Summer Beach Days

Sandy Hand Mosaics

Before leaving for the beach I got an issue of Family Fun in the mail. One of the crafts was "sandy hand mosaics" - so one afternoon we worked on them, and they turned out great!

Pressing hand prints in the sand

Adding beach treasures and beads

Waiting for the plaster of paris to dry
The next day...finished products!

I sent the pictures into Family Fun, so let's see if we get published soon! Thanks Mom for the magazine :)

Madeira Beach, Florida

We had a great week at the beach. Our trip started with a night at Pete and Dea's house on Saturday. Lots of fun was had there ( Thank you!! ), then we met up at the beach condo for the week with Brian's sister and her family. Brian's parents showed up on Thursday morning and stayed til Friday night. The grandchildren LOVED having their Grandparents at the beach with them...many fun memories were made!!

Here are some pictures. I will post more throughout the week, I am sure!

Cousins...

Grammy, Poppa and GrandkidsRamsey's Daddy and his sweeties!
Mommy and her sweeties!

Matt & Candyce's Visit

Matt & 7 1/2 month pregnant Candyce visited this weekend from Arizona! The kids had a great time jumping on Uncle Matt, and tackling him with pillows everywhere. The girls enjoyed opening baby presents with Candyce. We had a great dinner and had fun visiting. Thanks Mom for the dinner :) It was yummy.

Tackling Uncle Matt

Sarah & Lauren watching Candyce open gifts

Luke is showing his silly putty

Luke listening to a new book that Mom bought for Baby Smith

Mark using his new blanket from Nana, and his thumb.

Fourth of July

We had a nice 4th. For lunch we invited a family in our neighborhood to come over, with their 3 girls and we bbq'd and the kids played in the blow up pool. We've been hanging out with them a lot lately, and the kids all have such a fun time together.

Later in the afternoon we headed to Brian's sisters house for dinner, and had a chance to shoot off some fireworks that Brian's parents had bought on their way back into town in Tennessee. Kids had fun popping things and watching rockets shoot up in the sky!

After blowing up stuff, we headed to a parking lot close to Stone Mountain that we found last year. I think it is an old school property, and NO ONE uses it at all that we can tell. There is a baseball field out there that is overgrown, but usable, I guess. So, we had 2 sets of friends and their family/kids join us there. One family brought home made ice cream, and cookies, and also brought glow bracelets and sparklers and things for the kids to do. Brian and the other dads helped get a game of kick ball going.

The fireworks were great, and very easy to see from where we were. It is amazing that noone else uses this spot - I guess we should keep our secret for next year.

Kickball game

Performing

Sarah, Mason, Kendall and Luke decided to put on some shows the other day. We have a tree that was cut down and the stump makes for a perfect stage! Luke and Mason were singing, while Sarah and Kendall did some ballet moves!

Time Out!

This is one of the funniest pictures, to me. It was taken in May - Luke was doing something to Sarah & wouldn't stop, so I told him he was going to time out. I have no idea why this even popped into my mind, but I said "If you don't stop, I am going to put you on the mantle, and you can't get down!"...well, he did it again, so up on the mantle he went! HAHHA, I was trying to not laugh. He LIKED it, until he realized he couldn't get down, and it scared him - HE STOPPED PICKING ON SARAH :)..I guess it worked, and it made for a funny picture!

I crack up each time I look at this!