Summer Time and Family Fun

"My favorite summer time is when all of my grandchildren are here; seeing them playing and laughing together makes my day. Going outside to enjoy a nice cup of tea and reading a good book on my hammock. Seeing my grandchildren on my hammock with one of our dogs, Maddie, just relaxing. These are my favorite summer activities."  Kelsey will know how this got onto my blog.

 The kids love to be dumped out of the hammock - sometimes Grandpa is the one doing the dumping - at others times it would be one of them.  The first few days everyone was here the weather was very nice.  We did not even have the air on.

 On the first Malissa and Stacey went shopping for the day.  I took the girls for pedicures.  Warren and Sage met up with us at the ice cream store after then ran a few errands and looked over the selection of Legos at Target.

All the kids got in on making the fire truck and boat.  It was a rainy day so that day indoor activities prevailed.

My parents, sisters and husbands, and my brother came on the third.  Cindi thinks family get togethers should include water balloons in warm weather.

Everyone who was not in the garage was fair game.  No one came away dry.  

This was taken just before I got a small dose of water. 

There were countless gator rides.  Sam and Sage soon got the hang of steering and had great fun driving around the farm stead.

 On the first day we measured the corn and the kids.  Every one of the kids grew a smidgen while the corn grew a foot or so in 10 days.

 Maddie and Sophie never had so much attention.  They miss the kids almost as much as we do.

One year we went to Grandma and Grandpa Camp with Kelsey and Hannah.  There we discovered carpet ball.  With in a week of being home we had made our own.  It is something anyone can play.  We pretty much make up our own versions of the game from time to time but the object is to get the most balls into your opponent's pocket by hitting the wiffle balls with a hard rubber ball.  It may have an official name but we call it carpet ball as the inside is covered with outdoor carpet.   

This is the first time the kids have been here for the 4 of July.  They decorated their borrowed bikes for the kiddie parade and then took in our small town parade.  It did not take them long to figure out that when you wave you are more likely to get candy thrown your way.  Candy in Australia is rather more expensive than here in the states so it is not a part of their parade tradition.   The rain held off until after the parade but by evening it canceled the fireworks.  We had so much hoped to share fireworks here on the farm with them.  We are almost directly one mile from where they set off the firework display.  It is our tradition to set out front to watch while eating popcorn.  (We leave the noise and traffic to others.)

 We introduced Sam and Sage to S'mores.  It was a first for them.  We roasted marshmallows over at Malissa and Matt's.  Hannah insists our homemade marshmallows are the best so we made some for everyone to enjoy.  We had a great evening around the fire pit while the kids jumped on the trampoline.  As it got dark the fire flies made an appearance.  Every kids enjoys capturing them and putting them in a jar.  We talked them into a catch and release program as we have never know them to live long in captivity.

I have had a time trying to get the spacing on this post correct.  It will just not do what I want.  I make the changes but they do not stay.  So here it is - the way it is.