Summer + Youth = Lots of FUN!

When I was a child the idea of having a lemonade stand or riding my bike to a friend's house was very impracticable as I lived in the country where houses were few and far between, not to mention the road we lived on had a speed limit of 45 or something like that. I am not saying that I was disadvantaged as a child because growing up in the country had lots of other advantages. It's just that a lemonade stand or visiting my friends on my bike wasn't one of them. So with all of that said, the point of this blog was to tell you about how being young in the summer and living in a suburban area can be lots of fun! Our friends, James and Shannon, moved in our subdivision this summer. We knew them already because Audrey and their eldest child, Miah, were in second grade together and made friends right away. The other siblings and the moms followed suit very quickly. It is really fun to have kids in the neighborhood that are both of our children's ages. We have enjoyed riding our bikes to their house for playdates, having them over to our house and meeting them at the pool to cool off from the Florida heat. Yesterday we added to our list of fun with a sidewalk lemonade stand. We joined forces with Shannon and her three children to run a lemonade stand in front of our house. We live on the corner at the front of the subdivision so the plan was that our location would get lots of traffic. We made lemonade, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, Rice Krispy treats and had ice pops for the stand. Everything was a quarter except for the RK treats which were 50 cents becuase they were HUGE. Our motto was "Not everything is subject to inflation." Due to the extreme heat and bright sunshine, we did set up our white party tent for some shade. The girls waved signs at the corner and yelled, "Lemonade!" It was really cute to see Claire (who is 3) getting into the whole experience. She was yelling "Lemonade! Ice Cold Lemonade! Come get your lemonade!" She sounded a lot like the guys selling hot dogs at baseball games. It was so very sweet. We were set up from 4:45 until 7:00. The total profit was a surprising $44 which we spilt 50/50 with our friends. Not bad for our first lemonade stand! ** A interesting sidenote is that it was everyone in the group's first lemonade stand except Audrey, who had a stand with her friend Sarah at the beginning of the summer at Sarah's house. ** Even though we drank quite a bit of our product (it was really HOT!), we did really well and had LOTS of FUN!!!

Fireworks and Baseball... an American Holiday!!!

For the last ten years we have been vacationing during the Independence Day holiday, but this year we made a point to stay in town and experience the holiday in a new way. Don't get me wrong - enjoying hamburgers and hot dogs while drinking those fun drinks with the cute little umbrellas in them and enjoying all of that in a beach/island setting is a lot of fun, but enjoying hamburgers and hot dogs off the grill at home is a lot of fun too! We celebrated our country's freedom with the normal 4th of July food for lunch and then headed to the Space Coast Stadium to watch the baseball game - Brevard County Manatees vs. Daytona Cubs. (The Manatees are our local AAA team.) We met some of our friends at the game - Ed and Tammy, their children, Mylissa and Jacob, and Debbie and her daughter, Jessica. The game was a lot of fun. The Manatees didn't win, but the game was fun to watch. The girls took American flags and waved them throughout the game. After the game, the stadium lights were turned off and an amazing fireworks show began with music playing - songs included Bruce Springstein's Born in the USA and R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. and Toby Keith's An American Solider. The fireworks show ended and Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA played as the stadium lights slowly began to turn on. It was a great family outing and it only required a five minute drive from our house!

A Summer Full of Fun!

Wow! It's hard to believe that summer is more than halfway over... I said that the beginning of the summer that we were going to stay home and enjoy everything that our area has to offer - which is quite a bit... I mean we live minutes from the beach after all! But I realized about three weeks into summer that staying home would not be happening. We drove to Alabama on the first day of summer break and visited for 10 days. It was a lot of fun! (The previous post "Our Summer Trip to Cullman" has lots of photos from that trip). We were home for about a week and a half when we decided to load up and drive to Atlanta to visit my husband's parents. We were there for a week and had a great time. The girls love to swim in their pool and eat unlimited ice cream. We also visited their lake house on Lake Lanier. It is a very relaxing place to visit. The girls went fishing with Brock and his dad, Bill. Audrey caught a channel cat, but she let it go so that it could go back to his family. Audrey always amazes me with her big heart and caring disposition. Then Audrey and Claire went swimming in the lake with Brock. Audrey swung from the rope off the dock and squealed with delight each time as she splashed into the lake. The trip to Atlanta/Lake Lanier was also Duke's first road trip and he did really well. He even went off the leash some of the time we were at the lake house. He stayed close to us which emphasized what a good dog he is. We came home from Atlanta on Sunday. We loaded the truck back up on Tuesday and drove to the other coast of Florida to Treasure Island (just north of St. Pete) to visit with Brock's brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Barbara, and their children at their beach rental. We had a great time. We all went out on the boat one day to try out some tubing, but the weather trumped our plans. The next day the guys went out on the boat again to try some fishing. The weather was better and they caught some red snapper, which was really good that night for dinner. We came home on Friday. I felt like collapsing on the sofa and not getting up for a week, but it was Independence Day weekend so there was no rest for the weary.

Here are some photos from our trips to Atlanta, Lake Lanier and Treasure Island...

~ Atlanta ~

Up, up and away!

Flippers may prove difficult for land walkers

Claire did a great job swimming!

Is he really a spoiled dog?

~ Lake Lanier ~


Audrey's Channel Cat







~Duke's First Road Trip ~

Are we there yet?


~ Treasure Island ~

Morning

A Beautiful Sunset

Audrey Donates to Locks of Love

Today was a great day! Audrey made her donation to Locks of Love!!! She donated 10 and 1/2 inches of her beautiful blonde locks to help another child who suffered a medical hair loss due to an illness or treatment for an illness. She said that people are always telling her how beautiful her hair is, so she was excited to be able to help make someone else who lost their hair feel better by donating some of hers.

Here are some photos from her big donation...

Before

The Big Cut

After

Her New Style

Our Summer Trip to Cullman

Audrey, Claire and I made our summer trip to Cullman during the first week of June. Unfortunately, Brock was in Tokyo on business and wasn't able to make the trip with us. But the trip was still a lot of fun - feeding the ducks at Sportsman Lake, making BIG splashes in Pawpaw's creek, swimming at Uncle Steve's, feeding the animals on the farm, an exciting trip to the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville and an awesome family cookout at Gramma and Pop's. I won't get too involved in details about everything, but I will share LOTS of photos from the trip...

Sportsman Lake Park with PawPaw



Rock Throwing from PawPaw's Bridge


Swimming at Uncle Steve's

Audrey and Claire loved swimming with Marty (my cousin Jennifer's husband). They are expecting their first child in August so this was good practice! :)

Space & Rocket Center with Gramma

Audrey tried the rock wall climbing exhibit at the Space Center too and she LOVED it!

Our Day at the Cason Farm
(My Grandmother Cason's)


A Photo Shoot with PawPaw


Family Cookout at Gramma and Pop's

Unfortunately we didn't get any photos... :(
But we did have a lot of fun, especially the game of kickball in the front yard!