Happy Faces and Hot Dogs

We had such a fun day today.

 My mom, along with my sister B, and her crew, came over this morning and spent the better part of the day hanging with us at our neighborhood pool. 

 The kids always have a blast playing with their cousins, and B and I spent the morning chatting about our upcoming trip to the beach. It's gonna be such an AWESOME trip this year with our little gang. We can hardly wait!!!

Oh, and since today was "National Hot Dog" day, we decided it would be fun to celebrate together!

We all enjoyed a good ole' grilled hot dog while sitting poolside. 

I can't think of a better way to celebrate than that;)

National Ice Cream Day

 Sunday night, we headed over to my parents house to celebrate National Ice Cream Day! 

 My mom made her famous Frosty's,  and they were absolutely DELICIOUS!!! We had plenty of toppings to go around, and the kids had fun building their own "Frosty Sundae's"!

It was a wet, rainy night out, but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying an evening dip in the pool!

 What a sweet "holiday" to celebrate!!

And what a bummer National Ice Cream day only comes once a year;)

Adventures at the Waterpark!

This truly has been one of the BEST summer's I think we have had yet. 

 Not just because of the stuff we are doing, but because the kids are all (finally) at such great ages. 

 The little ones are really not so little anymore, and the big boys are not only my BEST helpers, but are just fun to hang with! 

 Don't get me wrong, we still have our fair share of meltdowns every now and again, but for the most part everyone is (usually) happy, content, and able to participate in what ever activity it is we are doing that day. 

 Yesterday, we spent the ENTIRE day with sweet friends at Carowinds water park! The kids had a BLAST riding the water slides, jumping some waves, and splashing on the splash grounds. 

 Beatin' the heat, stayin' cool, and havin' FUN= an AWESOME summer day!!

LOVE this quote:

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
--Henry James

and I couldn't agree more;)

Painting with pudding: the summer tradition continues

We spent most of the day at the pool today, but when thunder clouds rolled in and threatened our time in the sun, we decided to head home and continue with our own kind-of fun there! 

And what's more fun than paining with pudding, right?!?! 

This has become a Bruce family summer tradition for several years now, and one my kids look so forward too. 

 We absolutely LOVE doing this and the kids have a blast covering themselves from head to toe in a chocolaty mess! 

 Sweet Addy-Kate wasn't too sure what was going on at first though, and she had a hard time figuring out if this was art, or her afternoon snack;)

 After everyone was thoroughly covered in pudding, it was time to crank on the water and hose everyone down.

 I think everyone had just as much fun getting clean again as they did painting!

...and the summer tradition lives on;)

Uptown fun

Yesterday,  the kids and I spent the morning at one of our very favorite places... Imaginon! We had tickets (thanks to a sweet friend) to see their "Terrific Tuesday" performance.
 It was a really neat hand puppet show and the kids LOVED it!! 

 When the program was over, everyone got a pair of silly eyeballs so they could practice making their own hand puppets at home;)

And since we were already in uptown visiting, we thought it would be fun to meet Daddy for a quick lunch date! Shane's office is only a few blocks away from Imaginon, so the kids and I enjoyed a nice stroll through town as we made our way to his building.
In order to get in to Shane's office, we each have to have temporary ID badges made every time we visit. The kids think its fun getting their picture taken, and love having their own ID tags...just like Daddy.
We decided it would be easier (aka cheaper) to bring our own picnic lunch from home, and we enjoyed eating together  in the lunch room on Shane's floor.

After saying  "goodbye" to Daddy, we headed back onto the streets of town and enjoyed our stroll back to the car. Along the way, we ran into "the balloon man" and he made the kids each a  balloon creation of their choice.

Two crazy hats, two beautiful flowers, and one mighty sword later..our fun day in town was made complete!

In the sun and cousin fun...

