CAMPING 2010!!!!

We had a BLAST camping this year!  Amy, our wonderful organizer ;-) decided to try a bit earlier in the summer and I decided to try adding an extra day, and it all worked out great—mostly because the weather was perfect and there were hardly any mosquitoes!!!  We loved playing with cousins (most of the time at least), lots of yummy food, no TV or computer, lots and lots of time at the beach, some new friends, family visits . . .

Setting up camp (well I was setting up camp at least)

 

Campfire and s’mores!\

 

Pancakes for breakfast!

 

To the BEACH!

 

On the pedal boats, right before an epic tantrum.  But that is part of camping with a three-year-old!

 

All better and taking a rest in the tent.  Bree is such a special, special cousin.  Her reading and telling stories around the fire entertained Joseph for hours!

 

Brad visited and the kids all got a ride in the new car

Grandma and Grandpa came to play

We also left Branbury on Saturday to attend the Bristol 4th of July parade which we always enjoy:

 

Zeno Mountain’s most amazing float ever.  For a full minute I felt transported to the 60s!!!

 

Chasing down some candy.  Can you see the bulging pockets?

 

Joseph’s first time on a horse!!!  I told him he could chose one activity from all that was available on the green and this was his choice ;-)

 

We returned to the beach after a nap (for both of us).  Each day we hung out at the beach in the morning and then again  from late afternoon well into the evening.  This worked out great and the sunset hours are some of my favorite memories.  Above was an epic water gun fight with cousin Jacob and some new friends.

 

On the fourth we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a BBQ/Jacob’s bday party (lots of fun, but no pics) and then returned to the beach.  Joseph even got to watch his first fireworks, which were actually being set off at a number of different places around the lake, making for a wonderful and very long show.

Our last day of camping, we hung out at the beach (of course!!).   Joseph even joined a class about the watershed, and was very involved, for some reason.

And a creemee of course

 

Oh, and, today I came home to another new toy!!! 

What do stay-at-home moms do all day?

850 miles and Brad is back with his new toy!

Strawberries, sunshine, and summertime plants=more June

 

With all our strawberries, we made yummy popsicles and jam!

 

ACR at the Bristol Pocock Festival (where Bob helped by watching J.  This of course was a picturesque calm moment.  But the gravel marks on his head reveal the more rockus moments.  They got silly on the swings, ending up with a head-first dive onto the rocks.  Bob stepped right up and cuddled Joseph for a minute while I got ice, and in no time J was right back on the swings.)

 

Hangin’ at the beach.  Can’t wait to be back there!!!!!

 

I’ve been playing with plants a lot lately, though not all is success.  My garden is pretty lame, but I hold on to hope.  Today I found a baby rabbit in there, so that probably isn’t helping things.  However it was pretty fun to see the little guy.  Joseph and I watched him for a long time and I even got to touch him! 

 

Hmmmm . . . Maybe next year my little helper wont be naked all the time? Doubt it.

 

I LOVE my geraniums!  They are my first real potted flowers.  They were a gift (thanks Debbie) and very well chosen.  They are marked as deer resistant and I think that they are also rabbit, goat, and chicken resistant, which is very important around here!

 

 I repotted most of my indoor plants and tried to get a little creative.  I put the cactus (gift from the other Debi!) in a cool yard sale find, and a rosemary plant in a mason jar.  Brad thinks I’m crazy, but I found it entertaining.

 

We also have some plants on our parch, which is quite fun.  For the first time we have strawberries and enjoy them every day right now ;-)

Around

 After all the crazyness surrounding birthdays we were happy to spend some relaxed time at home.  We got a little silly with the play dough . . .  

We made some thank you notes (thought I didn’t quite send as many as intended . . . let me just say, THANK YOU ALL!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some good pirate times . . .

Continue to love our “club house”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or, sometimes pirate ship

 

Got nice and dirty

 

And, of course, still love those silly transformer pajamas

I also was honored to join Bri, Jacob, Aloysius, and Bernie to celebrate Amy’s college graduation! So freakin’ proud of her!

 

 

 

 

 

  This is from 5/26! Wow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun times at a pirate festival at the Maritime Museum

 Brad took Joseph to Great Escape last week, a tradition of there's

 

 

 

 

 

Just playing

 

 

 

 

 

Today we went strawberry picking (forgot to take pictures though) with friends and then played in the sun.   Joseph was awesome at picking strawberries!

And then we visited dad at work!

Oh, and ate lots of strawberries :-)

First Marriage Proposal

Not sure where you might be thinking I am heading with this, but I am talking about Joseph and his friend/suitor C!  We met C at playgroup and she immediately took a liking to my boy (of course!).  There are A LOT of kids at playgroup (20+ I would guess) so kids don’t always make new friends there.  But, after only one group C was following Joseph around and had to seek him out for a special goodbye.  The next week they again played together and soon her mother told me the following: “C always used to tell me that she was going to marry her old brother, but now she says she is going to marry Joseph!! “  Sooooo cute.  Actually, at one point Joseph seemed to get irritated with her always following him around and wouldn’t do the Hokey Pokey with her (wowza) during the music time, which sent her off sulking.  This is new social territory for mommy to navigate.  But we mended things and look forward to seeing more of C (though playgroup is over now and she lives faraway).  Actually, Joseph does seem to enjoy playing with girls sometimes.  At one playgroup he was rolling around with some of his favorites.  One parent commented, “Brad would be proud”, to which a father responded, “I’m proud” and he snapped this photo.  He sent it entitled LL Cool J and explained that this stands for “Ladies Love” ;)

They don’t look terribly excited, but I think they just didn’t want to pose for the picture.