Summer List Wrap-up

School starts next week for me.  I am really starting to get excited.  I've had such a great summer.  Xander has added a joy to our family, Amirah is learning what it means to be a big sister, and Ysmaille and I are along for the ride!  Here's what we accomplished:

• visit Lake Tobias
• have a picnic and swimming at Fuller Lake
• make bubble art
• make frozen bananas
• paint my nails sea foam green
• paint with ice cubes
• go to Britton Park
• feed the ducks and fish at City Park
• watch fireworks

Here's what I still have to do...

• spend an evening at the Municipal Pool
• finish shutters (for some reason I am not motivated to finish this project.  Maybe if I knew what I was going to do with the shutters...)
• make a water pinata
• make homemade ice cream
• get a couples massage at Warm Springs (Ysmaille and I are doing this next weekend.  So excited!)
• go to the pet store
• catch lightning bugs
• make donuts around the campfire
• take Amirah to Voila
• sleep all night long (Oh, God, please let this happen soon!)

Below are some pictures of our visit to Fuller Lake and making our bubble art for the bathroom.

 Xander just couldn't take the fun we were having at Fuller Lake. 

 Fuller Lake is our best find of the summer.  Amirah just loves playing in the sand!  Isn't her suit just adorable?

 I had to take a family picture after I realized we were all wearing some shade of torquoise. 

 This is Amirah making bubble art.

The finished product.  Now these light blue walls are a wild shade of orange.  The jury is still out on how we feel about that...



Afternoon Tea

Ysmaille's working overtime this afternoon, which means I have an extra hour on my hands.  I needed an activity to keep the kiddos busy, so I thought why not have a tea party?  

 The guests arrived all decked out with hats and necklaces.  It was a beautiful sight to behold.  (If you look closely at the picture on the right you can see a milk mustache.)  The guest dressed in green was quite a diva and requested MILK of all things at a tea party.  Being the polite hostess that I am I didn't deny her.

This particular guest was a dud.  I hated to be rude, but he just fussed and complained the whole time, until I finally told him to take a nap.  Don't tell his pediatrician, but I put him on his belly because he sleeps better that way.

 We even had a special seat for the little "dud", but I guess you just can't please everyone.

Did I mention we had pancakes instead of crumpets?  Like I said my guests were very particular. 

The Summer List Saunters On

I'm not 100% confident that our Summer List will be completed.  At this point I'm not even 50% confident it will be completed.  But the thing is, we are having fun.  We've done some fun projects that weren't even on our list and compared to how I felt at the beginning of the summer (sad, tired, frazzled, etc.) I am so happy!  Don't get me wrong, somedays are crazier than others, but overall we are having such a fun time.  This is such a conflicted time of year for me.  I totally love being at home with my kids, and yet I start to look forward to going back to work.  Dropping Xander off at the babysitter is going to rip a hole in my heart, but then I think of all the mothers who trust their "babies" into my care and I know that my job is such a vital and important one.  I digress... Back to our summer list...

 Feeding the ducks and fish at City Park (in Hagerstown) is something I've wanted to do with Amirah for awhile, and two weeks ago we got the chance to do it.  Please disregard her "just woke up from a nap" hair.

 Daddy and Amirah on a little adventure.  I just love the relationship these two have.  It makes my heart happy.

Amirah and I made frozen bananas (with chocolate and peanut butter) last week.  Oh man.  They were delicious.  As you can tell by Amirah's face she was pretty excited, too.

 Painting with ice cubes was really fun.  I just froze water with food coloring and then let Amirah move them around on a canvas.  As they melted they left water marks. 

Here's how it ended up.