Seth, and McKayla headed for the back porch and immediately started reading. They stayed out there for two hours. I couldn't believe it. They both started and finished chapter books that day.

Leaving Barnes and Noble



Saturday, June 9th: On Saturday we had a very special mission, making Father's Day presents.  For obviouse reasons I can't reveal what we were up to, but I promise to post more on this later. 

Sunday, June 10th: Last summer we did our summer chain of events but the only record we had of it was this blog.  This summer I decided that the kids should keep a summer journal.  Sunday we started that journal and we'll add to it each Sunday.  Hopefully they'll keep these for years to come and look back on all the fun we had. 

First week of the journal



We're off to a great start and I can't wait for the kids to find out what other summer activities await us. 

May Wrap Up

As May comes to a close I realize it's been awhile since I've done a post. This month has been a pretty busy one. The first event we had this month was Seth's school performance. The show itself was a pretty big production but Seth's class only participated for one song. Here he is...

The next event this month was the long awaited trip to Boston.  Justin posted about this a couple weeks ago and the kids still talk about it on a daily basis.  They're all dying to get up there again. 

The kids and Justin got back from Boston the day before Mother's day. The kids left for their mom's early Sunday morning but before they left they gave me their gifts they made at school and a beautiful pair of Pandora earrings they all picked out together. On Sunday Justin and I celebrated by going to the Mother's Day brunch at the FSU University Center. It was absolutely delicious! I've never seen such a variety of wonderful food in one place before. We decided we'll have to make it a yearly tradition.

Throughout the month t-ball continued and Justin and Seth thoroughly enjoyed it.  Justin proved to be a fabulous coach and all the parents and kids really enjoyed the season.  May 22nd the season ended and we celebrated with a party at Beef 'O' Bradys. 

Last but not least, Memorial Day weekend.  We were lucky enough to have the kids with us for the long weekend so we spent as much time outside as possible.  Saturday we headed to Carrabelle beach for the day.  On Sunday we went to Trousdell pool here in Tallahassee.  Seth wasn't swimming very well at the beginning of the day but by the end of it he was a regular fish again.

That's about it for May unless someone decides to make his debut in the next 3 days.  We'll keep you posted...