Beach Time

While Nana Margie and Papa John were here, there were many walks down to the beach, which involved searching for seaglass, cool pieces of wood, admiring the sunsets, and swimming.  Lots of swimming.  The boys didn't care if the water was smooth as glass or rippled with waves...they love bouncing through the water.  Tamlin has gotten better at swimming under the water (as long as he can hold his nose).  Jude still doesn't want to put his face in the water, but doesn't mind getting splashed.  Kirby went into and out of the water trying to bite the waves, but he seemed to prefer the dry land.

One of my favorite shots from the weekend :-)

Jude and Daddy

Jude was home with Brian today while Tam was in school and I was at work.
When we got home, Brian showed us all the work they did in the gardens.  They had kept busy staking tomatoes, and picking tomatoes, and watering the watermelons.  Brian told me that Jude was very helpful...specifically, he was a very helpful butterfly. 
Jude loves butterflies.
When asked what do butterflies do, he replied with "drink nectar and pollinate flowers"
That's my boy!

First day of schools

Sigh.
August already!
I am with the other gazillion people out there lamenting that the summer months flew by and in a blink, it is time for school to start again.
And my baby boys are growing up so quickly!
Too fast!


Our little Jude is not in Pre-Kindergarden, the Busy Bees.  He has the same teacher that Tamlin had when he started here two years ago.  Has it been 2 years?!  He is super excited and has been going around saying that he is a big boy now.  But I know he is still our little-snuggle bunny in his heart.  He's excited to be in a new room with new toys.  I'm excited that he'll be learning more and more.

Tamlin is heading into first grade and will be attending the brand new school.  I took the afternoon off on Tuesday so that Tam and I could have special time with each other before his summer officially ended.  He chose what we did together:  McDonald's, baked cupcakes (sprinkle batter with blue frosting and Swedish fish), built hot-wheel track down the stairs, and built a marble track.

  The new school is so awesome and so different from the grade school that I had attended way back when.   We went to open house on the evening before his first day of class.  This let us find out who his teacher would be and where his room was and let him see where his friends were.

Open concept design.  The hallways are huge.  The cafeteria is outside in the hallways and right next to the library!  In the hall!  Cool.   Tamlin's classroom is three classrooms connected together with movable partitions.  His main teacher is Mrs. Sprinkle. (I tried very hard not to giggle at this and Brian asked if it was here real name).  Tamlin found his name and cubby right away.  Jude helped Tam find his seat in the classroom...and then "helped" with exploring the rocking chairs and the books.  At his new seat, Tam found a treat of starbursts (Mrs. Sprinkle was "bursting" waiting to get to know you) and a baggy of sparkles.  The sparkles were magic dust to help you get to sleep quickly the night before the big day :-)  Yes, we had to use these that night and Tamlin fully believed in them.

Here's Mrs. Sprinkle and Tam.   All ready for the morning!  I know I felt better knowing exactly which room Tam was heading into and at least meeting the teacher face-to-face.




This morning was the BIG DAY.   I think Tam was excited and not worried at all.  He loves wearing his Hawaiian shirts :-)

Our neighbor and Tam's friend, Liam was NOT excited about school...but I think riding the bus was Tamlin helps.  They are good friends.  Brian and I got quick little hugs from our little man before he boarded that yellow bus, and I really didn't cry.  He's my little baby growing up!  He's all long legs and arms now and not a swaddled, curled up, little baby anymore!

Best of luck to both my boys in their new learning adventures!


Oh...and Zebra Slugs

Brian found two of these...um...in a delicate position behind our rain barrels.  Tam and Liam thought they were pretty cool.  I didn't realize we had any slugs here in Ohio that were this big (as long as my hand!).
The photo isn't ours, but from the web.

Kilt for Thing 1 Done.

