Fire pit dinner! There's nonthing like it! We love summer time fire pit dinners. O' mother hubard cupboards are a little empty so we pulled together a fire pit dinner...it was yummy!

As you can see we used "peeps" in place of marshmellows for roasting into smores. The kids were having fun with that. Putting the peeps to their firey dealth! Yikes! I need to stock back up on marshmellows since summer is here. So hot dogs and fruit and for dessert peeps smores! Not too shabby! Happy kids and full bellies and a little family time!

Guess who's turning "12" this Sunday?! Our "Rookland Bartholomew " (aka "Rookie")! I think a birthday treat is in the plans for this old guy! We have this great ice cream stop (a little pricey but so worth it).

Well they have ice cream for dogs too and every now and then when we have the dogs with us they get a little treat too! They love it! Rookie was our rescue dog! He really is a sweet dog and kinda corky and he cracks us up still. He still as old as he is still thinks he can catch his tale! Crazy pup! He goes in circles so fast and we just crack up! I think he loves his family cause his eyes tell his whole story!

Well here is once more some late posting of events that has happened in the past two months...This was the girls bridging off into "Girl Scouts". They did it and we are so proud of them. They truely are a great group of girls. We truely have the best time and they can be so sweet. The perfect group of scouts! I think it will be fun watching them grow in the next three years into lovely little ladies. Holly (leader#1) and I have so much planned for these girls in time ahead. We are all geared up for a major trip at the end of the three years to the Juliette Low (founder of girls scouts) camp in Georgia state. The girls are so excited about the trip as well. In the mean time we are ready to work twords achieveing our badges. We are a very busy group of girls and they end up becoming very decorated due to that. We get stopped a lot in public and people tell us how decorated the girls are. They are so proud too. So with that being said I'm already in the works for over the summer to have a few badge parties so we can earn a couple badges over the summer. The activities are in their hand books and are usually life lessons and are pretty fun to do. I will provide summer snacks and a shady spot on the porch and a whole lot of fun and a badge at the end. Just to get a jump start for the new and fresh vest they are sporting now. Angie has already gained two badges. She earned her hiking badge maybe twice and back cause she did some major hiking in the last month so that was well earned and her dance badge...well seven years of dance is well earned too. We will be ready in the fall and onto our first year as a Girl Scout! I just love these girls!

Yippe SUMMER TIME!!! We have the summer list ready to go and we are doing the things we planned out already! Lots of swimming and boating and eatting ice cream so far. The summer list is jam pack with some pretty fun stuff so I think we can plan on a good summer. It's been nice sleeping in these days. Course I've been up still at 6am cause my body is still set, but that's good cause it allows exercise time and garden time in the early mornings while the kids are still sound asleep. That is the best way to start the day I learned. I got the summer list idea from another blogger mom and loved the idea and well we are doing it too. So moms out there you too should do this it really makes your summer fun and stuff to look forward too and the "I'm bored" line is fixed by one glance of the list. The kids back packs are cleaned out and old food in lunch pales is no longer. Mr. Brad had worked his tale off the last end of school and was scoring A's and B's and even rewards and the best part no "SUMMER SCHOOL"! He was so happy and relieved. Caleb is now a High Schooler come fall....boo-hoo my baby boy! Angie is just happy to be happy. She is so ready to play in the sun and just enjoy some down time.
Well Brad convinced me to try one camp out weekend and he promised me it will be fun. So I guess I have to try it once ...I really hate to camp but since he worked so hard in school I guess it can't be too bad! So that is on the list. (What did I get myself into!) I love the movies and the roller skating idea . I've been riding my little Volkswagen bug with the top down these days and the fireflies are so wonderful in the summer. My garden is in full bloom and the pool feels wonderful on these hot, steamy days we've been having. I just need to find a good shady spot in the back yard which I know I will be fighting with the dogs for and pull out my easle and paint away. I was promising myself I would do that this summer. I love watching the sunset on our porch swing and waving to our neighbor friends. That's where I do some great cross stitching there. I just hate the bug bites! Other then that we are ready for this season. The boys will be off to their camps this July and it will be just Angie and I for a little bit. OOOOooo no boys! I have the girls just wanna have fun song in my head right now! ha! ha! I know lots of things she and I can get into. I do have a wedding to go to the begining of July. I haven't been to one in so long. I'm getting my hair done and the dress that has been sitting in my closet with price tags still on waiting for that special day well I think it will be perfect. I'm sporting tan legs to boot too! So I'm looking forward to this. It will be just John and I so it will be kid free! Yippee!
As for John well he has a few trips to take so it will be a little lonely but we are used to it being a former Marine family we've been programed to handle these trips so it's really easy-peasy for us. Oh, John is finally on a BIG-BOY soccer team and he is having a blast! His old man body still has the drive for the sport. My soccer stud! I think this is so good for him! Well that's it for now. I better refill my tall glass of ice water and put a new lemon slice in it and go chill for awhile. I still need to cook a meal for our dogs. We ran out of dog food and I don't food shop tell tomorrow so cooked meal for the pups....they will love me tonite! I can count on a few dog kisses tonite!