 SUMMER IS...

 warm sunny days
cool starry nights
flowers and birds
and mosquito bites

a babbling brook
through a dark green wood
watermelon and sweet corn
they taste so good

celebrating our freedom
with fireworks, so loud
at a fair or a festival
getting lost in the crowd

dog days and thunder storms
picnics and hikes
outdoor plays and concerts
  riding our bikes

leaving windows open
getting tan in the sun
time to sip lemonade

and have some fun!!

Poem found here:http://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/23091/40.html

Sunday--FUN day

 Yesterday afternoon we decided to take the kids to Carowinds! 

 And despite the fact the heavens opened, and it poured on us the first 20 minutes we were there, we all had an absolute BLAST!!! 

 The kids LOVE Carowinds and seriously ask every.single.day if we can go! 

 We usually buy season passes each year, but skipped last year because a good chunk of our summer was spent in China;) 

It's great to have passes again, and it makes is easy to justify just going for a few hours here and there.

It's also the one place we go as a family that EVERYONE equally enjoys!

Big kids, little kids, and grownups alike...we ALL love CAROWINDS!!

Our Tri-athletes!

Saturday afternoon, the "big boys" participated in a kids only triathlon. And like EVERY other day this month, the weather man was calling for scattered thunder storms ALL afternoon. We weren't sure the rain would hold off for us, but thankfully it did!! 

It actually ended up being perfect race weather!

 Corban's age group was up first.

In his division, the kids were required to swim 100 meters, bike 3/4 of a mile, and then run 1 mile.

Cor did an amazing job and we were so proud of his efforts!!

His confidence has grown so much and Shane and I appreciate the determination we see him put into these events.

Soon it was our sweet RiRi's turn to race.

His requirements for his age bracket were a little less intense.
Riley had to complete a 50 meter swim, a 3/4 mile bike ride, and then a 1/2 mile run!

He totally ROCKED it!!!

The "three amigo's" were ALL smiles after such a GREAT race!!

To celebrate our super stars, after the race we had dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, followed by a sweet treat from Brusters!!!

Such a fun way to spend a Saturday!

An "Utterly" great day!

Today was "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chic-fil-a. If you visited one of their restaurants, dressed like a cow from head to toe, you would receive an entire meal for FREE!! 

 Yes, an entree, side, and drink for FREE!!!! And with this many mouths to feed...FREE always rocks!!! 

 We were afraid it may be quite busy, so instead of having breakfast or lunch there, we enjoyed brunch.

We met my sister-in-law Sallie and her girls there, along with my sweet friend, Celia and her crew too. 

The kids ate, played and had a UTTERLY grand time:)

After our brunch, we headed home and ended up having an ALL BOYS play date! With three "extra boys" here for the afternoon, the playroom was filled with continuous chatting and spontaneous laughter!
They settled down just long enough to watch a movie and enjoy a bowl of ice cream;)

Then tonight, we headed over to our church for Shane's softball game!

 This year, my sister, KK and my brother, Steve are also playing together on the team!

We always have sooooo much FUN hangin' out with our friends and family and cheering our team onto victory. We are UNDEFEATED so far this season!!!
Whooo Hoooo!!!!

What a GREAT way to end another wonderful week filled with nothin' but summer fun!

Science and Slurpee's

It's been an unusually rainy summer for us down here in the south. 

 We are usually experiencing water restrictions by this time in July because of a drought. However, this summer we have had more flash flood warnings than anything else.

 It's crazy. So, when we realized that the weatherman was calling for storms again today, my friend Juli and I decided to take our little crew uptown to visit discovery place! 

 They have an AWESOME new exhibit which is all about animal "Gross-ology" 

  It's a really well-done display and one my boys in-particular REALLY enjoyed;) 

 We had such a FUN day!!

And did you know that today was "National Slurpee Day"?? Seriously! All day today each seven eleven was giving away FREE slurpee's to all their customers. So on our way home from discovery place, we stopped by our local store to pick up our free slurpee's.

It was the perfect way to end a fun day spent with friends;)