Family Photos on the Beach

This summer while we were in Florida someone mentioned having

family photos taken at the beach. The lighting there is always perfect and the 

beach near my mom's house is not very crowded. I'm so glad we decided to do this! 

I just got the CD of all the images in the mail today. Here are a few of our favorites...

 The sky was cloudy which I like how it added texture in the background.

 The sun was setting, though still high enough in the sky that it wasn't orange yet. 

We were hunting for shells.

 There is a jetty where the water crashes up over the rocks. The kids love the pool it makes on the other side. I love how we are all one head taller than the next, though Aiden is catching up to me!

 Camille's curls were out in full force with the humid air. And that dress, love that dress, my mom whipped it out in one day just for the photo shoot! She is so talented, I'm going to make a post just to document all the dresses she has made so far. Amazing.

 Love his natural smile.

 super cute.

 Just us being us. Seeing these after school has started with the schedules and planning makes me realize how much fun we had this summer. Two weeks at the beach was a nice treat, I'm already looking forward to doing this again next summer!

 Daddy loves the giggles as he tosses them into the sky. Aiden is getting too heavy to do this but it still gets him laughing!

 Yea! We love the beach!

Having a great visit!

We have a shot like this before Camille was born. Now we have one of all of us.

 Peaceful.

LOVE.

Pre-K and 2yr class

Preschool time... this is Gavin's last year in Preschool! That hit me for the first time, just now, writing that. Everyone always says how fast kids grow up and it really does fly by, I guess I should clarify that a tad, the years fly by in a blur but sometimes the hours and minutes seem to drag on for an eternity especially on those whiny days.

 They woke up to a new book each and Camille got a little purse of "school supplies".

 Gluten free pencil pancakes with chocolate chips along with cantaloupe and bananas.

 Pancake art is not easy, the trick is to not flip the pancake!

 Camille and her school bus purse.

 Photos with our buddies, Noah and Ryan Nelson.

 Gavin and Camille by the St. Cats sign.

 The other Pre School sign.

 My big boy putting away his bag in Ms. Jenn's class.

And my little "big" girl putting her bag in Ms. Pat's class. She wasn't so sure she wanted to stay!

canning 100 lbs of tomatoes

On Friday we took a trip down to the farmer's market to pick up a few bushels of roma tomatoes. 100 lbs and only $26 later we had a load of red orbs. We also came home with cantaloupes, strawberries and some slicing tomatoes. After all you can't buy all those fresh tomatoes and not have a tomato sandwich for lunch!

I think this is the 4th annual canning party, we always have a day of fun and laughter.

Doesn't it just look so fresh and yummy!

 2 canners and 2 pots for blanching.

Then the time saving idea for blanching! Each year we tweek the process a bit, 

this one was a two thumbs up alteration.

 54 quart jars done and ready to squirrel away for winter.

First Day of 3rd Grade

It is hard to believe Aiden is starting 3rd grade!

 His day started off with sunbutter and jelly gluten free waffles.

 The annual photo with the school sign.

 All the littles in on the sign photo.

Learning cursive writing with Mrs. Holmes. Looks like Aiden is super excited to be back to school!

Lemonade Stand - Back to School theme

Aiden has been requesting a "stand" since Halloween. (He wasn't eating sugar at the time and wanted to sell/give his candy away.) Here we are the last week of Summer Break and thought that would be a perfect time for a stand... a Lemonade stand.

I was out on a walk the morning of trash pick up and saw a neighbor had put out an old style school desk. As I was home getting ready for the day I couldn't stop thinking about the desk, then the idea struck to have a Back to School themed lemonade stand. I quickly got ready, just enough to leave the house, put the kids in the van still in their jammies and picked up that desk! Then it was off to decide what we would put in our stand as well as how it would look.

I first asked Aiden to draw an apple then asked him to write "Back to School" THIS is what he came back with, my graphic designer heart skipped a beat...

...when he brought it in i jumped up clapping at the LOGO he created for the stand. He proceeded to explain that he turned to "o" into an apple and that just made me smile. He usually dislikes writing so much that he just does what he has to to get it done - My mommy heart smiled at his effort and creativity!

He then wanted to have something other than lemonade to sell, after a bit of brainstorming I found a recipe for apple cookies.

We  bagged them 3 to a bag and I used his apple drawing to make little tags that read Apple Bite Cookies.  I don't think many noticed the ABC reference.

Aiden made fresh popcorn with a popper on the stove, I think he thought it always came out of a microwave.

 We both giggled as one of the kernels shot out when he peeked in, glad it didn't hit anyone!

Our popcorn was served in paper cones.

Early that morning about 8am all of the littles, and their momma, were so excited we went out to set up some things as people came by we gave out some samples and even sold a few glasses!

I adore the lemon shaped signs as well as the chalk board style sign.

Aiden didn't want people to just get some refreshments and leave, he wanted it to turn into a giant playdate. We came up with the Lemon Café and it worked, we did have people hanging out!

Including our own littles.

The weather was perfect, it was a glorious day hanging out with friends and neighbors!

 Aiden recruited a few friends to help out with advertising!

We even had some of our very own Marietta Power workers come by for some refreshment.

There was a consistent stream of people from 3:50 until 8:30 that evening. It was a great time, I wish I had taken more photos (even though this is a crazy long post of photos) and been able to visit more with people. We even had friends from church drive out to visit us! What a wonderfully fun day!

Thank you to everyone that made this day special for our family by joining us! 

Everything was sold out, and an extra run was made by daddy when we ran out of lemonade too early, you just can't have a lemonade stand without lemonade!

We now have some lemonade in the freezer, the littles are wanting to do one last hurrah tomorrow after church, I'll report back if I can muster enough energy...