What do You do With This Heat?

Days like yesterday, I wish we had a pool. I mean, I seriously LONG for one! Poor Nicholas, I don't think I've ever seen a sweatier kid. So the minute we got home, I told them to get their swimsuits on for this:

That's a Crazy Daisy. It flips around spraying everywhere! Of course, you can always just hold it, hosing your brother down with freezing cold water. Guess who did that? ;)
 
After that was another treat for hot, tired, hungry kids:

Such a wonderful beginning to summer :)

Tricks or Treats?

Last night was Trick-or-Treat in our neighborhood. The kids had a ball! We had actually bought costumes well in advance this year, which is something I never do since I'm a procrastinator at heart! The down side to this is that they lost some of the parts. I tell ya..I can't win here!

Without further lamenting, here's our little Trick-or-Treaters!

This picture is a little blurry, but I love it:
Our sweet little mermaid:
Nicholas is someone from GI Joe. We haven't seen it so I have no idea who he is!
Brandon was a commando-guy:
These boys love their action guys ;)

Ready to hit the candy trail!
We hope everyone has a fun and safe Tick-or-Treat!

The Fun Center

We have really been loving this nice weather! In a effort to enjoy of it as we can, we headed to a pumpkin farm yesterday so we could pick out our pumpkins before we need winter coats ;) At the last minute, I called Kristen to see if she wanted to join us since she has a bit of a break Wednesday afternoons and the pumpkin farm isn't too far from her school. We haven't seen much of our busy college girl this week so it was nice to spend some of the beautiful afternoon with her.

The fun center is a big hit with our gang.
Kristen left us to go back to class, but we stayed a while longer. There's so much to do there! We just bounce from one thing to another. I have more to come :)

Squeezing Out the Last Bit of Summer

We are ending this summer with a bang! A much anticipated (and needed!) beach trip! We've gone to Ocean Isle Beach several years now and we just love it! It's a quiet place where families can go and enjoy some time together. There are plenty of houses to rent oceanfront, but we love the condo where we stay ...and the pool! Sometimes it's just nice to play in the pool while you can still see and hear the ocean :)

In the meantime, we've been enjoying the last little bit of summer here at home too. We've always waited until after Labor Day to begin our school year and although I've been tempted in the past to start earlier but the kids are very comfortable with their schedule and so I'm reluctant to change it. Labor Day has been a nice marker for them and for me.

Anyway! Here's our last few weeks in pictures ;)

Yes, they got out the costume box!
An early morning snuggle...
We had so much rain and clouds last week, but we managed to sneak in some outside time.
This girl LOVES watermelon! I think she could eat one all by herself! (Yes this was costume day. Can you tell she's Cinderella now?)
I forgot to post this with the Lego post but it's so cute I wanted to share it! Nicholas took this picture of Megan's Lego store purchase :) Of course it's a tiger! hehehe
Tea party time! She made us bowls of pasta and tea, of course :)

Snuggling Daddy.
As usual, we've really enjoyed our summer! We all need a break at the end of our school year and we look forward to random, unscheduled days and fun!

This is going to be a very exciting year for us. Kristen will be starting college and Megan, our baby, will begin some more structured work. Nicholas is in the second grade and Brandon is in the sixth! Wow! Very exciting indeed!

Guess what the kids are doing? Yes! Playing a rousing game of dart tag! lol Boy do they ever love this game! I guess it's a great way to unwind after school; their teacher is a slave-driver;)