Fun at home

In between the girls' trip to the beach and our big vacation to Connecticut, we had a ton of fun right here at home. This is the point when summer started feeling short! William got out of school in mid-May, and September seemed ages away. Once we got to mid-July with Connecticut and another beach vacation ahead of us, I realized summer would be over before we knew it.

We were still enamored with rain in mid-July, so any rain drops meant it was time to throw up the blinds and stare outside. 

I hosted a busy bag party at my house. Busy bags are activities made to keep children entertained. You put the activity in a ziploc bag, and it is intended to be something that isn't used up so you can take it out when you need it over and over again. We got some fantastic bags! Fifteen people participated (some had to drop their bags off because they couldn't come that night). 

Big boxes have a long life in this house. They are used until they fall apart.  The boys usually "sleep" in them and then pop out. 

We went to the boys' first movie in a theater - "Kung Fu Panda." They did better than I expected, but they certainly did not make it all the way through. It was totally worth it for $1 a ticket. 

A lot of people missed the movie outing because of the torrential downpours that morning. Stephanie, Taylor and I clearly needed the outing because we trudged through the rain to make it to the movie.

We loved having Emily home for summer! She is the best helper with all the boys, and they love her.  She has always given William lots of attention. I get the feeling that he is a little weirded out by the fact that she pays Ryan lots of attention now. 

Ryan was pretty shy this day. I think it was because he had never been to that bowling alley. If we went back again, he would be all over the place like he is at the alley near our house.

High fives all around! 

The rain stopped on a Sunday afternoon, and we were all desperate to get some wiggles out. We met Amy, Grammy and Grandpa at City Centre. We weren't the only ones with this idea, but it was still a lot of fun.  

They look really old to me in this picture. 

Laundry hampers are just as awesome as big boxes.  

I don't know why it is so fun to pretend to sleep! 

Monkey see, monkey do.

I can't remember why I took Ryan's shirt off. Probably because his shirt was so filthy that it was pointless to even wear it. He could not get dirty enough.  

Such good buddies! They did not want to leave even a little bit when it was time to go. We brushed them off with a brush the restaurant uses for the sand box, and there was still sand in places sand should not go.

Ryan is such a happy boy! True to form, William takes his job as umbrella-holder very seriously. 

Surfside

I'm not sure whose idea it was, but as soon as Jennifer solidified her summer trip to the States, we started talking about a girls' weekend. We didn't really know what we meant by that, but it sure sounded good. Galveston is so close to home that we decided to spend a weekend there. The only weekend that would work during her entire trip home was the weekend right after fourth of July (which fell on a Wednesday). A lot of rooms were already booked. Every time I thought I had found the right place for us, something came up, and it was all of a sudden not available. Jennifer swooped in and found us a place in Surfside. None of us knew much about Surfside, but we decided to give it a go!

There is a hotel in Surfside (which is 30-ish minutes from Galveston) that has suites right on the beach. Our requirements for a place were a good view and a kitchen. Check and check! Our hotel was ranked #1 in all of Surfside. Score! Only catch - it was #1 of 1. Ha.

View from our balcony.

When we went to check in, we learned that our suite was actually not attached to the main hotel. It looks like the hotel bought a private beach house about a mile down the beach and renovated it to make six separate suites. We were on the top floor, and we had a great view of the (rather seaweed-infested) beach.

Here's our set-up with the house in the background. It couldn't have been closer to the beach!

On Saturday, we went for a nice, long walk down the beach. Our umbrella is the multi-colored one in the middle-right of the picture. While we were gone, the car and red umbrellas staked their claim RIGHT next to us! I couldn't believe how very close they got. The guy would try to converse with me about people walking by while I was reading my book. I don't think so! I am not sitting here to chat with you.

And then he got a ticket for having glass on the beach. This made me smile inside for some reason. I know it's wrong.

We asked someone to take our picture on Saturday evening.

While we were so glad to have a kitchen, we were astonished at the lack of anything kitchen-related in said kitchen. That is why we poured margaritas from a coffee pot. We had to get pretty creative with some things, but we made it!

You will notice that I haven't said a whole lot about what we did. What did we do?? I am not exactly sure! Sat around, talked, ate, slept, sat around some more. This was our dinner Saturday night. We had every intention of going out, but we had a smorgasbord at our fingertips and decided to stay on our porch and relax instead of going to a restaurant. 

It was really strange to do what I want, when I wanted for an entire weekend. I have spent some time away from the kids, but there is usually an agenda of some sort.  Not in Surfside! Our agenda was check in Friday afternoon and check out Sunday morning. One thing that was fun was when I downloaded a stargazing app on my phone. We all got a kick out of identifying constellations. Does that mean we are old? Oh well. I am pretty OK with that.

