Showing posts with label fireworks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fireworks. Show all posts

A Summer of Fun!

A few pictures that show all the little things that don't fit anywhere else!

In Poznan, I found these cute little bee hair ties, so I bought Juliet all the colors.  Her favorite is the blue!

Grace was really into tic tac before we left, so when I saw interesting tic tac sizes, I bought them for her.  She was quite excited and put them all in order.



I read that if you lay white towels out on the lawn, the peroxide released by the plants will help to whiten them.  While I was skeptical, and did not research the science behind it, I did take a before and after picture.  I attempted to take it at the same time of day as well, but didn't notice much in the way of improvement.  It actually kind of looked dirtier, which is not much of a surprise, since it had been outside for several days.  My personal conclusion: lawn bleaching is ineffective.



I've been to Leslie more in the past month than I have been since Billy and I were house hunting!  Emily's new friend Emma lives there, so I foresee many more trips!  I saw this cool historical flag in their downtown, and sent a picture to Billy because it reminded me of Fallout.


Grace cleaned her bed, and I thought this was a cool shot!

Have I already shared the single Haribo in the bag? Well, here it is again.  Billy found it on our camping trip.  He found it remarkable, because most of the packs had 4+ in them.  But not this one!

Grace and I went to the library to claim our prizes for summer reading, while Emily helped Avia with some cleaning.  She found this huge popper!


We walked down the center a few store fronts and found some egg plants, that actually looked like eggs!!!  We didn't get much, just a little cookie snack.


Scooby Doo day felt so forced this year.  I think I moved it three or four times, and finally had it, just to get it off the calendar, and get the box out of our house!  If next summer feels the same, our Scooby Doo celebrations might be at an end.

Kristy was selling these adorable honey packs at the girl scout yard sale, and the girls and I couldn't get over how adorable they were!  We finished the honey in just a couple of days. = )

We got to celebrate Avia a second time, in St. Louis and on her actual birthday this year!!!


Avia bought Aunt Janet a special shirt to wear on her birthday!  It says "Aunt of the Birthday Girl!" Perfect, right?

Grace loved having Aunt Janet here!  

On the Fourth of July, we were able to see some fireworks from our porch again this year!


Since I had a smore fail on our camping trip, I promised Grace backyard smores once all the camping stuff was cleaned and put away.  She was very patient, and the day did eventually come!


With Emily gone with Abby's family, I think William was the only other one who came to cook with us!

The sunset made the trees look like they were on fire!

Once day, I opened up the back of my car and found the car toy holder back there.  When I asked the kids about it, they casually said that they no longer needed the toys in the car and that I could get rid of it.  ::sniff:: ::sniff:: = (  I remember buying this, new, at a friend's Thirty-one party in Houston, just a couple of years ago.   So sad.  I hope someone new can use it and love it as much as we did!

We went to this ice cream shop so many times this summer, that I could have sworn that I'd already written about this (and maybe I have, I didn't actually go back and look.)  But, Grace won the ice cream creating contest from her school last year.  The ice cream shop will donate $1 for each one that they sell to the PTO of that child's school.  It took 4 trips, but we finally saw her creation in the window, and spent her gift card, all in one foul swoop.  There's no such thing as free ice cream!



The fireflies were extra this summer, for at least a few weeks!  Grace even 'caught' one.

We did our best to keep up on our Latin, but it was a busy summer, so we didn't fit much in.  However, this is one of our Latin days.  It totally makes me miss homeschooling!

Emily's end of Summer trip up North with Emma!

Emily's Fourth of July trip with Abby's family!  I told her that she needs to make some dedicated posts, because I wasn't there, but she's kind of busy to make that happen, I suppose.


I snagged this photo from Jennifer.  The girls class went out for ice cream at the local ice cream shop at the end of the year. I can't imagine what I was doing that day that I didn't go and take my own pictures, but here is a picture of Juliet, Kennedy, and Natalie!


It's day 2 of school for my dear ones, and I'm still not quite ready to let go of summer!  We have some fun plans for this weekend and Labor Day and most of September, so I guess I'll get over it soon.

later days

Fourth of July

Since we had just returned from camping the previous day, and Emily was off with her BFF Abby's family, we went nowhere and did nothing to celebrate the fourth.  

The kids did enjoy watching the fireworks that some of our neighbors set off from the porch though.  = )


Happy Birthday America!

later days

edit 7-20-24: backdated for continuity.

123123: NYE 2022

This year, we were invited to the Cornishes to ring in the new year!  We haven't gone out to celebrate nye in a long time, so we were all very excited!

