Can a Picture Be Worth 1,000,000 Words?

Don't It Make You Smile?

I PACKED MY LAST SCHOOL LUNCH OF 2013!!! WOO!!! HOO!!!

(Can you tell that I hate packing lunches?)

This is a phenomenon that I truly don't understand in myself. I mean, I make the children nearly the exact same lunch at home, but it doesn't seem to bother me too much. Unfortunately, there will be at least one week of packing camp lunches this summer, so I'm not totally off the hook, but that's not until the end of July.

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We are having a weekend pool party cook out friendship bonanza this weekend, which will include 8 adults, one of which is pregnant, 4 children, including an adorable pair of 9-month old twin boys, and one puppy, sleeping in our home. Plus our crazy clan. We kind of did one of these a few years ago in WV (see here) and it was great fun. So we decided to expand things a bit for even more fun! If you don't hear from me after this weekend, assume I died happily of a friendship overdose.

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The peas are in their pods! At least some of them are. Most of them are still just little white pea blossoms, but it won't be long until we are feasting on garden peas! And some of my tomatoes and cucumbers are also flowering. Oh, the bounty we'll have once all of this is all edible! 

Princess Tea Party Extravaganza!

Lucy recently turned four, and Maggie is about to turn two. (Did I just type that? GAH!) Since school was just getting started around Lucy's birthday, we decided that this year we would have a small, combined party for the girls. That was back in June, and until about mid-August I totally forgot to, you know, plan anything. Luckily my mother happened to discover a little tea shop (it might actually be a shoppe) near her house that dabbles in princess themed tea parties! Cue the sparkle!

We got together with a small group of family this weekend to celebrate, and the girls couldn't have been more excited. They got all dressed up for the occasion! We had a bit of trouble finding a Rapunzel dress that would fit Maggie, because she's apparently quite small, even for a two year old. Luckily I've been watching Project Runway for about a dozen years now (at least it seems that way) and so, with the help of a seam ripper and some hot glue, I was able to make some minor adjustment to keep her dress from falling off of her. A few tiaras later and we were ready to go!

The girls gasped when they saw their table!

They each had their own tea pot with strawberry lemonade pink tea, real glass tea cups, and a craft. Then they were joined by two of their cousins.

Princess represent! They ate heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, strawberries and marshmallows. Then they had rainbow ice cream for dessert. Maggie LOVED blowing out the candles, so much so that we let her do it several additional times. It was too effing cute.

Despite it being a small affair, the girls were showered with tons of lovely gifts. It looks like the princess section of the disney store exploded in their room, which of course is about the best thing that could ever happen to a couple of little girls. I hardly ever see them, and Lucy didn't even want to go to school this morning beacuse then she wouldn't get to play with all of her stuff!

Oh, and the grown ups had a lovely lunch as well, with tea and home made scones, salad and delicious sandwiches, cheesecake and ice cream. I highly reccomend it, if you're in the area!

Food, Fun, Family and More Cake Pops!

This past weekend was filled with family fun. On Friday night we celebrated my little brother's 30th birthday, and his recent wedding, with 65 members of our immediate family. In honor of the happy couple, we made some of their favorite foods, like chicken and rice, rice and beans and HAM!

My brother and his first love, ham.

This was also the event for which the oft mentioned cake pop wedding cake was made. I have to say, that overall, I was pleased. There are things I would change if I were to do it again, but the end result was kind of pretty!

There were many more pops to be had, but I didn't consult with an engineering firm before constructing my tower, so it reached its load limit pretty quickly. Luckily it did not topple, and as long as you don't look too closely you can't see the drinking straws my cousin provided to help rig it up.

Luckily, they were plenty yummy, so no one minded that display was sub-par.

The party that night was a lot of fun, and for the first time in a long, long while, all of my cousins from my mother's side of the family were present. So of course we had to grab my grandparents and get a photo!

Saturday was the big family golf tournament, but that is a dude only event. Besides, I was home recovering from staying up until after 2am on Friday and baking dozens of cookies for the next day.

Then on Sunday we attended the big reunion picnic for my father's side of the family. All of my dad's brothers were there.

Seven boys and their dad.

There was drinking from the pump down at the farm...

Sack races...

Pie eating contests...

Tree climbing...

And face painting!

It's kind of like something that you might read about in a book and think, "What year does this take place, 1950? There aren't families like this anymore!" Well guess what? You're dead wrong. We've done this every summer for at least the past 30 years, and one day I'll be taking my grand kids to the farm for the family picnic.