Summer Send-Off: Thrill Rides

Ladies and gentleman, it's time to say farewell to a much loved, small town America tradition...The Carnival. You know, those totally safe and perfectly clean rides that are set up in 30 minutes and run by men who smell like Jack Daniels and cigarette smoke?

Ah, yes...and what an innocent, sweet, summer tradition it is (as you cover your kids' ears in hopes that they won't hear the multi-pierced teenagers swearing like a bunch of drunken sailors). My friends, carnivals are small town at its finest. And honestly, I love ours.

Love. It.

Except for the five minutes when Ellie was sucking on the hand bar of the ferris wheel (It's okay, though, because I'm sure it was cleaned with lysol wipes by the tattoo covered, dog collar wearing ride operator just moments before she sat down).

So here's a quick farewell to our beloved carnival and all the colorful sights and sounds (and people) that go along with it.

Summer Send-Off: Farewell to Sprinkles

My girls love sprinkles. Me? Not so much. Melty ice cream with dripping sprinkles is not among my top five summer pleasures. But the girls think it is hilarious to get sprinkles up their noses, down their shirts, and in their socks. Seriously, though...how could you not love a little shot of sprinkles up your nose?

Excuses...and Summer Send-Off #1

I wasn't abducted by aliens.
I wasn't on a deserted island shooting Survivor Season #58.
I wasn't hanging out with a man named Bubba in an 8x8 jail cell.

And I most definitely was not outside a certain Kindergarten classroom, hiding behind a prickly bush with binoculars around my neck making sure my girl was okay (but only because Steve said I would be arrested and locked in an 8x8 jail cell with Bubba).

What I have been doing is holding a cranky three-year-old who had her tonsils removed, crying over a garden that is producing way more than I can keep up with, wearing a winter coat and gloves while driving at high speeds on a boat, editing pictures from last months photo shoots, nagging a certain little girl to do her homework, driving to swimming and dance classes, and finding ways to avoid the gym.

I thought I had writers block, but I just realized that I had too much to write about and I didn't know where to start.

And so, without further ado...I have made an executive blogging decision. It's time for....

Drumroll please...

My much anticipated and well loved Summer Send-Off Series (aka: Holly's way of posting all those summer pictures that she was too lazy busy to post during the summer).

So, are you with me (or are you wishing I was filming Survivor right now? Just so you know, Steve says I would be the first one voted off because my head spins in circles, I grow claws and fangs, and I hurt things when I get hungry...or something like that).

Summer Send-Off #1 Farewell to Ocean Waves and Sand Between Your Toes...





























And just so I don't ever forget, my favorite things about the beach this year were:
*Watching the girls fly a kite and run around the beach until the sun set
*Swimming in the ocean with Kate...she loved "riding the waves."
*Spending the day at Assateague on a private little bay-side beach where we saw a sting ray, crabs, clams, and jelly fish (but the girls still swam in there, without fear)!
*Eating popcicles on the porch of our beach house with my parents after a long day on the beach
*An impromptu steamed shrimp lunch in our beach house...my favorite meal of the whole trip!
*Curling up in bed at night with a good book while my girls slept on either side of me (we had a room with three twin beds in a row). I finished two books in one week.
*Riding bikes on the boardwalk with just Steve while the girls stayed home with Grammy and Pappy
*Coming home from that bike ride to see my dad, pulling Ellie on her bike down the boardwalk using his belt!

What a great week!

1 in 565...

Out of 565 vacation pictures, I think this one is my favorite. Stay tuned...there's more to come!

A promise kept...sort of.

We promised the girls a backyard campout, complete with a fire and smores. Seems like a simple promise to keep, right? Except who knew that on the very day we had planned said backyard campout, that it was going to be the hottest day of the entire year. We're talking capital H-O-T, triple digits, stinky, sweaty hot. But a promise is a promise and the girls had been counting down the days until the backyard campout. So we complied. Sort of.

Steve made a super small fire. We roasted approximately 15 marshmallows. I ate ten of them. The girls shared the other five.

At one point, Steve and I were quietly turning the skewers, in pursuit of the perfect, golden, gooey, toasted marshmallow, when I said, "It doesn't quite feel like we're camping." He just looked at me, wiped his brow and replied, "What? Is it the sweat running down your butt crack?" And then we both started laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing...roasting marshmallows by a fire in 90+ degree weather.

A few minutes later, Kate told me she had to get off the swing because her butt was wet from all the sweat. Yeah...there was lots of sweat. But we kept our promise and the girls had a blast.



We set up the tent in the family room. I tried to convince Steve that he should sleep there with the girls while I lounged in bed and watched a Hallmark movie. Unfortunely, he talked his way out of that one and took his sweaty butt to our comfy bed, leaving me to sleep on the floor between two chatty, giggly, goofy girls. It took them forever to fall asleep and I was about to give up when all of the sudden everything got quiet.

And then out of the quiet darkness, one little three-year-old girl whispered in a sleepy voice, "Guess what, Mama? I love you." And everyone fell asleep.

It is one of those perfect moments that I hope I will remember, even when I'm old and gray. And to think that I almost missed it, in favor of a comfy bed and Hallmark movie. I'm so glad Steve took his sweaty butt to bed and left me between those two giggly girls.

Around 1:30 a.m., I made two trips up the steps, carrying little girls off to their comfy beds before curling up in mine. Because the fun part is falling asleep in the tent. Who needs to wake up there? Now that is my kind of camping!

Big News...

Didn't I tell you? We picked our first vegetable this week...big, BIG news around here!



I'd like to show you what we made with it, but we ate it before I had a chance to take pictures. I could eat zuchinni bread every day...we count it as a vegetable serving around, and my girls and I have been getting plenty of vegetable servings this week!

For more BIG news in gardening, check out the Inadvertent Gardener's KinderGardens Week 12.