The Rest of Our Summer

These pictures are in no specific order, in fact, I think they are in the complete wrong order as I forget when you attach photos to a post (you have to upload them first) you have to do it in the reverse order you want them to appear - I never can do that correctly!

Here we are celebrating my 21st birthday, again. OK, truth be told, its my 32nd. The kids decorated a lovely cake with marshmallows and M&Ms. It was very, um, sweet. My birthday fell on a Sunday, so after church we had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon in the comfort of the air-conditioned house. Its been so long I don't even remember what we did, but I'm sure it was fun.

I really, really, really wanted to partake in some community 4th of July activities, but it was over 100 degrees here and INCREDIBLY humid, so I relented and we didn't do anything. That is until 5:30pm when I realize I really, really, really, REALLY wanted to do something in a festive atmosphere so we went up to a local shopping area that was hosting activities and got ice cream. The kids did a few activities, including standing in line for 20 minutes for balloon animals, and we just about melted.

To take the place of the during-the-day activities, I tried to engage the kids in various 4th of July-themed arts and crafts. Above Sydney is about to use her American Flag placemat. You can see below a photo of us making them. Can you tell who is more excited about this activity?

Backing up a few weeks, maybe months, below is a picture at Old MacDonald's Farm - a really great farm we visited with Mom when she was visiting. During our wanderings, we found this old barn with a rope swing and had to all take a turn. Not pretty.

They had tonnes of different animals and they were all in separate areas, so you didn't have to worry about being attacked by the goats AND the sheep at the same time. Instead, you could go into one area and be attacked by the goats, then when you recovered you could go into a second enclosure and be attacked by the sheep. As you can see, John was much more excited by the goats from opposite sides of the fence.

OK, I think this happened after the farm, but before the 4th of July, again, I can't really remember. This is John and I on the train at the Racine Zoo on our trip to WI. Rich and I took the kids for a family outing one afternoon and it was a lot of fun. I had another great photo of Rich with the kids, but I have no idea where it went!

Below is my beginning attempts to take "artsy" photos with my new camera. Whilst in Wisconsin we took advantage of the strawberry season to go picking. Mom, the kids and I went (I think Rich enjoyed some quiet!) and had a great time. In about 20 minutes we managed to pick 10 pounds, and probably eat another 2. John used to eat strawberries like they were going out of fashion, but this year stopped. I think this is the only one, or two, he's eaten all year. He clearly likes them, but doesn't eat them anywhere else.

And T-ball continued, unfortunately, throughout the summer. What were we thinking? This is one of not-so-many smiles from Sydney. I think she was actually thinking "thank goodness this game is over". Games were every Saturday at 9:30 or 10:30 - which, to give you any indication of a Houston summer, it's usually around 95 wit 95% humidity by 7:30am. It was just miserable out on the field.

By the third game I had managed to explain to her that she couldn't get EVERY ball and it became more of a process of letting each kid get a turn to run to the ball (which never made it past the pitcher's mound) and no one paid attention to anything else. We toughed it out (you know, a lesson in good sportsmanship or something like that) but don't miss it at all. Needless to say, we're not signing up again next year!