It’s inevitable

 

When you have lots of these:

 

and lots of these:

 

and a compliant one of these:

eventually, you’re going to end up with something like this:

 

July …

 

… started off with a bang!

… got pretty hot, which meant swimming, sometimes in very ingenious ways.

… has ended up being unseasonably and refreshingly cool.

… brought the long-awaited visit of a long distance friend.

… found me finally getting up the courage to tackle a huge paintstripping project. More on that later.

…gave us on the opportunity for an impromptu trip to Warren Dunes, Michigan for some hiking and swimming on a glorious mid-summer day.

 

 

 

… has been filled with late, late nights.

… gotten busier with the planning of a very special 50th anniversary celebration in August!

4-H

Courtney participated in the 4-H Photography class this year. She took lots of pictures and had a hard time narrowing it down to her favorites.

Courtney is very creative, has an eye for detail and enjoys a good story. I think all three of those characteristics came together very nicely in the picture she ended up submitting. The judge agreed: blue ribbon!

She actually laid down on the gravel road to take this shot. I think she should’ve gotten bonus points for that!

Favorite Photos: Ballet Beauty

Out of dozens of pictures I took of the girls dancing during ballet class this year, who would’ve thought this would be my favorite picture?

I took this back in March. I can’t believe I even got it. I had the long lens on so I could stay as far back as possible and still get some close-ups of the dancing. Sarah and Isabella were right in front of me and for just a moment, Isabella whispered into Sarah’s ear. I snapped as fast as I could and only got this one shot.

Independence Day, 2013

Independence Day dawned overcast and cool this year. And I was happy. For some reason, my outside pictures often turn out better on cloudy days. So, this year, there are lots and lots of pictures!

Heading Out

Everybody was so excited to go down to Grandma and Grandpa’s. Here’s little Trent, who was “Born in the U.S.A.” :-D He actually wore that thing for quite a long time that day. I was surprised! He’s getting older. <<sniff, sniff>>

Grant is getting older, too, and is able to contain his excitement on big days like the Fourth.

 

Since the girls are getting older, they’re able to help plan for big days like this. Courtney really wanted to do some red, white and blue fingernail painting, so there were lots of patriot fingernails “on hand” ;-)

The nail designs got more fancy as the day went on.

The Fourth of July Carnival

At Mom and Dad’s, the kids took the carnival idea from last year and expanded on it.

There were booths for making “Independence Day books”, “Independence Day wands,” a beauty salon booth and of course a nail salon. Unfortunately, there were so many kids manning the booths, that there weren’t a lot of customers to visit the booths, so there was a lot of sitting and waiting.

and waiting …

and waiting …

and waiting.

Not everyone was bored. The nail salon stayed busy.

As did the beauty salon.

But the most popular attraction was the face painting. The wait time was quite lengthy. And with good reason; the results were pretty amazing.

 

Here’s Claire, well on her way to becoming a cute bunny.

There was also a very cute clown.

One of the most requested designs was an animal of some sort. There were several puppies, which we managed to line up at one point for a photo.  Good doggies.

Here are some close-ups of Isabella’s face paint (courtesy of Glenn), which was pretty amazing:

 

Later, caving to intense peer pressure, Claire wiped off the bunny face and decided to become a puppy, too.

Kate painted this beautiful black stallion on Sarah, which looked so much like Walter Farley’s Black Stallion.

 

Noah, in true boyish fashion, requested a snake.

Second in popularity to the animals were requests for patriotic symbols: flags and fireworks.

  

  

and even a patriotic butterfly

(I couldn’t pick just one picture of Brooke here; she’s way off the cute-meter.)

When it was Grant’s turn, he asked Kate to draw a mustache “like this” and, with his fingers, traced curly swirls on his cheeks. I’m not sure where he saw a mustache like that, but seeing the final product was the highlight of the day for me.

 

Oh, wait, I almost forgot about Magnum P.I. (a.k.a. Dad). Definitely in contention for highlight-of-the-day moment for me. The background is this: a few days earlier, the kids caught some of an episode of Magnum P.I. Several of them thought Magnum P.I. looked like Grandpa! Back in the ‘80s, when the show was popular, Dad had a mustache similar to the actor, Tom Selleck. So, Dad asked Kate to paint a mustache on him, as a nod to his separated-at-birth twin, Magnum P.I. Hilarious!

Desserts

(or “One of These Things is Not Like the Others”)

I would be remiss if I did not mention the desserts. Desserts are very near and dear to this family, and any excuse to get together is a good reason to make lots of tasty desserts. Holidays usually bring out the Very Special desserts. This year was no exception. Jennifer made some very cute, individually-wrapped homemade ice cream sandwiches. Heather outdid herself in this department, as usual, and made some adorable, and equally delicious strawberry cupcakes.

We made Texas Sheet Cake, homemade vanilla ice cream, white chocolate dipped strawberries and the traditional Flag Cookies.

Kelly made a delicious 9 x 13 Ice Cream Cake, strawberry pretzel salad, a big container of Oreo Muddy Buddies (picture courtesy of Kelly’s Pinterest board), which were devoured before the day was over, in spite of their being very rich.

And last but not least, this interesting creation:

Hee-hee-hee. Makes me giggle just to look at it. :-) The story behind this is that one of the kids was in charge of making the flag cookies (Kelly and I usually each make one batch), but the dough was too crumbly to roll out, so they improvised and, thanks to some too-runny icing, came out with this modern-art version of our American flag.  :-)  Do you see it? I’m sure Picasso would be proud.  :-)  I got a kick out of teasing Kelly about this dessert, which sat on the dessert table untouched for most of the day. Eventually, someone cut some squares out of it and I’m told it was quite tasty. No worries, Kelly, your reputation as the Martha Stewart of the Midwest remains untarnished. Your blog is testimony to that!  :-)

A Few Shots of The Littles (and of the Big People having as much fun as The Littles)

What would a summer holiday be without braided pigtails? Can’t have enough of those!

Trent, hamming it up, as usual. I seriously have no idea where he gets these moves. Look at Avery cracking up in the background!

 

And then there are the big kids, having as much fun as the littles.

After pushing several of the little guys on the swings for awhile, Chuck finally joined in on the fun … and Trent sprinted over to help push. 

Some of the teenagers thought the swings looked pretty fun, too, especially when you’re all linked up together. :-)

Seeing this picture reminds me of another Fourth of July, several years ago, when I took a picture of the same four kids. What a difference a few years makes! They’re not all in the same order (except Avery, of course), but it’s pretty easy to tell who’s who.

After he saw Kelly passing out scoops of Ice Cream Cake to the kids, Dad decided to see if he could pull one over on Kelly and get his own scoop. Amazingly, she never caught on!  ;-)

And here are our own Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, cutting a serious rug to Brooke and Sophia’s rousing rendition of “Heart and Soul” on the piano. Too fun!

 

We finished up the day with sparklers and fireworks at the Orrs’.

The interesting blues in this picture were created from a couple of the kids swinging around their blue glow sticks.

     

Thanks to Courtney for taking the pictures of the fireworks (purchased by Glenn, set off by Luke) as I was sitting inside the Orr home for much of the show with two little boys holding their hands over their ears.  :-D

Happy Fourth of July!