What do you do in the summertime?

This summer, I really want to have a fun memorable one before Boston heads off to the world of SCHOOL for the next who knows how many years of his life.  Here are a few of the fun things we've been up to (picture overload):

THE BEACH!  Galveston beach is NOTHING to brag about BUT its a beach.  The kids don't care how nice it is.  They just love the sand and the waves.  We went with a few friends a few weeks ago and the kids had a blast.  Hudson was eating sand and I was finding sand in every crack of his body for the next week.  He didn't seem to mind.  He LOVED his first visit.

 The kids LOVED just playing in the waves.  The older kids were bodyboarding and later the younger kids attempted it too and did pretty good.

 Hudson was content eating anything and everything he could find (food, sand, wood, etc).

 They built sand castles (I'm pretty sure Hudson went behind them and destroyed them...sorry boys).

 It was a successful day and the kids were past out in a matter of minutes when we left.

 I found this idea on pinterest one day so I decided to try it with my boys.  COMPLETE.SUCCESS.  You make your own "sidewalk paint."  The boys loved it.

 Hudson of course painted on the sidewalk for 2 minutes then decided painting himself was more fun.

 Boston kept saying "Mom Hudon's painting on himself and not the driveway!" I told him that was fine and then he asked if he could do that too.  When I told him yes I think he was in TOTAL shock and then went to town.

 He even decided to paint his toes.

 Much more got on them versus the driveway....

 And the house got its fair share of paint too.

 When they were all finished, I just turned on the sprinklers and they had just as much fun cleaning it off as they did putting it on.

 I got this next idea from a friend.  Painting in the bath tub.  The boys did this for over an hour and loved every minute of it.

 Again, Hudson found more joy in painting himself then the bath tub.

 And of course, Boston decided that was more fun too!

I also have to give Kent props for accomplishing wakeboarding.  Last summer, he tried and could quite make the cut.  His wife showed up him and he has been needing to redeem himself ever since.  So one morning a friend invited him on his boat to try again.  I got this picture sent to me that morning.  I guess he finally did it....although part of me is still trying to figure out how they rigged this picture....  Now, I'm anxious to see this in REAL LIFE!

 

We have spent LOTS of days at the pool.  Luckily for us, all of our friends have such fun pools in their neighborhoods so we get to take advantage of them all!

Last weekend we drove almost an hour to the Bluebell Aquatic Center to swim.  Boston loved it.  He went across this thing over and OVER and got really good at doing it himself. I actually got a TAD grossed out by the water.  Although it LOOKED clean it just felt dirty.  BLAH!

The boys played at the park.  Two seconds after this picture, Hudson's arm got a burn from the slide...

Hudson is at that active age where he doesn't care to stay in the water too long.  He is in and out and in and out which means I'm chasing him around alot!  He likes to go back and forth to my bag for snacks CONSTANTLY. 

Afterwards we headed to one of our favorite BBQ joints---NATHAN'S BBQ!  I was really craving this and was ultimately the reason we chose to drive an hour to the aquatic center.  As we were eating though, I saw a DEAD cricket on the floor.  I tried to forget about it until I saw a LIVE cricket hop by.  THEN I noticed TONS more by our feet!!  Kent assured me there was nothing gross about crickets and that they just snuck in from the door since we were surrounded by fields.  This did NOT comfort me though and I completely lost my appetite and sat with my legs propped up on Kent the rest of the meal.  SO GROSS!

Hudson didn't mind the crickets ONE bit as you can tell by the BBQ sauce ALL OVER HIM!

And of course we have swam even MORE with friends.

And also taken advantage of days (or evenings) when its not TOO hot outside and to play (pretty sure those days are over there since we hit record highs yesterday).

I seriously LOVE summer.

Bridal Shower

Kristin and I threw Kelli her first bridal shower in Baton Rouge.  It was fun planning with my party planner of a sister.  She came up with this idea based around the song "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things" (those not familiar, go rent Sound of Music).  So the whole theme was based around Kelli's favorite things, beginning with the color scheme...hot pink and yellow.  

We asked Tanor and Kelli some of their favorite things about each other and put them on the mantel with some of their engagement pictures.  They each gave us a whole list of things but we only had room for four...

 All around the party, we used lines from the song to help decorate.  The gift table said this...

 and had snowflakes hanging above.

 We asked each guest to write down a piece of advice that they could give Kelli as she starts her life with Tanor.  We also played the game "How Well Does Kelli Know Tanor."  My game was put to shame when she new probably all but 5 of the 24 questions.  Very disappointing for me since she only had to chew five wads of gum instead of 20!  Oh well, maybe its a good thing she knows him so well...I mean she IS marrying the guy!

 We made a pink punch for "when the bee stings"

 Hung umbrella's and rain drops over the food table

 Kelli picked the menu for the evening: jambalaya, crawfish fettuccine, caesar salad, and spinach and artichoke dip.  We added the fruit/fruit dip with the cucumber sandwiches for a variety.

"Bright copper kettles"

 "Raindrops on roses..."

 And for dessert, her favorite: Strawberry shortcake.

 She wore a white dress but refused the BLUE SATIN SASH we had gotten...she didn't seem to love the look.  Okay, she's the bride, she can do what she wants.

 We asked each of the guests to bring one of their favorite things to give Kelli as she and Tanor start their lives as newlyweds together.  She left with quite the loot and some fun gifts!

Each guest took their "brown paper packages tied up with string" as their party favors stuffed with cake balls.

I would have to call it a fun, successful shower.  It was the first bridal shower Kristin or I had thrown and I thought it was pretty fun!!!  Now the wedding count down is on...less than a month away til the BIG DAY!!

With all this planning, the cousins were pretty much home bound at my parents.  They were totally okay with that because of the POOL!  Thank goodness for pools!  These kids were literally in the pool almost all day everyday!

So much so that their toes bled and needed healing from Mimi's magical band aids.

But that didn't stop them from swimming more the next day!  I loved watching them make up their own games to play!  This is what my sisters and I did when were growing up.  We swam ALL day making up funny, weird games as we went along!

Hudson must have been COMPLETELY exhausted because before his nap one day, I was feeding him lunch and turned him around so he could watch all the kids outside playing.  After a few minutes, we noticed zero noise or zero movement.  I went and looked and sure enough...he was ZONKED!  That is a FIRST!

Of course a trip to Louisiana is never complete without the best snowballs around!

Kristin left the day after the shower and I stayed a few extra days to help my mom out with some wedding things that she needed help with (yes, I sure am a good daughter;)).  The boys got their fair share of time in driving the red car and playing outside.  I loved seeing them play together and mimic each other as they drove around making crazy faces and noises.

Boston also got to climb my parents trees.  He LOVES this and it makes me wish we had a big yard with lots of aged trees so he could do this at our house too!

Then it was back to Texas we went, leaving my mom with still lots of wedding stuff to do but hopefully helping relieve a little bit of stress.  We were exhausted.  Can't imagine how my mother feels.