Especially on these very cold days of winter, I enjoy looking back on pictures of a time when it was warm and pleasant to be outside. It helps that I also am ridiculously behind on posting photos to the blog and summer just happens to be where I have left off :)
So, after we got back from the trip to the beach we dove right into another busy part of the summer including birthdays, reunions and fun play dates with our friends!
Celebrating Tom and my Dad's shared birthday in July:
The story behind the blue dolphin pens - the boys saw these pens in a Hallmark store and they wanted so badly to get them for Papa and Daddy for their birthdays. We had seen dolphins on vacation and they were so excited to find these. So, they wrapped them up and were very proud to give them to Papa and Daddy!
My Mom's family's reunion:
At the beginning of August every year, my Mom's family has a family reunion at a local park. The kids have a fun time playing games and on the playground stuff, we have good food, and its a nice time to catch up with the rest of the family.
Not to mention the wicked BINGO games that are held each year!
Aunt Anne and Aunt Jean playing with Jack, Brad, Quent and Alex on the swings.
We guessed the correct amount in the candy jar and we won a whole lot of life savers! Quent was so sweet and shared our winnings with everyone at the reunion - he walked around with Gramma and asked each person what "color" they wanted and handed them out. Sweet Boy!
Oh, the annual family pictures!
The evolution of it can be pretty funny...
First - its just My Grandma and her kids.
(that were there, 5 out of the 11)
Then they add in the spouses...
...and evidently my Jack got in there too!
I though for sure that we took one with ALL of us in there, but I don't seem to have one, so I am not sure what happened there. Bummer, those are always fun too!
Concert in the Park:
One of our friends from Mother of Multiples has a park close to her house that has a children's concert each summer. She hosted dinner at her house for a bunch of us multiples' families and
then we all walked down to the park for a music and dancing filled evening!
It was SO HOT, but that did not stop the kids from dancing and having a good time with their friends!
Jack and Quent in the center there, amongst a bunch of kids we did not know.
The musician played all kinds of kids songs and rock/dance songs, he was pretty cool, despite the heat :)
Daddy joined in too for a few dances!
Some of our friends and their Moms and Dads dancing !
Jack and Teddy taking a break from all that dancing!
Super fun summer night, we will be looking forward to this again next summer!
Scavenger Hunt!
(just for us grown -ups)
We were invited to do a Road Rally/Scavenger hunt with some friends, Mel and Ken. We had never done one before and were very excited to try it out!
We had a team - Tom and me and Tabitha - we had a car, and we had a list.
The team that made it back by the deadline with the most points for all the stuff they collected would be the winner!
Here is just some of the silly stuff we did:
Tom posing in a dress and me posing with a horse.
Tabitha sitting at a table of strangers, and Tom holding a watermelon over his head.
Tom climbing in a kids playscape, and me walking through a drive-thru to buy a drink.
Me being scared of the newspaper headline ^
and posing on a riding lawnmower >
< Tom posing by a park sign and
taking a self-portrait in a hat ^^
And even though we did not win, we had a blast running around and being crazy!
(YES - we got points for the pic together and the mohawk!)
Play date at the Splash Pad!
We met up for some cooling off on a hot day with some of my Mothers of Multiples group at a splash pad nearby. What fun!
All the kids were loving it - especially getting to squirt each other!!
Quent gettin' splashed!
Hi friends - Adam, Sarah, and Jacob!
Jack's not sure if he should run through or not.
Playing in the Pirate Boat - Arg!
So much fun!
Jack's big smile >
Silly - J and S getting their
hair wet in the spray (below)
Adam using the squirting toy...
Big brother Jacob joins in...
Poor Adam gets the wrong end of that deal!
Definitely a place we will be visiting again!
My sweet boys:
Just having themselves a picnic on the floor at home ♥
Watching Thomas chug on by:
We sure did a lot of fun stuff with my M.O.M.'s group this year!
Here's another one - going for a picnic lunch and to watch Thomas the train drive by.
Here he comes!
And there's the kids holding their ears - my Jack right in the middle there - at least most of them were holding their ears!
