Summer Recap

The kids are back in school and it's back to work for me as well. I did take some of July and most of August off. I'm back and have quite a few things to share with you. I thought I'd start off easy here on the blog with a little recap of our summer...this summer we made our way to Malaysia to visit family and friends. Here's a pic of my boys with their great-grandmother. I love that there is a picture of a younger her in the background. We stayed for 2 weeks and included a whirlwind trip to KL and Singapore. As always we got back and wished we had stayed longer.

There was ONE beach trip...hoping to get one or two more in before it gets too cold and sports start up again.

Ice cream was on the menu A LOT. Even Diego got in on that and his favorite is Madulka's on the lake.

The vegetable garden survived the summer...thanks to our awesome house sitter...and provided us with plenty of fresh goods.

There was plenty of time spent with my boys...trying to get shots from different angles and I think I like this one.

There was also fishing, canoeing, shopping, home projects, video games, hikes, walks, grilled pizzas, etc. Here's to a great summer 2015...hope yours was wonderful and full of memories. Now onto scrapping those memories!

Around Here

We've been spending a lot of our time outdoors...camping, hiking, canoeing and most of all fishing! Sorry if I've been a little absent here and posts are coming in late, enjoying the last few days left of summer vacay.

Around Here

The theme has been baseball and more baseball with some summer thrown in the mix. We have been embracing the beautiful weather and time off from school and work (for me that is, DH is working).

The boys are both on different all star teams and this week, there are games every evening. Since they're both either playing or practicing, we have had some "alone" time in the outfield...we'll take what we can get, right? I hear other parents asking when the kids will lose so they can finally start summer vacation and I don't get it. Are their kids not enjoying themselves? Mine are. Summer is about summer ball, isn't it? And the season can be so short, it is a double elimination tournament...so why not enjoy every minute of it. True you have to stay in town and can't plan ahead but it will end at some point, no? The beach will still be there and school got out relatively early this year. Play on boys...and if you're still playing in August, we'll be in Williamsport :)

Besides that there is cotton candy at the ball field, ice cream after games, cookouts at coach's houses, pool team parties, reading in the shade at home, and the inevitable video games while resting up for yet another game. Soak it all in, enjoy the moment...that's what I'm telling myself.

Weekend Wrap-up

Saturday was spent running around from parties to games to errands but ended up with a quiet evening finishing up leftovers for dinner. It was then that it hit me...it's unofficially summer!!! Which means I get to start taking pictures for my #100daysofsummer project. I mentioned it in my post HERE and am planning on doing this:

1. Brainstorming some fun summer activities.
2. Take a picture of the activity or a summer daily
 3. Post said picture to Instagram with #100daysofsummer.
4. Print photos and compile it into a 100 Days of Summer album. Looking at two options...

• Digitally - a BLURB album, starts at 12.99 for 20 pages
• Paper and glue - We R Memory Keepers has some new Instagram Albums on the market. Alternatively, Project Life albums would also work for this. Instagram photos would have to be printed in polaroid style but there would be room for journaling. Also, 12x12 layouts could be added into the album for major events with multiple photos.

5. Print photos into a poster. Persnickety Prints has a 24x36 Insta Print that I am dying to try out.

You can follow me on Instagram or even better...join me for this fun little project. Leave a comment with your @callsign and make sure you # your pics.

I started on Sunday and here are my pics...

100 Days of Summer

We celebrated our younger son's 12th birthday a few weeks ago and hubby mentioned they weren't kids anymore...that at events and in our travels, they now counted as adults. Four adult tickets, please! Where has the time gone? How is it even possible that they have grown so much?    

My boys Jan 2005

I know I didn't miss much of it...I am a stay home mom after all but it's been busy the last few years. And yet lately it feels like a different kind of busy. What I mean is, when they were little it was about caring for them, diapering, bathing, feeding, monitoring, entertaining, etc. Now we are busy with our own lives...it feels weird to type that out but it's true. The boys have their own interests, friends they would rather hang out with than with mom and dad, their own activities and soon they'll be on their way out into the real world. I would like to hang on to these last few years and the best way is to document it. This summer I am going to start a project called 100 Days of Summer (#100daysofsummer) and document our summer. We'll still be spending most of our days together this summer...next summer I'll have a high school-er and a middle school-er, and hanging out with mom won't be as much fun anymore.

So how exactly am I going to execute my 100 Days of Summer project?
1. The boys and I will sit down and brainstorm a list of things to do this summer. We've done this the past few summers.
2. Take a picture of the activity.
3. Post said picture to Instagram #100daysofsummer.
4. Print photos and compile it into a 100 Days of Summer album. Looking at two options...

• Digitally - a BLURB album, starts at 12.99 for 20 pages
• Paper and glue - We R Memory Keepers has some new Instagram Albums on the market. Alternatively, Project Life albums would also work for this. Instagram photos would have to be printed in polaroid style but there would be room for journaling. Also, 12x12 layouts could be added into the album for major events with multiple photos.

5. Print photos into a poster. Persnickety Prints has a 24x36 Insta Print that I am dying to try out.

Won't you join me?