We're Gonna Have A Party!

And the number one reason people are coming...TO SEE DANIEL! He is 100% POSITIVE OF THAT!!! Here he is trying out his outfit that he is going to wear on the 4th complete with Alyssa's Hanna Montana sunglasses. He thinks he is quite something.



I have been worried about putting guests in the sun room to sleep. Here Daniel is explaining that it is going to be okay. His reason? DANIEL WAS IN THE ROOM AND THAT MAKES IT A ROOM WORTH FIGHTING OVER!!! Oh yeah. (I am so happy that this child does not suffer from low self esteem...he's just delusional!)

P.S. This post was created by Mom and Daniel approves this message. :-)

Family Fun

We've been enjoying summer this year. Tonight we had a three family get together. There were 19 of us all together. We started off at the dock while the kids swam. I did not get any pictures of that. Then the we headed for the back yard. The kids split up into groups and played various games while the adults played boccie ball. I had the game of my life and I was so glad that I had so many witnesses to see me play so well. :-)







We were very technical with our measuring system. That is a willow branch that we used to check the distance from ball to ball.




What a lovely crowd of children. They are all polite, respectful and they play together so nicely.



And what is an evening without a little romance?




Then we made homemade pizzas on the grill for dinner. Yummy. Sorry no pictures there....I was too busy and you might already know what pizza looks like. ;-) Then the kids ran off to play. When it started to get a bit chilly, David kindly started a beautiful fire for us to enjoy. You can see the kids in the background playing Duck, Duck, Goose. I love to see them play the same games I played as a kid.




And of course, after the fire burns down you cannot let all those lovely coals go to waste. So it is a good thing that we were prepared for s'mores.

Good Old Summertime!

I tried out a popsicle recipe for the 4th of July weekend. They seem to approve.




A very nice young man fell in love with Amanda, although he is a bit of a flirt!




A sea monster washed up onto the dock. Since she is a friendly sea monster, we have decided to keep her and name her Alyssa.




But with summer here, there are a few extra chores as well. Here is Daniel watering a hanging basket of flowers. That is the flirt checking to make sure Daniel is doing a good job. He did.

Putting the Dock In

So here is part of the dock being designed on the spot by the head engineer, Grandpa. Head of constructions is Daniel and heading up logistics is Nicko. Isaac was the head bug inspector whether they needed a bug inspector or not. Alyssa was a consultant. Her most frequently asked question was from Grandpa wanting to know if she knew where he left something. I am not sure about this particular project, but generally speaking we have found that she does know exactly where something was left. Grandma was Head of decorating....but that will be a separate post. Everyone helped and worked hard. Grandpa gets most patient man alive award. (I would have been screaming my head off when head bug inspector was bug inspecting instead of holding the board like he was supposed to!) :-)



The garage was construction central. Good thing we have a big garage.




I helped too. I painted the ramp. Thank you Mr. Eric for giving us non slip sand to mix in with the paint so the kids do not slip when they are wearing their water shoes.







Finally the day of putting the dock in was not the glorious sunshiny day that we were hoping for, but the water was not super cold and things went very smoothly. So we went from....





to....




So after all that hard work we had no choice but to.....(sorry for the over exposed picture)




Then, drum roll please, it was time for the maiden voyage.




And finally it was Dad's turn to help too. We left him this. :-)



Overall, it was a super fun week. Poor Grandpa was so busy being Head Engineer that he did not have the time to sit back and enjoy the fruit of his labor. I can say that we have had a ball with the dock already and summer has barely begun. :-)