Week 34

Sunday, August 14th

Tuesday, August 16th

C4 and his best bud, Isaac, playing Stratego.

Wednesday, August 17th
The 3 older kids and I worked to help set up Andrea's 'Just Between Friends' children's consignment event.  It was her first one and she did a phenomenal job organizing it.  The kids worked super hard.  We clocked over 40 hours in 4 days, but we had a blast hanging with everyone. This is Nathanael modeling a halloween piece.

Thursday, August 18th
Day one of the actual sale.  The place looked great!  Madison learned the whole software to check people out.  The boys had snack table duty.

Friday, August 19th

Day three of helping Jon and Annie.  It was the 2nd day of the actual sale.  C4 had bought and worn this hat at the sale all weekend.

We got home from the sale and found the boys entertaining themselves while Daddy worked.

Saturday, August 20th
We wrapped up the sale and helped tear everything down before heading to church.  The Cours came over after for dinner.  It had been a LONG time.

Week 33--Camping, part 4

Friday, August 12th

Time to pack up and head home.  We spent the first couple hours after breakfast breaking down camp.  During that time a very friendly butterfly made friends with us.

It would flit away only to return.

Rocco was not a fan, especially when it parked on his head.

Madison tried a couple times to set it free.

For 20 minutes this beautiful creature hung out before moving on.

As Daddy finished up the bulk of the break down, the hitching of the trailer, and the loading of the bikes, the kids and I headed to the playground and pool.

The older 3 joined in on an organized kickball game.

Rocco found his happy spot.

Daddy finished up about noon, parked the van and met up with us for lunch at the snack shack.

Our last activity was one more game of candy bar bingo.  The kids learned a valuable lesson about gambling.  I had bought 60 candy bars at BJ's to bring.  The kids were SURE that since we played with 12-15 cards per game that we were guaranteed to win often.  They were sure those who were only playing one or two cards stood no chance against us.

Well, they did win a couple rounds.  C4 won a round of stand up Bingo and Madison won a game of cover all.  However, even with their winnings (which they put back into the pot for more cards) we left with ZERO candy bars at the end of the week.  I taught the kids that when you gamble with a little you lose a little.  When you gamble with a lot, you lose a lot.  Somehow they thought putting in lots of candy would win them back loads and loads.  It was all innocent fun, but I took the chance to explain how the only 'winners' are casino owners and warned them against the dangers and addictions that accompany gambling.

Not even to the end of the road....

Saturday, August 13th
It was a beautiful summer day.  We spent lots of time outside in between mega loads of laundry.

Jules' birthday is the 13th and they were due to arrive home after a week's vacation, so I put balloons on the mailbox and the kids made a banner to hang on the garage.  The kids loved all the 'sneekiness' of the surprise and Jules was quite tickled by the gesture.  (39 is not quite accurate and O'Bonk is how Trevor pronounces LeBlanc.)

Week 33--Camping, part 3

Thursday, August 7th

Whale's Tale day!  Our annual trip to a phenomenal water park half an hour from our campground.  It's fun for all ages, family-friendly, short lines, can bring in your own food....  I tried convincing all the cousins to come, but they all dissed us.  Maybe next year!  

We got there 10 minutes before opening.  Rocco quickly settled in to his safe spot, far from any water.

The weather was weird.  If the sun was shining, it was nice and warm, but if it was hiding behind a cloud it was chilly.  I spent the day doing the wrap a towel around my shoulders, unwrap, wrap, unwrap 'thing' all day.  It made no difference to the kids and by lunch they'd been on every ride, some more than once.

Trevor was big enough to go on some of the BIG rides this year.

Oooooh!  A brave step for Rocco.

Wow!  He loved the lazy river, too!

Trevor snapped this shot of me and the Rockstar.

Brave, brave, brave.

He likes it!

By the time it was time to leave, Rocco was interested in playing in the water.

We changed up and headed to The Common Man for a nice dinner out.  That's tradition.  On the way, Rocco fell asleep, so we drove through the mountains for a bit.  We pulled off to snap some pictures on this trail.  At the beginning of the trail was the list of 10 critical things to carry on your hike as well as instructions and example of how to hang your food from a tree so bears won't get into it.  The kids pointed and laughed and asked why they would have something like that.  I said, "'Cause there's bears in these mountains."

Well you should have seen their white faces!!  It took some coaxing to get them to walk a few steps to this bridge before turning around and heading back to the car.

After an amazing dinner, we went for ice cream.  The kids were in rare form.  I even got 'spoken' to about Rocco messing with a display.  I was totally embarrassed.

Back to camp for a fire.

They LOVE their flashlights from Lil.  And can you tell that Rocco ADORES Trevor?

The flashlights were handy to play doctor with.

What a fun day!!!  Who's coming with us next year?