Another camping afternoon at the beach!

We headed out camping the weekend after the boys birthday party, along with my parents and aunt/uncle. My parents also had my two nephews in-tow, as my sister was attending a local music festival with a couple of her friends.

The weekend turned out to be enjoyable, despite the lower-than-predicted temps and the overwhelming gnats! I am seriously still healing from all the gnat bites I had on my neck & arms (even with using bug spray).

Saturday afternoon turned out to be the warmest of the weekend so we headed down to the beach after naps. All four boys played & played; mostly in the sand & a little bit in the water.

This was also the first weekend that the boys really got to use the new bikes they got from Grandpa & Grandma for their birthdays. It was a fairly quite campground & they made trips upon trips around the main camping “circle” road. They started learning to watch for cars, stopping to check for traffic at a road crossing, using their brakes & slowing themselves down while traveling downhill. Wyatt took a little tumble off the side of the road on the first night, after gaining too much speed on a slight hill, and was a little leery about riding his bike the rest of the weekend but if someone walked right next to him, he felt brave enough to try.

Wyatt loving his water squirter!

"N" collecting some sand.

Colton & "I" spraying each other!

"N" helping Grandma & Wyatt build a sand castle.

Wyatt working with Grandma on a sand castle.

Colton making mud!

Colton & "N" filling the bucket up with sand to make more mud!

"I" making a "river".

Wyatt by the finished sand castle.

Digging together!

S-T-O-M-P-I-N-G time!

Wrecking the castle.

A Super Hero 4th Birthday Party!

I started letting the boys pick out the theme for their birthday party last year. Their 3rd birthday party was dump trucks & fire trucks (even though I was almost certain it was going to be a pirate party for their favorite show at the time – Jake & the never land pirates). With a list of a few different options this year, they chose Batman (Wyatt) & Spiderman (Colton) for their theme. Super heroes it was!

We had their party the weekend following their birthday (after much confusion & dismay about their friends not coming over on their actual birthday). The weather was beautiful! It was an enjoyable day to be outside – sunny & 70s/80s, instead of the usual 90+ humidity we are usually hit with this time in July.

I took the easy route & ordered in Subway subs which were a huge hit! The cakes were, once again, made by my wonderful & extremely talented friend “D”…it is her gift to the boys every year!

We were blessed to have so many friends & family that were able to make it out and help us celebrate the boys turning 4!

Super hero suckers!
(assembled by my sweet & incredibly talented friend "J")

Capes!
(I cut out the capes & masks and she put the whole thing together for me!)

Birthday sign.

Wyatt's Batman cake.

Colton's Spiderman cake.

Wyatt, smiling & ready to party!

Smile!

Take a picture of me running mama.

Colton's spot & attitude for the first half of the party.
(He's not always in the best mood when waking up from naps!)

Daddy, leading a game of chase!

Food!

Wyatt eating with friend "A" (purple) & neighbors "C" & "L".

Colton eating with friends "P", "J" & "R".

Friend "R" & neighbor "C" eating on the deck.

The boys!

Wyatt insisted on wearing his mask & super hero cape from
a past birthday party...looking good!
(I really wanted to make masks for all the kids,
but couldn't find the foam shapes for it anywhere!)

Present time!

Opening presents.

Cake time!

Wyatt blowing out his candles.

Colton blowing out his candles.

Colton, in a much happier mood later!

Mommy & Colton.

Mommy & Wyatt.

Cousins!
("N", Colton, "I", Wyatt)

My three super heroes!

A great end to a great party!

The Fair!

I love fair time. There is just something about a small town fair with animals & ribbons & tons of food & over-priced kids rides and games that I can’t get enough of.

I am a regular fair enter-ie. This year I entered a couple of pictures, blueberry muffins & chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I am proud to say I won a red (2nd place) ribbon for my muffins! Entering exhibits also got me into the fair all week for free.

I was lucky enough to have two girls’ nights during the fair week to see a couple of country singers; totally enjoyed those nights.

We went up to the fair as a family on Friday afternoon/evening and had a great time. The weather was comfortable. We were able to see one of Cory’s younger cousins practicing on her horse just as we arrived. The horse competition wasn’t until the following day but the boys wanted to say hi (we had just seen her while camping up north at the cabin the week prior). They weren’t so sure about the horses though. We rode some rides, ate good food, checked out the farm animals & played one game (in which they each won an inflatable super-hero hammer). Their favorite ride was the gunny-sack slide, by far. We ran into a number of friends & just had a good time.

Unfortunately my camera died during their first ride but I did get pictures of how tall they are measuring this year…not quite tall enough to ride most of the rides on their own but I’m sure they’ll be there next year!

Colton

Wyatt

Daddy & boys on their first ride of the day!

Strawberries!

Our strawberry season was really short this year. I’m not sure if it was because of the weather or what – but it lasted barely over a week at two of the top u-pick fields near-by. I had the Friday, after the boys birthday, off so that was our plan for the morning – strawberry picking…until I woke up to down pouring rain. Lucky for us the down pour didn’t last long and we only get hit with a few sprinkles here & there while we were out in the fields. We met up with my parents and went to the same patch we went to last year. It was far less busy than it was last year, but I believe that was mostly due to the weather.

The boys were great helpers & lasted almost the entire time without complaints. Since we were near the end of the season, the workers were even more encouraging of the boys eating as many strawberries as they’d like – but I’m sure they ate well over their fair share of strawberries! Wyatt was a good picker and stuck with it. He’d eat some from time-to-time but pretty much stuck to the task. Colton on the other hand picked for a little bit & then mostly just ate…sometimes right out of the bucket until someone would catch him and tell him to pick his own “eaters” instead of stealing from the buckets! (It’s crazy to see the different things each of the boys do/don’t have patience for.) Grandpa called the first “big” strawberry they found a “dandy” and that is the name that stuck for the entire morning…we were all on a mission to find “dandies” (the strawberry version of a “whopper” when fishing). It was totally fun & not at all crowded. We even ran into my uncle “D”, who recently retired & we go camping with a lot, who had come out to pick strawberries before more storms hit.

After we paid for the strawberries & were packed up in the car, Wyatt asked me “Mom, guess what I have in my pocket?”. I could only imagine. Yes, it was a strawberry. So, I unbuckled him and got him back out of the car to retrieve the semi-squished strawberry out of his pocket – I just had to laugh. Then I explained to him that putting strawberries in our pockets wasn’t the greatest idea since they get squished and make a mess. (That’s why we wore “old” clothes to the strawberry picking patch!). They never cease to surprise me!

Starting the picking with Papa.

Wyatt's bucket.

Colton's bucket.

Hard workers!

Searching for the "dandies"

There is one!

Bringing some full buckets back to the end of the row.

Banana snack time - Colton.

Banana snack time - Wyatt.

Breakfast bar snack time too.

Mommy & Wyatt.

Papa, Wyatt & Colton with our final picks.

Cheese, with strawberries!

Goofy one!

A hard morning's work complete!