We spent the day prepping food to bring.  Juliet and Grace helped make orange cookies.  Grace juiced the oranges and Juliet rolled the cookie balls.  They came out soft and sweet and really good!  (Which was a relief, because the oranges themselves had been picked too early and were not very good to eat fresh.)

I also made some chocolate chip banana nut bread and sliced up a bag of apples! 




We arrived sometime between 5pm and 6pm.  We played several rounds of 4 different games: 

  • One Night Ultimate Werewolf 
  • Forbidden Island
  • There's Been a Murder
  • Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt

This took us to midnight!



The kids were so excited about the fireworks!  Billy lit one of the roman candles with a sparkler. lol.


I got pictures of some of the crew, but not everyone.  And a few didn't want to participate, so watched from inside the sliding glass door.







Natalie lit the remaining roman candles with the lighter, and then we had to fight to release the fuse of the Tik Tok firework, but it was really cool when it lit up! = )

It was very cold, just above freezing, so once we finished burning things, it was back inside to toast the new year, and then out the door and into the car to go home and get to bed! 


It was really nice to welcome 2024 with friends, but I assure you I am tired today!

For future me: I would rebuy the sparklers (they were huge, and bright!) the roman candles (easy to light and fun to watch.)  And the Tik Tok was really fun too.  I would not spend the money on the poppers again.  They tried to make them too fancy with extra packaging, and they didn't work very well.  The snappers worked fine, but it was too cold, and there were too many other things going on.  So, I guess I'd buy them again, but I'd give them to the kids to go get some of their excitement out while we get the other things ready to go. = )


Happy New Year everyone!!

later days

After Christmas

After Christmas I felt productive.  Very productive.  I finally broke out the rust/lime remover and got our shower tile to be a lighter shade of orange (I've ordered more to get the rest off.)  And I used a towel covered broom to clean the upper tiles of the shower.  While I was there, I cleaned the toiled (even though our cleaning lady was coming the next day) and polished the sink countertop!  Alice said the chemical smell was burning her lungs (drama) so we left the door open, but the final product was a much-improved bathroom!!!





Grace made a very fancy banana/waffle breakfast!

I cleaned out Billy & My closet, though there wasn't much, there were a few things!





Then I tackled William's closet and drawers and nerf guns!  He got rid of two bags of clothing!  And my complaint about not being able to find replacement clothes in this post was kind of dramatic, he had so many pants in his closet, he just wears the same ones over and over!  So, we cleaned out things, and moved the unused pants to the pile he uses.

Next, I tackled the twins current and upcoming clothing!


One of Billy's undershirts looked like he rubbed up against a brick wall.  So many holes, large and small!!!  I found an old shirt that I'd cut up, but not really used for a rag to repair it.  It turned out much better, but took one large patch, 2 sleeve patches, and several hole repairs.  I don't know if he'll wear it, since it will be a little thicker, but I feel like a repair should at least be attempted.

(it was inside out in the first picture)

Before Ms. Charlie came, we went through the twins' laundry baskets, making some tough choices (they only have 2 weeks worth of pants each now) and pulled out another two bags worth of clothing!!! Since the pile was so large, instead of dumping it in my mom's car for her return, she sent a message to her friend to collect it for the love closet at the church!

On I.E.L.D. (improve Emily's life day) we took her Eb alto saxophone to the music shop to be repaired, and went by the phone repair shop for a new battery (since hers was dying every time she took a picture.)  We also went by Sarah's, the church, Aldi, Edru (to redeem all of the tickets that we'd saved, since they've now transitioned to a card system, and the sweet lady totally helped us count 1900 tickets!!!) and Zoey's to drop off some fun Great Wolf Lodge items for their upcoming trip!

While we were there, they lent me their copy of Muppet Treasure Island, because of Tim Curry, so I watched it last night. It was really good and has stood the test of time quite well!  Now I kind of want to read the source!


Today I had lunch with Billy (little Caeser's pizza in the car) on his new fiber plates!!! They will be on sale next year some time, but he got an advance supply, and the kids were really excited. = ) 

After I left him, I went to the thrift store, where I got a jump on next year's gifts, then by the music store to discuss the Eb Alto Saxophone repair, then on to the fireworks store.  We are celebrating the New Year with the Cornishes this year, so we get to set off real fireworks!!!  (And some kid friendly ones of course!)  This is $40 worth of fireworks, somehow???  I don't usually buy fireworks, my daddy was not a fan, so we only did sparklers and poppers when I was a kid. 

Hopefully New Year's Eve pictures are coming!

We had a fun, productive, clean week! 2023 treated us well!

later days