Because I am of course behind on my blogging, forgive me, but I need to remember that we didn't spend all summer just at the pool..of course we lived on land too including many hot dog roasts in the backyard (once they lifted the statewide fire ban that is). We visited the library as often as possible and all the kids completed their summer reading program and got some awesome prizes. Amanda got a gift certificate for a game store and got a new game for our Wii (those teen prizes rock). Of course she talked me into signing up this year as she wanted me to win the Nook that was the prize for for the drawing. I had to laugh because, try as hard as I did, I never even made it into that drawing. Each level was 800 pages of reading and I only actually finished one level, and was almost through the second when the two months were up. Can I say that I don't read as fast or as often as my daughter, but enjoyed the challenge none the less. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading several books she recommended to me such as "My Louisiana Sky". Love that girls taste in literature!
The kids all helped me this summer with several chores in the morning, something I am missing about now that school has started. Their favorite chores revolved around the garden. They loved watering the potted plants and weeding the garden, which was a definite success. Especially if you count the spaghetti squash that crossed with the watermelon, until I finally pulled the squash plant. Sad day, as it was so big and healthy. But apparently it ended up being a great thing in the end because the tomato plants went gangbusters with all the extra room. Only four plants and they have taken over the while bed, and are still going strong. So far I have shared lots, canned and froze several batches of salsa, frozen lots of diced tomato's for spaghetti, taco soup, and chili, and plan to dry some of the last batch for sun dried tomatos (my favorite on homemade pizza and pasta.) And we got a few watermelons out of our plant too, the kids really enjoyed that. We also got a lot of cucumbers, until the tomato's overtook them, and some yummy green peppers.
And Spencer grew these awesome sunflower seeds that the kindergarten teachers gave him at kindergarten orientation way back in May. He was so excited to water them everyday and loved watching them grow. I think I have another plant enthusiast at our house!
The kids caught several bugs in the backyard on a very regular basis. We have had many of "pet" crickets, rolly polly's, and frogs for a few days at a time. They even managed to catch this dragon fly one afternoon with a butterfly net and kept in in a large plastic bin for several hours. I loved watching them learn about each one and what they needed to survive in captivity. And eventually letting them go, well mostly, as they could see they weren't going to live or weren't happy.
I think they all devoured about twice their weight in ice cream cones, freeze pops, and watermelon. And it was so fun to see the boys really become good friends this summer. Love that they have each other to wrestle with, because it is not my thing!
And the not so rainy days, making their own rain to keep things cool.
And the forever favorite slip and slide at our house.
I was sad to see it end, but maybe now that the house is much calmer I will actually find time to blog!
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