And here is our attempts to get a bunch of twins, triplets and siblings to take a group picture!
HA!
Funny!
We got to see him come down the track a few times while we were there and had a good lunch with our friends - next year I think we will buy tickets and actually RIDE the Thomas train!
Spending the day on the boat:
Uncle Dan and Aunt Betty's boat to be specific. They were out at the campground for a week and we joined them for a day of playing at the beach, having lunch, and riding on their new boat.
Oh, you are just giving me these keys Uncle Dan?
Hmmm, let's figure out how to start this thing.
Jack is ready to drive that boat!
And he got his turn!
Oh how he loved "driving" the boat with Uncle Dan! He was so happy and had a permanent grin on his face the whole time. Actually he was pretty good at steering where he was told to go and he thoroughly enjoyed using the throttle to go faster.
Tyler, Christina, and Aleah on the starboard side.
Me, Quent,Sydney, Briana, and Alexis on the port side.
(behind us were Tasha and Aunt Betty)
The bigger kids taking a swim out in the middle of the lake.
There's that great big smile again!
Quent and Aunt Tasha laughing and enjoying the ride on that beautiful day!
Quent took a turn at driving - he was having fun, but did not want to do it for very long.
Jack was fascinated watching the water as it rushed past the boat - and he even got a little spray in the face
Everyone relaxing, enjoying the ride on our way back to the campsite after the beach. We were all playing in the water at the beach, so I have no beach pictures!
Jack driving the boat into the canal to get back to the site, with some help navigating from Uncle Dan, of course!
GG's Birthday Bash:
For GG's birthday this year, the boys knew that they wanted to make a birdhouse for her. We went shopping to look for birdhouses and they each chose the exact, perfect one. And then we painted them and decorated them one afternoon.
Quentin's birdhouse masterpiece.
Jackson's beautiful Butterfly House.
They both did such a wonderful job on these houses for GG, I was so proud!
Quent taking my picture as I was taking his!
Everyone in the pool swimming on the day of the party at
Aunt Margaret and Uncle Eldon's house -
GG opening her presents with the kids all around her!
Uncle Andrew helps with a stubborn box.
Aunt Barb, Aunt Anne, Aunt Sue, Uncle Jim and Gramma watch what she opens too.
Oh! Now she is opening the boys' gift to her, the boys were so excited - they kept telling her what it was and what they made for her, it was too funny!
"Open it GG, it's a birdhouse that I made for you, c'mon let's open it!"
Sweet Tessa helping GG read her Birthday cards, isn't that just precious?!
The Mothers of Multiples Summer Picnic:
The summer picnic is always a good time, but this year was a carnival! It was a scorcher of a day, but that did not stop everyone from having a good time. There was a family scavenger hunt that we all really liked, prizes for the games, hot dogs, popcorn, and lots of yummy treats that everyone brought to share. Our social director is pretty awesome!
And mostly - there was lots of fun and lots of twins and triplets!
We played all kinds of carnival games:
And the boys had their faces painted - well - Quentin did!
He wanted to be Batman - although he looks way to cute to be Batman, I think!
What an adorable smile that boy has!
And we got to have balloon animals:
Jack and Daddy waiting for his animal and snacking on a popsicle.
He chose a turtle - looked just like Squirt from Finding Nemo - it was very cool!
And he liked it a whole bunch...
Just in case you could not tell by the sweet smile on his face!
Quentin chose a red dog on an orange leash - is this clown the coolest or what?!
She could make anything!
Sadly, the first set of balloons went POP!
So, we had to get back in line to get more and this time they chose...
Quent - An Alien (complete with a clear space helmet) and
Jack - A red "Clifford" dog with a yellow leash.
Another set of very cool balloon creations!
The 2 clowns that were there were so awesome, the kids all loved their balloons (and there were lots of really cute ones). And the face paintings were so perfect - from superheroes to butterflies - they were all just wonderful works of art! Again, thanks to our fabulous social directors and all the hard work that goes into a big event like this, it was another huge success and a wonderful way to end our summer activities!
Ah, I am so ready for this very cold winter to be done, seeing all these photos makes me ready for more summer fun!
