the best summer ever.

Have I told you how much we like daddy's new job?  He gets a three day weekend every other week.  Awesome!  We head to the lake on Thursday and don't come back 'til Sunday.  Four straight days on lake time with my favorite peeps.  Life is good.

By the way, EK's new favorite past time?  Touching fish eyes.  I cannot make these things up.  She screams if we throw back a fish before she gets to touch an eyeball.  Seriously.

Fishing with daddy.  Crickets are the key.  P's attention span is way too short to use artificial bait.  Crickets are a fisherman's Concerta.

We have found a new favorite spot.  We pack a picnic and drinks and towels and 10 other bags of stuff and head out to goat island.  It really is just right around the bend from our lake house but for some reason the kids love it so much more.  Maybe because it's shady.  Or there's a beach.  Or it feels like camping.  Not sure, but they love it.  We love it, too.  When our babies are happy, mama and daddy are happy.

The babies enjoying our S'mores To Go.  Yes, this was my brilliant idea.  I told you it feels like camping.

EK watching the waves.

We have also been taking lots of boat trips to our friends, the Crosbys', lake house.  The boys adore each other.  And they have a pool.  We also meet them at Jackson's for dinner or in the middle of the lake to tube.  It is so much fun!  Here is Jackson and P at dinner one night.  Best buds.

I'm not lying when I say this has been the best summer ever.  Lots of family time and loads of fun.

legoland.

We met Amy and her kids for a day of fun at Legoland.  P had been begging to go since it opened in March, but tickets were always sold out.  We finally found a day that we could all go and tickets were still available so we packed up and headed to Atlanta for a day of legos.

We spent most of our time in the 4 and under area.  The kids all loved the soft block legos and EK could.not.get.enough of the slide.

EK loved the cupcake legos.  I really wanted to buy them for her in the gift shop but they were sold out.  Imagine that.  The only girl legos in the entire Legoland.  Sold out.  Hmmmm.

P and Nicholas loved the tower building station.  You built a tower and then pushed a buttom that made the foundation shake.  They cracked up when their skyscraper came crashing down.  These boys have too much fun together for us to live so far apart.

Is this thing safe, mom?

P and Nicky.  They loved this place!

I was pleasantly surprised with Legoland.  We all had a great time, including EK, and there was plenty to do to keep us all entertained for 3 or 4 hours.  We finished our day with burgers and fries at Johnny Rockets.  We will definitely go back to Legoland again soon.

father's day.

 We love daddy's new job.  He gets to spend way more time at home, no on-call, crazy, late night phone calls, and he gets a three day weekend every two weeks.  You can't beat that!  The only downfall?  He has to work some holidays.  And this year, he had to work Father's Day.  Boo.  We made the best of it and spent the afternoon with my sweet daddy.  Love him so much!

The kids love my parents' backyard.  Lots of shade, green grass, and a fish pond.  EK's new favorite, bird watching.  She takes after her grandpa.

Kickball with grandpa.

Sweet girl checking out the fish.

Happy Father's Day to my daddy and Taylor, the two best dads I know.  I love you both very, very much!

splash pad and food trucks.

We seem to always be running errands in Atlanta.  There are just so many more options.  Heck, I even go grocery shopping at Whole Foods in Buckhead once a month.  Our poor kids get carted around so much.  Taylor and I decided to make this particular trip fun for all.  After all errands were complete, we headed over to the Old Fourth Ward park to check out the new splash pad and playground.  The area used to be a little shady, so I made sure we had Taylor with us, but, boy, was this place cool.

Check out this swing!  (And check out how high daddy is pushing my sweet babies.)

After about an hour in the 95 degree heat, the kids were hot and hungry.  We headed over the Howell Mill to the Atlanta Food Truck Park.  I'd been wanting to give this place a go all summer, and we finally got a chance.  This was so cool, too.  Lots of selection so all hungry bellies left happy.  P picked Nana G's Chicken and Waffles.  Minus the chicken.  Add some chocolate chips, whipped cream, and honey.  Healthy lunch, huh?

And King of Pops popsicles for dessert.  Yummmm!  

Chocolate sea salt for this little girl.

 My sweet little family.  We had such a good day.

cinema on the green.

We met the Crosby's on the square for Cinema on the Green.  This kids adore each other and we all had so much fun!  The movie didn't start until almost 9pm so the babies were exhausted, but it was a lot of fun watching Alvin and the Chipmunks under the stars.

The kids blew bubbles and ate cotton candy and made earrings with their glow bracelets.  They crack me up.

I got a couple of pics of the older boys before it got too dark.

 Cheesing it up for my camera.  Maybe he's back to liking the ol' Nikon?

We'll see about that....

make a wish, baby girl.

Found this on my hard drive.  It was taken at my sister's birthday dinner.  I just love her to pieces.

pool.

We have spent a ton of time at the pool and the kids are becoming little fishes.  EK is swimming all over in her puddle jumper and will jump off the side into the water over and over.  She wears us out!

P is getting much more comfortable in the pool, too.  At the beginning of the summer, he wouldn't go past the second step.  Now, he is wearing his puddle jumper, too, and swimming all over.  He's even dunking his face in a little.  I am so proud of him!  I love this pic because it is totally him.  Big ol' cheeseball, wearing two pairs of sunglasses to protect his ultra sensitive eyes.  He is such a comedian.  

This has definitely been the best summer ever!  Loving my kids to pieces and loving this time I get to stay home with them.  Life is so, so good.

strawberry patch.

It's that time of year again. Time to go to our favorite little farm and pick gallons of the best strawberries ever. I love this time of year. We met our friends Jenn, Reese, and Knox to pick berries and jump on the awesome jumping pillow and because we just cannot get enough of the farm, we went back again with my mom.

Look, mama!



She really enjoyed searching for the berries.



She was so excited when she found the good ones.

 

She's a serious berry picker.



And my only pic of P.  He picked a few berries, then spent the rest of the time running up and down the patch.  He has a short attention span these days.  All boy!

 

I love this one of my little berry picker.



And, of course, we always cool off with some yummy homemade strawberry ice cream.  Theirs is the best!



And here are a few iPhone pics from our trip with the McPhersons.



Looking forward to our next trip to our favorite farm.

t-ball.

T-ball season was fantastic! P really enjoyed it and we made lots of new friends. Our coach was great, too. I'm a terrible mom for not bringing my camera to any of the games. The morning of his last game I sat straight up in bed and about had a panic attack. How could this photo-fanatic mama forget to take pictures of her sweet little Seadog? Two crazy kids, that's how! Ha! But I did remember, even if it was the last game.



Batting! Halfway through the season, the coaches pitched to the kids and if they didn't get a hit, they hit off of the tee. P got a few great hits off of pitches. Made this mama proud.

 

Run, buddy, run! All of his teammates were hilarious when it came to running the bases. They would either forget which base to go to next or they would practically walk. Funny stuff.

 

Any time the ball was hit to the outfield, half of the team would chase it to the grass.  Even if it was clear across the field.  Hilarious!  We didn't stop them, though.  They were so bored in the field.



P taking a break.



Supporting my lil' man.



The line-up for the last game.



He looks ready for a grounder, doesn't he?  And guess what?  He drew the square he's standing in.  Poor buddy.  He gets so bored out there.



Prayer after the game with both teams and their coaches.  LOVE this league!

 

Team huddle.  Go Seadogs!



It was a great season!