4th of July

Time to recap our 4th of July. It was fairly uneventful since we didn't go out of town this year and since it fell on a Sunday. But we still managed to enjoy it and have a fun time. So, for starters, we went to church, came home, took naps...so you see, we were off to a good start, right? But then we grilled outside for dinner while the boys did some snaps on the cement. And who doesn't love doing some snaps, huh?




This was my masterpiece of the day. A blueberry pie...from scratch! Using our blueberries we picked the weekend before. And I learned that making a pie from scratch is difficult, but oh so yummy...and then you top it with some homemade vanilla ice cream and you're pretty much in heaven. Garrett told me it was hands down the best pie he'd ever eaten. And I gave myself a big ol' pat on the back, thankyouverymuch. :)

Then it got dark enough to do our fireworks. We drove to the neighboring parish to buy them, as we've done every year that we've been in town for the 4th and the boys always get to pick out a "special" one of their own. But of course, we had to start with sparklers!

And let me preface this by saying that Sam has hated, despised, loathed--whatever you want to call it--fireworks since he was a baby. Screaming, crying, the works. It's sheer and utter terror for this kid (I honestly think it's a suppressed memory he has of getting burned by a small spark from a sparkler when he was 10 months old...or his birthday candles when he turned one. Now that I think about it, that probably explains a lot!). But we talked a lot about how it would be okay and not scary and he would survive, etc. So he we warmed him up with some sparklers. And he did pretty good. It took a lot of convincing to hold one, but he did it and he actually really liked it!

So then we took the chance to light off "his" firework which was a tractor. He sat on my lap holding on for dear life and then the thing started shrieking and popping and crackling and shooting out flames and the boy just lost it. He immediately turned around and hugged me as if he was really seriously going to die, screaming at the top of his lungs. I'm sure neighbors were thinking someone suffered a serious firework injury by the sound of things. So, okay, not very successful this year with the fireworks! Maybe next year! So he sat inside at the bottom of the stairs while we lit off the rest of them and then he came back out for more sparklers.


See, sparklers are fine...anything else is not. I can still see the remains of tears in his eyes and snot under his nose from crying so hard right before this! The sad thing about it is, the rest of us LOVE fireworks. We used to love going to Friday night baseball games just as much for the fireworks as anything else. Tyler has loved them since he was teeny tiny, even big huge loud ones. No big deal. It's amazing how different these boys are sometimes! So Sam's fear of fireworks has put a damper on the firework love for the rest of us. But it's all right! I'm sure he'll come around, right??? :)
And that is a wrap of the 4th of July (and closing with a sampling of one of our really amazing driveway fireworks. Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic!)!

Here, Fishy Fishy

July 2nd
It was hot.
But we hadn't been outside for ages, it seemed.
So we ventured out.
And we survived.
And here are the photos to prove it.

I realized we hadn't been fishing for a long, long time. So we tried it. And it was a huge hit!
And if you can judge success by the amount of sweat produced, we were breaking records.

Nearly every cast produced a fish, so how can you go wrong.
A simple bait of bread. Yep, bread.
And no worms for me to mess with.

And these boys could not have been happier with the situation...and paid no attention to the sweat pouring off their foreheads.

Tyler insisted on touching EACH and EVERY fish.
Before we threw them back in the water.

Sam, on the other hand, enjoyed catching them but definitely not touching them.

And for me, here's my catch of the day. I think I did pretty well, if I do say so myself.
(but you will not see a picture of me and the amount of sweat I produced that day!)

June Wrap Up

Here are just a few random pictures to wrap up June... back on June 11, we went to a crawfish boil/going away party for some friends. And to those of you who may not know this...the crawfish are alive until the boil. So, in an effort to entertain the kids until the food is ready, what do you do? You have crawfish races, of course! Yes, this is my child just playing around with a live crawfish. And could he possibly look any happier? I just had to sit back and laugh at the things my kids do as they grow up in Louisiana!

Random picture of Sam, but he was being awfully sad about something. So I took a picture. Even with a pouty face, the kid sure is cute!
My anniversary flowers from our 10th anniversary. Aren't they gorgeous?! We had celebrated the weekend before the actual anniversary, which was a good thing since Garrett was out with clients for work that night and we hardly saw each other that day. I think he got home at 11:00 that night or something. But he was sweet enough to send these over during the day. And of course, they sure made my day!

On June 2, we kicked off summer vacation with a visit to a bounce house. The boys love, love, loved it, as you can tell!



And last but not least, the long anticipated opening weekend of Toy Story 3 on June 19!!! We didn't think we were going to make it as it looked like Garrett was going to be working the weekend preparing for a trial, but Friday afternoon, the case settled and he was home free! So we went and we LOVED it. It was great, the boys had been looking forward to it for months. And I loved seeing them in their 3D glasses! So funny! (thanks to Garrett for the camera pics!)

And now it looks like we need to move on to July...and it's gonna be a doozy!!!

Fresh from the Field, take 2

So, since we had such a great time picking fresh strawberries in April, I knew that there was no way we could miss out on blueberry season this year. I have become a little bit obsessed with fresh produce. It just tastes so good and I love challenging myself to use it in lots of different ways. The only problem with blueberry season is that it is smack dab in the middle of June and it is HOT! But I figure an afternoon spent sweating would be good for us all and well worth it!

So, on June 26, we headed North once again and found the bushes heavy with berries and went to work filling up our buckets. Here are a "few" pictures of our outing!

And just like the strawberries, for every berry that went in the bucket, two went in the mouth. Eating them right out of the field--delicious!

And Sam is becoming very funny when he is proud of something he is doing...he always comes to me and says "mom, take a picture of this", so our blueberry day was full of photo requests. I have a million pictures just like this one above since he insisted on a picture of every berry he picked!

And Garrett joined us...and was taking the UV rays seriously my friends. He insisted on the hat, the glasses, and sunscreen. And then we ended up being in the shady end of the field!

Really, those branches were LOADED with gorgeous berries!

And in case you didn't notice, the boys were sweating to death. It was HOT, HOT, HOT!



Of course after a little while, the boys started losing interest in picking berries and were happier to be goofing around and eating them faster than we could pick them. They started sticking berries underneath their top lip and then smiling and they thought it was absolutely Hi.Larious! I can't look at this picture without laughing because I can hear them giggling.

Inspecting the berries very carefully...

Boy, do I love these boys!

So with 3 full gallons of berries, we headed home--but not without picking up an ice cream maker on the way. So that was the first thing we made...homemade blueberry cheesecake ice cream. And it was positively delicious! We froze the rest and have used them in just about everything--I've loved having them on hand. They have been great for smoothies, pies, ice cream, and snacking to name a few. I'll be sad when they are all gone!