Cooking, Sawing and Chilling

The Saturday before last, I met my sister and several of her close friends to attend a cooking class (all about desserts) ~ it was a milestone birthday get together for my younger sis. ;)

 We were very eager to get cooking...

We made a lot of yummy desserts...

 We really had a wonderful afternoon!

And while that was happening, Doug was having my sweet girl cutting wood with a miter saw and then sanding it to make an oversized Jenga set...

 After all that cutting and sanding, the Kona Ice truck luckily came by and Bri and Doug had some snow cones...

 Sunday was a collapse chill day for me. Even though Bri and I also had a chill day on Thursday of that week, we were still exhausted from a busy vacation, workshops, blueberry picking, partying, water sliding and swimming (all that was squeezed into Week 6 of our summer vacation). Whew.

Sunday afternoon, a thunderstorm started to bubble up. I love listening to the rain...

I had my constant companion with me...

And Briana did some crafting. She made this bear mask...

Along with a fish to eat...

She really makes me giggle.

I'm really glad Bri had a quiet weekend because the next day was the start of a week of cooking camp with her friend Chani.

Swimming With The Cousins

The week that Bri had her pottery workshops, blueberry picking and our July 6th party, we also went to my sister's neighborhood pool to do some swimming with the cousins!

It's been a busy whirlwind of a summer!

Briana loves hanging with N1 and N2, so we couldn't pass up the invite!

B smiled the whole time...

The best part of the pool ~ the cool slide...

Having pizza at Aunt A's house afterward made it a perfect morning/afternoon!!

Blueberry Pickin' - Year 8!

Bri and I have picked blueberries each and every summer for the last 8 years! It is definitely one of our favorite summertime traditions. And for 7 of 8 of those years, we have picked blueberries with our good friends Kathy and Chani.

This is how the girls looked their very first time picking together...

 Here are links to all of our previous years of picking...

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Year 7

Last summer, because of all the rain, there was a delay in when we could pick berries. Unfortunately, there were slim pickings when we did pick.

This summer, we met at our favorite blueberry patch once again, earlier in the month this time, and hoped for better results...

The girls hit the play area before we started picking...

Then it was time for the obligatory "posed" photos - LOL...

So cute...

Finally, it was picking time...

There was a good mix of ripened and unripened berries, but we were able to find enough ripened berries to make the visit worthwhile for sure...

The girls always have the best time picking...

They found a low archway of trees and picked a bunch of berries in there...

My summertime gal...

The girls spotted a thorny type of weed/plant sticking out of the ground and decided to decorate it with fallen berries...

They said it was their blueberry "Christmas" tree...

I picked over two pounds of berries and I think Kathy had almost 3. We paid for the berries and the girls jumped on the play set again...

We were a bit hungry after picking, so we had an early lunch. The girls took this adorable "selfie" while we were there...

Here is what we came away with...

The berries were really yummy - especially when Doug made pancakes with them.

Looking forward to next year ~ Year 9!

Post July 4th Get Together (Happy July 6th!)

What a fun-filled get together! 

Was it completely crazy for me to offer to host a get together after getting home the day before from vacation? Absolutely! Am I not playing with a full deck? Most certainly (but you all totally knew that). But seriously, there is a reason we had to pick that day. That was the only day that everyone in each family was available to get together. The! Only! Day!

We are all very busy people!

And it was important for us to get together (close enough to the 4th), so Doug and I made it work.

The house was all decorated for the (belated) 4th...

The ladies...

The men...

The young men...

 The girls...

We grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and corn on the cob. And we had quite a spread of toppings, appetizers, sides and desserts

The kids enjoying dinner...

Then it was sliding time fun...

Adding water guns is always fun...

The boys were done with the slide before the girls and went back into the house. The girls played for quite a bit longer on the slide.

Then it was time to chill and sit around the fire pit...

Roasting marshmallows for s'mores...

And then we brought out some sparklers...

We all had a wonderful time, but everyone (myself included) started getting quite tired toward the end of the evening. The party was a big success - there were a couple bug bites and a few tears, but for the most part, there were big smiles, tons of laughter and very full bellies.

It's always great when we can get our whole crew together. When school starts back up, lives will get super busy again. I'm so happy we were able to get together, have some fun and make some happy summer memories.