celebrating in SC

We're headed out of town again and will miss some fun celebrations here in SC so we decided to have them a bit early. No reason we can't have our cake and eat it too!

Our sweet friend Madison has an upcoming birthday. How did this shy, bright-eyed toddler get to be 12 years old?! We typically will celebrate her birthday and then a few days later have the Powells over for some fireworks on the street. So I decided to combine the two and have some friends over for cake and low key fireworks.

Testing out the sparklers before guests arrived....

When I was browsing Pinterest one day, I came across a really awesome American flag cake. I was trying to figure out how they made the slices look like American flags and was really excited to try the concept with the girls. I also knew it would be difficult to make while we were away next week, so we combined our birthday celebration and 4th of July festivities into one epic recipe. It's fun to try new things over the summer!

So this cake required a quadruple batch of buttercream frosting and three separate cake mixes! It took the girls a little while to figure out how assembling it would produce a blue square in the corner, but it was neat to watch their geometrical minds figure it out. In the end, we were all amazed and in a sugar coma!

Next up was fireworks. The kids all had a blast throwing their pop rocks and we oohed and ahhed at the Dad firework display.

With an approaching storm we had to quickly do our sparkler photos. I didn't want to use the garage as a backdrop, but it was the darkest location at the time and the lightening was getting close. The kids all had a blast deciding what to draw and I think they turned out cute. We're getting better and better at taking these each year!

Anna

Caroline

Paige

Annie

Jonathan

Ryder...forgot to tell him to go backwards

Madison

Lynan

Rusty

Ashley

Me!

Emily

So Happy Birthday Madison and Happy 4th of July America!

Sharing the load and learning a skill

I love summer because there's so much more time to grow and explore areas of interest that we don't normally have enough time for during the school year. It's a great time to practice new skills or learn something you've wanted to learn, but didn't have the time for before. And of course, we do lots of reading during the summer! We're about half way through the Golden Goblet, just started The Chocolate Touch and finished The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place-The Mysterious Howling in the car. All of us are reading through our own lists too and let's just say I am making lots of trips to the library. I digress...

When I was thinking about something easy to incorporate into our growing during the summer, I tried to capitalize on something the girls were already interested in, but could use some more practice and independence. Both love helping me in the kitchen so cooking dinner was a natural fit. I mentioned to them how neat it would be if they both picked a night of the week to prepare dinner for the family. There was a little bit of hesitation and considering at first, but then they both loved the idea.

I told them they could choose anything the like, tell me the ingredients so I could pick them up and then use Patrick or I as help if they needed it. Anna chose tacos and did a great job preparing the meat, only asking me to help with the grease. Paige chose hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls and supplemented with cut up veggies and sweet potato chips. She used Patrick as a resource for the oven, but did a majority of the work on her own. They each served the rest of the family and set the table according to their desires.

All around I was super pleased as it meant I didn't have to cook dinner! And the girls were so proud of themselves as well as learned some new skills/practiced old skills. They are already looking for other recipes to make when we return from more visits with family. I'm hoping to expand this excitement to other areas like a new hobby (sewing, crocheting, etc.) I'll make sure to get pics of Anna's creation next time!

VBS

The girls have been enjoying VBS big time this week. We've been on and off in past years when we are available and have always had a blast. This year both girls were upstairs for the elementary school program. (Sniff, I remember helping in the pre-school wing before they were even in school!) Each had friends in their class that they knew and Anna got to stay for an extra three hours in the afternoon for VBS Extreme. Let me just say, she was not excited about this at first and then after one day of being with her best bud Caroline, decided it was the best thing ever.

We've also loved carpooling and spending extra time with our pals the Powells. It's been so nice to share the transportation load and the kids have gobbled up extra time in the car. I smiled one morning as I dropped off our gaggle of children. We were all belting out singing old VBS songs and it hit me that we are in such a sweet time with these kids. They think going to church in the summer is cool. They love each other deeply. They are fun and funny. They don't have a lot of worries, stress or pressure. It's just a really sweet time....snap, taking a mental picture.

Meanwhile, Patrick and I have been having fun together as well as getting some stuff done around the house. I'm not sure why we've never had this week off together, but this year it's worked out and it's been awesome. We've gone on walks and had lunch dates. We're able to have an actual conversation without people interrupting! It's been a good week all around.

Girls Week 2018-Part 1

It's been radio silence on the ole blog lately, but for good reason. This past week was GIRLS WEEK! Our annual tradition of meeting up with my sister and two nieces looked a little different this year. First up, Patrick was not in UT so he joined us as well as the rest of the family. Mom and Dad will be moving in a month and with busy summer planned for everybody, this was really the only time to get together as a big group. So we set out for my parent's house in Palm Beach for one last stay.

Most of our time was spent IN THE WATER! The girls were like fish from the beginning of the day until after the sun set. They swam so much their eyes hurt, but they refused to get out of the water. It was fun to be able to enjoy Grammy's pool every day, go to a local water park, boat on the inlet (my sister and brother-in-law joined a boat club), have a water fight and do balloon obstacles. Of course, we also did our traditional tie dyed t-shirts which turned out so cute.

This is the fork lift they use to move the boats from storage into the water. It's HUGE!

Check out this crazy lizard we saw at the water park!

As most vacations go with this crew, we ate a ton of food. Our first meal was in celebration of Father's Day, where we had a low country boil. Yum! Dad also made delicious smoked ribs and Patrick was quite the entire meal because he was so busy licking his fingers.

While Uncle Brandon had to work for several days, we did manage to surprise him one afternoon with a water balloon attack. He was a great sport (and may have had a tiny heads up).

Patrick had to do a little work of his own while we were in FL. Before we left he received a call from his former boss who invited him to come to NYC to have dinner with Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks Coffee, and his Communications Director who happens to be the former editor of the Washington Post. I kid you not! Schultz is rumored to be entering politics and needed to get a heartbeat for educational issues, so Patrick along with two other teachers, were flown to NY to have dinner at a private club and talk education policy. Because he stayed over night, Patrick was able to do a half day of site seeing before coming back to Palm Beach. Crazy!

One of the other highlights of our trip was a beautiful high tea at a local place called Teapots and Treasures. Mom made arrangements for all of us girls to enjoy a fancy outing. I did all of the girls toes, hair and make-up in preparation and Anna made sure to provide an etiquette dinner to prepare the girls. The table was beautiful and we all had a wonderful time picking out different teas to drink throughout the meal. I was so proud of all the girls for trying new foods and drinks including: scones, tomato soup served in a tea cup, mini sandwiches and several desserts. Paige as absolutely hilarious with her British accent and complimenting everything with "that was delightful!" At the end of the meal, we received three compliments from the staff saying our girls had the BEST manners. Yay!

And because I'm the best aunt ever, I took all of the girls on a sunrise walk on the beach after they spent the night at Grammy's. We woke up early and I had all of their stuff ready to go. Finding shells and other beach items is always fun. We ended our outing with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and then a dip in the pool with Grampy Shark.

Most of the week just zipped by. We saw the Incredibles II and I even had a chance to sneak away to get my toes done with my mom and sister. Before we knew it, it was time to move to our second location...