BIRTHDAY RIVER RUN

Jay joined the group this morning for Francine's 50th birthday run along the river. She's the lady furthest to the left (she sure doesn't look 50, does she?!)

Clockwise from Francine: Terry, JP, Mack, Tank, Daniel, Jay, Lee, Lori, and Amy

END OF THE WEEK TREAT

Daycamp doesn't send home behavior reports like school did, so we have to rely on the kids' personal opinions as to whether they had a "good day" or "bad day" each day (and yes, they have turned themselves in for time-outs twice this summer...) Regardless, just like during the school year, if they have a full week of good behavior, they get an ice cream treat (of their choice) on Friday afternoon. Sometimes we go to Orange Leaf or Bops or Baskin Robbins, but sometimes we just stop at the corner store for James' favorite ice cream cookie sandwich and Cora's favorite popsicle. Today was one of those days, and you would have thought the kids won the lottery. I love that the simple things in life can make them so happy...

BARLEY'S ANGELS: FLORIDA

Since we went to Florida last month with the knowledge that I'd be hosting Barley's Angels this month, we came home with a plethora of Florida brews. I picked 5 of them to share with the ladies tonight and paired them with things we'd snack on at the beach (watermelon, chips, crab dip, etc.)

Bold City's Killer Whale Cream Ale was a surprise hit (Jay told me he hates cream ales and that other people might not like it - I really liked it though!), 3 Daughter's Beach Blonde was good (but not my favorite - we had another brewing companies blonde that was better: Veterans United's Raging Blonde), Cigar City's Hotter than Helles Lager was AWESOME (my favorite - and not spicy, just meant to be enjoyed when it's hotter than hell outside...), Intuition Ale Works' I-10 IPA was a very drinkable IPA (I like IPAs anyway, but this one was especially tasty and refreshing), and the only non-can beer we picked up (we were aiming to showcase beers that can be enjoyed at the beach, where glass bottles aren't allowed) was Florida Beer Company's Swamp Ape Double IPA (no idea why this was called Swamp Ape and not Skunk Ape, as the south Florida legend goes...), which was definitely a heavy hitter and nobody's favorite except for Lisa (so I sent her home with the second bottle).

POOL ANTICS

James spent most of his Sunday afternoon pool session at the waterslides again. He wanted photographic evidence of his sliding bravery, but I was having a very hard time capturing his victories with anything more than splashes...

After I showed him the photos, all snapped just a second too late, he told me to try one more time. So I dutifully stood under the lifeguard tower and waited (and waited), and finally captured a very happy boy who purposely went down slowly, then waited for visual confirmation and a thumbs-up before plummeting into the pool. This boy...

This girl on the other hand... she waits for no one.

SMILEY FACES AND TEARY EYES

Daddy made giant smiley face pancakes this morning, which were a huge hit with the kids. And for the first time in months, we let them dunk (rather than cut up their pancakes and force them to use forks like the big kids they are - a change that they don't love), which sweetened the deal even more.

And as they sat there, shirtless in their undies (to avoid syrup drips on pajamas and princess dresses), I couldn't help but get all teary-eyed and sentimental about how long and lean those bodies have become. Wasn't it just yesterday that syrup covered their cloth-diaper clad, chubby little toddler and preschooler bodies?! Elementary school, here we come. Just one month of summer vacation left...

ICE CREAM SAFARI: 2015

Ready for a day in Jackson and more ice cream than you can honestly tolerate? YES!

We went to this event (the Ice Cream Safari) 3 years ago (how has it really been that long? Cora was still sporting her teeny-tiny baby pigtails...) with the Sanchez crew (we still miss them SO MUCH) and hadn't returned due to the daunting crowds and even more daunting heat and humidity... The crowds were even worse than we remembered, but the heat was exactly as we expected, so there's that. We just took advantage of the cold ice cream, and the fans and misters that were sprinkled throughout the zoo.

Does this express how hot it was? (never seen a giraffe rest like this before...)

In between loops of animal viewing, we hit up various tents for ice cream samples. I'm pretty sure Cora tried just 3 (ice cream is just not her thing - she's more a slushee and popsicle girl), James had 4 or 5, and Jay and I tried 6 or 7. Our friends at The 'Sip were handling the HippoBerry tent, and the Huckleberry ice cream was definitely one of our favorites. The kids liked the sherbet, birthday cake, and plain vanilla (where they had CANDY toppings, of course). I honestly preferred my favorite, Mint Chocolate Chip, and the other chocolatey varieties, like peanut butter fudge and mocha almond fudge (though I'll never understand why people ruin perfectly good ice cream by adding nuts to it...) I feel bad for not remembering all the cute ice cream names, but the tents did not loudly and proudly display them this year, so they were harder to figure out. There were 21 flavors total, and as a group, we didn't even hit up half of them. Guess we'll have to try again next year...

