Summer Stuff

In an effort to sneak some last remnants of summer in before we officially, officially turn to fall in October (yes, I know it's already officially fall but October is REALLY fall, even in NC!), here are a few odds and ends about our more low-key summer activities.

First, even though in some ways it didn't feel like it, we really did spend some time at home. And somehow we managed to find things to do, besides just celebrating birthdays!

"rabby" ears and upside down shutter shades = cool

everybody plays dress up!

ahhhh, funny face!

daddy snuggles

Of course, we also got out of the house, and not just on big trips to faraway places. We also hit the pool (more in another entry), the local science museum (again more later), parks, playgrounds, berry patches and more.

attempt at a baseball game with the Harrisons in town

game got rained out, but the cousins still had fun

visiting daddy's work for a lunch date

that one looks good....

mmm it was a good one!

nope, no berries in this mouth...

berries are everywhere, life is good

berry munchers senior and junior

Finally, in addition to all the birthday cakes that have been appearing on the blog lately, there were also other fun treats. Usually the frozen kind because summer is hot! Hope you all had a good summer! Now on to fall!

Popsicles!

stuff it in

boy that's cold

whoops! I thought I was eating faster than that!

Happy Summer!

Four and more

Eliza turned FOUR this past week and we spent almost the whole week celebrating her!

On her actual birthday (Tuesday), we went out for breakfast at Rise. It was delicious! Eliza thoroughly enjoyed her vegan lemon cake donut (also known as "the one with the pink frosting"), and I loved my pimento cheese and fried green tomato biscuit. Hayden made her chococlate chocolate cake donut disappear very quickly and Molly took bites of whatever we shared with her! We didn't do a big family birthday dinner because I had an early soccer game, but Eliza did get to open a present and had sherbert for dessert.

Donuts plus Eliza =  happy!

Happy Birthday donut girl!

On Wednesday, we had her family birthday dinner. Her selection was hot dogs, squash (sauteed summer squash), baked beans and cheetos; a big hit with everyone! For the cake, we made buttermilk cake with strawberries and whipped cream. It was delicious! I think I had given her too much choice about the cake and it took her a long time to decide what she wanted. First there was lemon, then lemon and strawberry, but we settled on this one a few days before. She ended up eating mostly the whipped cream and strawberries but that's okay. Present opening was fun. Everything excited her, especially the big box of clothes from her cousins. I think she tried on everything at least twice. The big jar of cheeseballs was also a hit - though it wasn't quite the cheese ball spewing volcano she had put on her birthday list!

carefully assembling the cake layers

decorative top

new dress up outfit from mom and dad

even H likes to document - looking thru her camera recently, it was pictures of animals and cakes!

make a wish!

to give you perspective on size! the cake was HUGE! Popop wondered if we were setting a bad precedent - 4 layers for the 4 year old!

Yesterday we had a butterfly fairy princess party for her. We had three families come, plus Grandma and Popop, to play and have dinner with us. We tried to keep it fairly low-key, just letting the kids play together. There were some planned activities - make your own buttefly/fairy wings, find the fairy and build a fairy house, and then we played some parachute games with E's new parachute (thanks grammy and granddad!). The kids enjoyed the pizza, cheeseballs and butterfly cakes. The finale of fireworks and butterfly favors dazzled everyone as we sent them off to bed!

butterfly favors

butterfly cakes (guarded by fairies)

fairy house! (the kids loved finding the fairies I had hidden around the yard)

our little butterfly

inside the tent we set up for the party (basically a sheet over a piece of rope)

big kids goofing off in the hammock

dinner!

the butterfly says "Cheese!"

are butterfly wishes better?

which would you choose, pink or blue butterfly?

it's hard to wait patiently for cake to be served

parachute games!

watching the fireworks

So now Eliza is four and getting more grown-up every day. She loves school, is great with Molly (she is often the one to get Molly's shoes on in the morning, with no prompting from me!) and continues to be a fun, goofy, smart little girl. She still has her drama moments, where her immediate response is to burst into tears, no matter what the situation, but she's getting better. Happy Birthday Eliza! We love you even more at FOUR!

Michigan (and more)

The only bad part of my Hawaii trip was learning the sad news that Ammi, Jason's grandmother, died while I was gone. Besides the sadness of the event, it also created some logistical issues as Grammy left early to fly to Michigan, and I got to start packing again almost as soon as I walked in the door. We left the house less than 24 hours after I had returned to drive up to Michigan. Everything about the trip went smoothly (thankfully) and we were very glad to be able to attend the final celebration of Ammi's life and see all kinds of DeRousie family. However, because of various hotel and state hopping, I calculated that I had ended up sleeping in 7 different beds (in 4 different states) over the course of 9 days! It was quite the traveling adventure.

After a quick reunion, the girls were quite amenable to a road trip. Their excitement at staying in a hotel was just hilarious. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express (which they pointed out EVERY one on the way there, and for the rest of the trip) after bedtime, they were bouncing off the walls with excitement!

can't you just feel the excitement!?! a hotel room?! WOW!

After West Virginia, we headed up to Michigan (ironically circling around Columbus!), and met up with the rest of the DeRousie family by late afternoon. The girls quickly reaquainted themselves with the extended DeRousie family and had a great time playing with cousins.  I even got to partner with Poppa for euchre, which I considered to be a great honor!

Molly's first legit lollipop - she was so happy after illegally tasting them previously

pile on Uncle Roy! (I think... it's hard to tell...)

The next day was the celebration of Ammi's life at the local firehall where Poppa had served as firechief for 17 years. There were lots of fun pictures to look at (I took some photos of the pictures so I could save/share them) and the girls had fun playing with their cousins and other relatives, while mooching as many cookies and lemonade sips they could manage.

the DeRousie clan. Only missing one cousin I think.

Posing with Poppa

Mooching off Grammy

Ammi. I think Eliza kind of looks like her.

Mooching off Granddad

Poppa and his firetruck (how cool is that!? He had a fire truck!)

Ammi and Jason, circa 1977. If you want to know where the girls get their cheeks from.... :)

cousin chaos

a couchful of cousins

enjoying Michigan corn, even with all the holes in her mouth. yum!

Molly does a little stretching

watching the dinner train (station was next door) head out

With no disrespect to family, I think the girls would have said that the best part of the trip was getting to go in the pool.  We went at least twice, including one right-before-bed trip that they just loved. They have made a lot of progress with their swimming this summer, so they love any opportunity to swim! We also learned that Molly can sing with pop songs  - do you recognize what she's singing?!(so the video is from the car, but she started singing it at the pool, just randomly!)

entering the pool

let's play toss the baby!

our orange-bug-eyed fish

a flying fish!

After another night in Michigan, and stopping by to see family again in the morning, we headed back to Columbus for the day. It was good to be out of a hotel room, and have some time to run around and visit Graeter's! The next morning we headed back to NC. I'd like to give a shoutout to the Wendy's employee, who when we stopped in Greensboro for frostys (only an hour from home mind you!), gave us free toys when E started crying (randomly, for something small I can't remember now) and those toys were complete entertainment for the rest of the drive! Life saver!

We made it home a little bit sad to have said goodbye, but safe and sound, happy to have seen so much loving family. We are so thankful to have spent time with Ammi (especially last summer in the UP) and that all three girls were able to meet her. We'll miss you Ammi!

Molly, Jason and Ammi last summer