 For the Ohio Renaissance Festival this year, I thought the boys needed kilts.  Why not?!  Brian wears a kilt and looks good in it (and it's a bit cooler than long pants in the hot sun).  The snag was finding a pattern for a kids kilt that was easy.   I scoured the internet for inspiration and came across the website "X Marks the Scot".  Here a gentlemen had written the instructions for an X-kilt.  Now this wasn't a full traditional kilt done in plaid and around 13yards of fabric.  Instead it was more like a utility kilt with box pleats. velcro closure,  and optional cargo pockets. ( X-Kilt pdf instructions).  The author estimated about 14 hours work for a guy who hadn't touched a sewing machine since home ec class. I was confident with my sewing skills that I could work with this.  

The most difficult part was sizing the pattern down to my little ones measurements...and the fact that they have no butts to help hold the thing up!  I made Tamlin's kilt first so if I had messed up, I could have salvaged it down for Jude.  Luckily, it came out awesome.  And I learned a few things along the way:

1. wrinkle-free fabric isn't.

2. don't iron over velcro

3. scraping is the only way to clean melted plastic off an iron's plate.

4. a strip of fabric spread out on the floor immediately becomes a road for cars as soon as my back was turned.

Finished product has 10 box pleats around the back and 2 clasps in the front. (Tamlin picked these out).  There is 2 inches in the apron hems for letting out if needed in the next two years.  The photos are Tam trying it in action and pre-washing, so ignore the chalk marks.  I likely will have them wear the kilts with their jerkins because I don't think I'll get to sewing shirts with ruffled collars for them in time.

Tamlin thought it would be very manly to pose without his shirt.
:-}
I guess I could throw some mud on him and call him a barbarian!

First Harvests of Tomatoes are In!

Well, our bumper crop of tomatoes is coming in.  Brian's been picking them since last week.  We had enough to give some to all the neighbors, and friends, and sell to the restaurant for salad.   Brian took some time to photo them all! 

 

Nana and Papa Johnny helped with the photo shoot.

Ashtabula County Fair

It wouldn't be summertime without a least one trip to a county fair.  This year, we opted to visit my home-town county fair on the same weekend as the family reunion.  We got to the fairgrounds after dinner, just as the ol' demolition derby was ramping up.  An upside was that admission included ride-passes.  The downside was that the lines for the "grown-up" rides were outrageously long.  Our little Ciearra and Tamlin are finally big enough to ride some of the scarier rides, but don't have the patience to wait their turns.  Maybe next year :-)


This was Baby Elizabeth's first time out to the A-town county fair...I'm not sure if the tractor ride through the parking lot was a hit or a miss with her.  Our boys LOVE riding the wagon behind the tractor.

Since we got there late in the day, we opted to just wander down the main drag, eat, and hit rides.  Unfortunately, no time to check out animals during this visit...but I still love to come out and check out the sea of humanity.

And the food...oh the greasy food goodness.  We opted to get a bucket of fries to share around, and cold lemonade, and yummy fried elephant ears.

 And then we turned around and caught Tamlin doing this....

Yep, licking the ketchup out of the container.  Ah, yuck. Tam, that's not ice cream!

Needless to say, Tamlin got that container of ketchup for his fries all to himself.

The rides the littles did ride on were fun.  Even Baby Elizabeth got to ride on the merry-go round with us all.

Tamlin, Ciearra, and Jude rode a spinning barrel ride, but couldn't figure out how to make theirs spin.  We persuaded Rick to get on there with them so he could spin them around until they threw up (they didn't thankfully).

The giant slide was one of Jude's favorites

The roller coaster was also a big hit!  The kiddos rode it over and over.  

I've taught them well...check out those hands thrown way up in the air!

Baby Elizabeth fought going to sleep...Duh...there was way too much to see!

 We tried to ride the Ferris wheel and the round up, but were out of luck with both rides...it seems both broke down and were being fixed.  (I know, makes you wonder how safe it really is).
 

With the drop of darkness, we had time for just a few more stops on the way back out to the cars.
This may be the last year that Ciearra and Tamlin will be small enough to ride the caterpillar ride and the swans.   Jude will still love them for a couple more years.

 And, we let them hit that great dragon coaster one last time.

Good times...and great memories shared.