Tossing the kids to the flamingoes. A weird tradition Jay has...

With full bellies, we abandoned the animals and tent city for the splash pad...

After 2 hours in the heat, we were done. And hungry for some real food. So we headed up to our Jackson-area staple (Five Guys) for some lunch and more free splash pad playing. Well, James got to play. Cora refused to eat her lunch, and thus sat with me, picking at her cheeseburger for 45 minutes before finally giving in when we told her we'd skip the movie we had planned if she didn't eat...

His nut-cracking technique is a bit violent, but it works.

This little guy came to visit about halfway through the meal...

While Cora finished her food in time to attend the movie, she did not earn popcorn. When asked which character they were, they both pointed to Anger (because of his flaming head, obviously). After the movie, when we asked them again, Cora switched her vote to Disgust ("because she's the most beautiful!")

Since we purposely left the Kindles at home today (forcing the kids to read books or talk to us or sing in the car rather than zone-out), the ride home was quiet for a whole other reason...

Mission accomplished.

JUST A WEE ONE

Cucumber or watermelon?...

LATE NIGHT PUMPKINS

I went into work early today (rather than carpool with Jay) so that I could pick the kids up early and go home for a while before spin class (Jay had a Delta Brews meeting tonight, so I needed to take Buster out too). The kids were full of energy when I picked them up. Cora was dancing with the older girls (perhaps learning some cheerleading moves...) and James was in the gym (and had been there for almost 2 hours, according to the afternoon Daycamp supervisor, playing various sports and some group games, like "Ships and Sailors" - a favorite of both kids). I figured they'd crash on the way home, but no. They had popsicles, then went right back to running around - playing on the zipline and teeter-totter, then ransacking Cora's closet to play dress-up. When it was time to load up to go back to the gym, I was feeling guilty and told them we could just stay home if they wanted, if they were tired. They said no, and that they WANTED to go back to the gym (to see their other friends, in the gym daycare room), so off we went. By the time my class ended and I picked them up at 7:00pm, I expected to find them zoned-out in front of a movie. But no, they were playing tag (with bases!) and somehow still running wild, full of energy. Going home to force them into bed without Jay there as backup sounded painful, so I decided a late dinner at ChickFilA, with more running around (at their indoor playground), was in order. They made "new best friend" after "new best friend", and my 5 minute warnings were extended over and over as they laughed and played and begged to stay longer. Finally, at 8:15pm (15 minutes past their bedtime), I pulled the plug and told them we had to get home before they turned into pumpkins. As I buckled them into the van, I remembered that we had a Skype date with Grambot (before she left for Las Vegas) that we were now exceptionally late for... So we rushed home, Skyped anyway, and finally got to bed around 9:15pm. Much too late for a school night (okay, Daycamp/work night), but even then it was a struggle to get them calm and quiet and still. It took a couple extra songs and some corporal cuddling, but at least they were in bed (not asleep...) before daddy got home!

Everywhere we went tonight people asked me if Cora had come from dance class. Nope. She just refused to leave the house without the tutu and it wasn't worth arguing over.

S'MORES CONES

Catching tiny toads while daddy set up the campfire

Verdict? They taste great and are less messy than regular s'mores, but they require a little trial and error as far as campfire placement and length of cooking (our sugary waffle cones burned a bit, while the tiny marshmallows were not fully melted). We were working with a hot, quick fire this afternoon though between rain storms (we were lucky Jay was able to get any of the wet firewood lit at all!) and it was our first time making them, so I'm confident they'll be even better next time. I think we prefer them to regular s'mores!

The bonus is that you can ratio the marshmallows:chocolate chips to your individual preference, plus add things like peanut butter or caramel chips or any number of other ingredients that might traditionally just fall out of your graham cracker sandwich (plus, I prefer waffle or sugar cones to graham crackers any day!)

ARIEL'S GROTTO

Auntie Robyn and Uncle Stephen sent Cora an Ariel Lego set for her birthday, and she decided she was going to put it together this morning with mama's help (instead of daddy's Lego expertise for once - though I admit to needing to call him in twice to help us locate our mistakes, in order to figure out where the "missing" pieces went).

 A couple hours (and a few breaks) later, she proudly showed off her creation.

Then she told me that she needs to put all her princess castles together (she has an Elsa set that she completed back in April, and a Rapunzel tower that Grambot and PawPaw sent her for her birthday that she still needs to put together). Since we used all the building plates to create the big Lego board that resides in James' room, we'll have to get her one big plate to make a small Lego board that can stay in her room.