Getting pictures from home makes me so happy! It was fun to be greeted by these sweet boys' faces when I woke up.

This is exactly what Mikey and I do every weekend morning at breakfast.

We were ready to leave a little before check-out time. We had the car all packed, with only our purses in our room. We had been watching some "Veronica Mars" and decided to sit back down and finish the episode. What fun that was. It really brought back memories! Thanks, Jen and Danielle, for such a fun, relaxing weekend.

Instagram Photo Dump

Yep, I still love it! I take so many pictures on my phone now and really enjoy putting them in Instagram and deciding what filter to use.

I have to note that the caption text size is driving me bananas in this post. I don't feel like fixing it, but I couldn't not say anything for fear that people would think I have lost my editing eye. :)

So studious!

Love that form. 

Academy is about as good as it gets for Mr. Sportsman.

He now loves bocce ball, thanks to Father's Day dinner at Ciro's. Too bad Mikey had to miss out due to a wicked stomach bug! The rest of us had a lovely time. 

William is much too serious about his bocce ball.

Life is grand for the second child. I never would have given William ice cream for no reason at this age.

We always tell William not to spray Ryan with the hose. William doesn't always listen. Clearly Ryan is OK with it.

Look at wee Ryan next to all those big kids! A day camp had an outing to our local splash pad. William refused to go in while they were there, so he waited patiently for over an hour. Once they left, he was off and running! 

He loves it there. I told him Ryan and I went today when he was at school, and he started to cry. Good thing it is five minutes from our house. 

He looks like a giant in that high chair. 

They love to "watch bowling" in this little house at a local park.

Ryan doesn't mind getting wet OR sandy. Ridiculous! 

This probably deserves its own post, but I am on a roll, so it isn't getting a separate post! Ryan finally had his clogged tear duct surgery on July 2. We had to be there at 6 am. Ouch. Jennifer spent the night at our house so someone would be here when William woke up. It was such a gift to have her here! 

He has no idea what is coming! It was cute to see him in public in his PJs. 

Oh my goodness. Most adorable patient ever! He was very clingy when we first got to pre-op. We managed to get him dressed in that teeny-tiny hospital gown (after Mikey put it on backward the first time). He loosened up a bit after everyone who came by was so nice. 

The surgery took just a little bit longer than anticipated. Apparently his veins made the IV nearly impossible. They tried all over his arms and legs and also used a special light to identify a good spot before they were finally successful. I hope this was a one-time thing because it could be rough on him in the future! He was very groggy and pitiful in post-op. This only lasted 20 or 30 minutes. When I pulled out the iPad, he perked up instantly. 

Here he is right outside the surgery center after I got him all ready to go. 

It's all good as we wait for his eye drop prescription. 

Just an hour or two later, we were outside watching some big machinery start digging a pool nearby. I did notice that he turned unusually red after being outside for a bit. I had originally told William we could eat lunch outside to watch the work being done, but I changed my mind after Ryan looked like a tomato. We were all delighted that William was able to see from the kitchen table. Whew!

Construction equipment has a major hold on these two.

I could just eat them up! These construction workers have been on many adventures lately. 

Barret was born just a week before Ryan, so I have loved watching them grow together. Ryan usually spends a lot of time with kids around William's age. It is nice for Ryan to have a great friend of his very own. 

Summer fun

It wouldn't be summer without a visit from Jennifer! She was in and out of town all summer, and it was so much fun to have her around! Every time she comes into town, it seems like she was never gone.

Two peas in a pod! Jackson and William had a ball swimming together.

They wanted to be thisclose to each other the whole time. Personal space is overrated sometimes.

Jackson took swim lessons this summer, and it was neat to watch him use what he learned.

What could they be talking about? It appears important.

Ryan was there too! But when he was in the water, I couldn't use my camera. All hands on deck with the little guy!

Happy Fourth of July! That is not our pink car. Thankfully the owner didn't mind letting them borrow it for a bit.

We missed the neighborhood parade this year. It goes down the sidewalk that is one house down from our house. I'm not sure how we missed it! Even so, it was fun to see all the kids and their decorated wagons/strollers/bikes at the park. We were glad to run into Jackson and his wonderful family. The boys definitely enjoyed their popsicles because it was HOT! We closed down the party and were the last people there. Crazy partiers! We were out till at least 11 am.

Grammy and Grandpa treated everyone to a giant bowl of watermelon. Seems appropriate for the fourth!

I love the watermelon juice dripping down his arm.

Look at him on his tiptoes watching Grandpa grill. So adorable!