Friday Favorites: It's OFFICIALLY Summer Here!!!

I woke up this morning without a gazillion lunches (okay, four) to pack. If that doesn't put a smile on a Mama's face, I don't know what will. :)

We enjoyed a leisurely pancake breakfast with not a care in the world or a place to be rushing off to...and ten minutes in, Miss Bookworm is bored. The one who I have to force to go outside and play because she lays around all day reading, has decided that TODAY will be the day she won't pick up a book. What?!?!
(In case you're dealing with the whinies too, here is a round-up of fun and easy summertime activities!)

Anyhoo. Today is humid and rainy, but the past week was gorgeous. Most evenings after dinner you'll find us playing frisbee or track ball out back and then jumping in the pool. We've even spotted the first fireflies of the season. Nights like those are my absolute FAVORITES.

I don't know anyone who doesn't love a pretty bunch of flowers, but backyard bouquets hold a very special place in my heart. They are my FAVORITES. I get so excited every time I check on our plants and see new blossoms. This was the first official bouquet of the season. We had a dark and wet spring, so I feel like all the flowers have had a much later start than normal.

I haven't shared his nursery yet, but it has been almost two weeks since we moved Levi out of our room and into his own. And wouldn't you know, from the very first night, his sleep improved dramatically. Like, dramaaaatically. Sleeping babies are my FAVORITES.

I've been meeting up with different friends in the mornings to walk for an hour or more, then we play at the park. On this morning, baby C feel asleep about five minutes after this, with both legs up on the tray, ha ha ha, and Levi looks like a grumpy old man...

  ...but he had lots of fun swinging!

Listening to baby giggles is one of my FAVORITES.

And traditions. Every year on the last day of school, we have ice cream sundaes for supper and supper for dessert. Traditions are my FAVORITES.

 Lots and lots of blurred excitement after this one had a little taste, ha!

And getting to celebrate our Dads is always a FAVORITE. We are trying to give more meaningful things in our family, so instead of random gifts, we all got in the kitchen together and made a blueberry pie from scratch. If any of you have been reading for a while then you know that pie crust is typically the bane of my existence. Well, it has gotten better, and I almost feel totally at ease with simply whipping up a pie crust. Almost.

Regardless, the pie was delicious.

 Ethan was playing around with the scraps and fashioned this crown. He guessed that it would collapse in the oven but I insisted it would be fine. Oops.

Now I'll be a little vulnerable here and share that as this day has worn on, it has been one of the worst in a long while. (As it's taken me, um, over four hours just to hit publish on this little post dealing with this, that and the other.) Not what I'd had in mind to ring in the official start to summer. At least the sun is shining now, right?

Grace grace grace, for myself and for others. And secret stashes of good chocolate. ;)

Joining in for Friday Favorites
and 5 on Friday today!

Have a great weekend, friends!

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Good Eats for Great Dads

What better way to celebrate the great Dads in our lives than by tempting their taste buds with savory, sweet, and otherwise delicious food fanfare? None, right? I know! Here is a round-up of some of the all-time favorites in our home...

Isabelle's Granola

(This is so good as a topping on yogurt!)

Crumb Coffee Cake

Spinach Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Honey Vinaigrette

Summer Squash Casserole

Chicken Quesadillas

Grasshopper Ice Box Cake

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

(This pie makes my man weak in the knees!)

Homemade Brownies with Cream Cheese Topping

Whoopie Pies

(My Dad's all-time favorite!)

Chocolate Fudge Cake

It's one adventure after another around these parts!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy in the whole world!

Happy Father's Day!

We spoiled Daddy with his favorite scrambled egg and potato bake and blueberry donuts for breakfast...yum! We were blessed with such a beautiful day so we spent most of it outside riding bikes, walking Ryder, playing ball in the backyard, and just having fun being together as a family. Our children are very fortunate to have such a wonderful Dad! He works so hard to provide everything we need and want, and he always tells them how much he loves them, and he's there for them, in so many ways. We just love him more than anything! Happy Father's Day, Bill!

And warm Father's Day wishes to my Daddy, who has always stood by me and still calls me his special angel, and to my sweet father-in-law, who has treated me like his own daughter from the very beginning. I know I am very blessed to have these caring, honorable, godly men in my life!

Here are a few snapshots of our fun day!

 Someone is suddenly too cool to go swimming with the rest of us. Sigh.

Well, we were actually the cool ones while he was sweating buckets in the hot sun, ha ha!

Oh this girl! She has been wearing. me. out lately! Tantrums, screaming fits, strong wills oh my!

But you'd never guess it from looking at that precious little smile, would you? She was so funny today though when she kept telling her Daddy "Happy Balentime's Day!" I guess she got a little confused.  =)

She is also growing up too fast, and she's losing some of my favorite little mispronunciations. That absolutely kills me! Just tonight, she asked me something about a basket. And she said the word, BASKET- normally it's something like "bax-sket" and that's exactly the way I want to still hear it! The other day she was counting and she said "three" instead of "flee" and I nearly choked! But then she counted in Spanish and still said "flais" for "tres," so I swallowed, smiled, and decided I'll never tell her the difference.  :)

Celebrating Daddy

What a beautiful day we had for Father's Day yesterday! I was Super Mom, or rather Super Wife, and let Bill linger in bed till after 8...that's a BIG deal around here! I know how hard he works for us, and I knew he would appreciate the extra sleepy time. Bill is a wonderful father & I'm so thankful for him! We also have great Dads too- we love you Grampy & Grandpa!

Caleb and Jonah were hard at work in the kitchen making brownies for our decadent Black Forest Trifle, as requested by the man of honor, while I popped two Puff Pancakes into the oven and sliced fresh strawberries and kiwi. Yum!

We even had time to make our official Summer 2011 Fun List! We make one every year, but normally it's just on a plain old piece of notebook paper...this year I was inspired by so many bloggers who made beautiful lists I had to follow suit! It's hanging up in our dining room where we'll see it every day, and it's so cheerful and festive!

 pardon the skivvies...oh that boy!!!

don't judge me (#24)- my Dad lets them shoot cans & stuff, and they LOVE it!

i was also impressed with lots of their ideas!

The kids and I had talked about what we thought Dad would enjoy doing the most, and besides sleeping in, ha!, they agreed he would want to be outside. We decided we'd take him to one of our favorite trails that runs alongside the Merrimack River and then get started preparing our Father's Day Feast- we sure know how to incorporate food into every single event and holiday, don't we? ha ha
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I held Isabelle off for as long as I could, but she wanted to see her Daddy!

 time to wake up Daddy!

Then it was time for church...we taught our 2nd & 3rd graders at church and talked about how God gives us the tools to turn life's 'lemons' into lemonade- it's never too early to learn that lesson, is it?

At one point during the day, I found myself wondering why we can never make it through one day without some sort of incident with the kids. I suppose that's better than on those days when it feels like we can't even make it through one hour! Usually it's just arguing or a general attitude problem, and even I overreacted and had a Mom-sized fit after church. It gets old. Fast. Maybe we should pay closer attention to the lemonade lesson!

The rest of the day was low-key, but we're low-key kind of people, so it was very nice. Our walk was great, dinner was fantastic, and we ended the day on a very good note!

Mmm, this always helps!  =)

Hope you had a great day, babe...I love you!