Here's some more late posting....back in April we finally took a trip to the Spy museum and we really enjoyed it. I love how it had you play a spy through out the museum. The kids digged that!

It was a great family Sunday and just getting out of the house too. We left the museum with a feeling some body is always watching us and we are watching them! ha! ha! You never know!

Here's my summer reading! I can't wait! My new favorite found author "Mary Kay Andrews" She keeps me turning the pages. It has all the right contents that I like...Love story, funny parts, and she talks about redesigning homes, restaurants, appartments,etc. with antiques and junking and just clever ways to bring you in the place and moment in the book. I Love that! The woman are strong too which is another plus. So I'm hooked! Mary Kay Andrews has a blog on Borders site and it's pretty good. So the first book I started with is "Savannah Breeze" and I can't wait for bed just to read a few pages.

This book is the best for kids any age over the summer, especially if you plan to travel. It gives great pages with a map of the United States and interesting facts about the states and some really funny ones. This book is always off the shelves in our house.

The summer reading has been picked out! We love to read over the summer. Something we look forward to everytime just cause we are allowed a little more time. No home work, late bedtimes, lake side reading , park reading and just the back yard in the tree house with lemonade. (The kids love that and so do the dogs, course they try to get a lick of the lemonade.) The fun thing we like to make the book a little more interesting is putting the characters with different accents. We start to crack up every time! You should try it sometime, it's so fun.

Hey dad, Happy Fathers day! I love you lots and lots! Pretend like I'm giving you a great big hug!

Happy Farthers Day Honey! Remember this? This is when it just began! Ha! Ha! I think Caleb broke us in here! Thanks Caleb! Your love for the kids truely show even when your daughter calls you "grumpy pants"! Ha! Ha! You know the kids can count on you when they need a hug or just coaching a soccer team or achieveing boy scout badges and some times a couple braids in your daughters hair. Thank you for being my other half of this little family and laughing with me when we are not really sure about this parenting stuff. Your the best!

Well here's another special wish I need to send out to....Happy be-lated Birthday Jess!

My sister en-law had her's too. See how much you miss when your super busy and under the weather! Hope you had a great B-day! Cheers!

The other thing that just happened in the past few months to share is John and I are still married! ha! ha! We had another wedding anniversary. We are just about being close to being called a old married couple. We've had our adventures and we still have more to come. We still like to hang together and talk for hours. We cook great together, infact the meals taste the best when we cook together. We still have big dreams together like travels to Ireland and Spain, I think John wants to see a good soccer game there I just want to go. We still tell each other before we hang up from the phone "I love U". We share the same ideas of fun with the kids. We still sing together to the radio in the car. We still pick songs for each other. We still love to hold each other and just hugging one another and John still thinks I'm just right for him which still gives me butterflies in my belly!

I had to put this up because my husband had a b-day not too long ago and well he needed to be on my blog for his 38th birthday. I love this photo of him and his big sister! I think he was getting ready for a safari here! ha! ha! Just kidding honey! Anyway... I love you and Happy be-lated wishes!

Birthday wishes! Look at you in your suit! We were cute kids ya know!? I love how mom parted your hair down the middle Bry! ha!ha! I think I was trying to be Holly Hobbie here! Yes, the 70's styles!

Okay...I've missed a few special days so I want to catch up and wish happy wishes on these special days. I want to start with my brother... I think he just celebrated his 35th b-day so with that being said "Happy B-lated Birthday"! Your getting old like me! ha! ha! Love you little bro!