Lemonade Stand Grand Total

After a sweltering, but busy second afternoon of selling lemonade and cupcakes...

to a few friends and neighbors,

but mostly to cute little relatives who came not only eager to help, but also adorably decked out in red, white, and blue garb for Independence Day.....

They were a little mad about me taking too many pictures of them,

but when we counted up the grand total Emma and Elena earned to give to childhood cancer research...

everyone was all smiles...

especially Emma! 

Grand total:  $355

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"...and a little child shall lead them." 
Isaiah 11:6

A Dummy's Guide to Camping

1.  Thoughtfully and lovingly prepare high quality food to eat by the fire.  Or by the ignition at least.  

2. Arrive to campsite as late as possible.  It'll make your campsite choice much easier. Do you want to roll uphill or downhill?    Additionally, people tend not to bother you with conversation and pounding in stakes when you set up your tent in the dark. 

3.  Round off the aforementioned thoughtfully prepared meal with a well-rounded mass of roasted fluffed sugar sandwiched between chocolate sugar and graham flavored sugar.  And in case you're thirsty, there's even chocolate flavored sugar water that'll make your sugar high complete! 

4.  Go to bed and annoyingly tell kids to pee in their pull-ups so you won't have to traipse them to the restroom...again. 

5.  After approximately 3.4 hours of fitful sleep, wake up and stop equally sleep-deprived people who happen to be carrying small babies and walking large dogs and demand that they hold still long enough for you to ask 42 questions and smother the dog with loves. 

6.  Eat a breakfast of champions....spam and cheese bagels cooked by the Spam King are perfect!

 

7.   Make sure the whole world knows what your Christmas pajamas looked like, by wearing them long into the morning hours.  Heck, why even bother changing?  I heard footy pajamas are all the rage in Vienna these days. 

8.  Practice your pyrotechnics whenever possible. 
Paper in the fire...boring.  
Plastic in the fire....slightly more entertaining.
Glow sticks in the fire....awesome!  

9.  Pack up, go home, think about the laundry you should do, then take a quick nap.   

10.  Repeat exactly as outlined, every September for 12 years or so.  


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Favorite Picture of the Day

and it's not even of my kids.

 I love this sweet picture of Adam's friend, Benjamin, showing his baby sister the fish he caught. 

Fish, you ask?  That must be an awfully small fish to fit in the palm of his hand like that. 

Yep.  One of our favorite summertime activities this year had been to go explore our neighborhood stream and the surrounding woods.  It's an activity that the kids never seem to tire of.    So when Adam had two friends over this afternoon, it was the first thing they wanted to do as soon as our indoor activities were finished.    There they used nets to catch little minnows (and got soaking wet in the process).  When it was time to walk back home, they couldn't bear to part with all of their new fishy friends, so they brought the best of the bunch back home in a peanut butter jar.

They boys were pretty enamored with their catches and spent the rest of their time together eating Flavor-ices and jabbering about their plans of  where they were going to keep their fish and what they were going to feed them, how often they might need to change the water, etc. 

Soon the fish were divided up into Dixie cups and sent home with the boys along with a handful of mini marshmallows for food.  Not surprisingly, a few of the minnows have already passed onto the big stream in the sky, but Adam is holding out home that at least a few will survive to be his newest pets.  (Thursday morning update:  all of the minnows are now dead)

After spending an afternoon with a couple of 8-year-old boys, I've discovered that their conversations can be highly entertaining.  There was  silliness aplenty, some competitiveness as they took turns showing off their smarts, a little bit of potty humor, and even a little waxing poetic as they shared their philosophies on being kind to animals. :)

The Simple Joys of Summer

Once again I am a little overwhelmed by the myriad of activities that seem to be eating up our summertime.  I had envisioned this summer being a time when I really put my blogging hat back on and started writing interesting posts again, but alas I am not there yet!  So as per usual, here are a few pictures I've taken recently that I felt like really captured the essence of summer.  I love how Ellie will still pose for the camera without complaining and I wish she'd rub a little bit of that off on some of her siblings, so my blog wouldn't look so much like I have a favorite child.  :)  

JOY IS....

Going for a leisurely stroll with a friend....

Trying to catch some minnows in the neighborhood stream ...

Having a pleasant conversation....

Getting a little soaked in the neighborhood stream and not caring a bit....

Running, giggling, and playing....

Splashing down a water slide....

Showing off your sweet swim moves (she got 5th place in backstroke in her last swim meet)....

Holding hands with your new best friend....

Pushing, playing, wrestling....

What are the simple summertime joys you remember from your childhood?  What about now as an adult?


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