Family BBQ

Wildman’s elementary school hosted a family BBQ a couple of weekends ago.  The PTO held a poster contest to advertise the event.  The photo above is the winning design.  It will be put on next year’s family BBQ t-shirts.

Fun contests and entertainment filled the afternoon from noon to 4 PM.  When we arrived we bought our tickets and headed to the food pavilion to have lunch!

After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves with everything from hot dogs and pizza to cookies and watermelon, we decided to check out the raffle baskets and silent auction items.  Each grade collected money and put together a themed basket to raffle off.  Tickets were $1 apiece and you could put as many tickets as you wanted into the drawing for the baskets.  Kindergarten did a Lego theme.  It was adorable!  Sadly, we did not win a single thing…

J took the kids to the playground while I went to photograph the watermelon-eating and jump rope contests.  My boys were hot and tired from their morning t-ball game and refused to participate in any of the contests…  Oh, well.  I understand that.

I joined everyone back at the playground after I’d taken a bunch of pictures.  The kids were even more hot and tired by that point so we decided to call it a day.  We ended up taking the boat out for what ended up being one of the most pleasant island trips we’ve ever had.  I so wish I had brought my camera…

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Little League Opening Day

Today was Opening Day for Beachside Little League.  Wildman plays for the Satellite Beach Phillies this season.  We lucked out and T-bone is on the same team.  They’ve grown so much since last year.

The kids arrived at 9:30 AM for individual photos…

and team photos.

Then the children got to play in and on the bounce houses that were set up.  The first order of business for my boys was the gigantic slide.  The Big Kahuna to be exact.

Big Red’s first order of business was to wander around on his cell phone with a huge 7-11 coffee and a bag of BBQ chips.  This is pretty much how you will see Big Red at any given moment of any given day…  He is super important, you know.

At 10:30 AM all of the teams marched over to the fire station to begin their parade.  The parade was lead by the fire engine.

J, Cutie Pie and I staked our claim along the side of the road to wait for Wildman.

The t-ball teams followed the fire engine.

After Wildman arrived at the ball field, all of the teams lined up for the Opening Ceremonies.

They looked so cute all lined up around the baseball diamond.

After the first pitch was thrown the kids were free to enjoy some lunch and the bouncy houses again.  My mom and Mimi showed up just in time.

More bouncy fun!

Just before we packed up to leave, the tug-o-war games began.  Wildman rushed over to give it a try.

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning.  Perfect for Opening Day!

Memorial Day

Firstly, let me say thank you to all of our ancestors, family members, neighbors and friends who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country and our freedom.  Our flag is flying proudly on the house and we spent some time reflecting on what Memorial Day means.  Saying “thank you” is not enough…  Without our heroes I shudder to think what life would be like.   I profoundly respect our military personnel past, present and future.

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Thankfully, we had a break in the week-long monsoon for Memorial Day.  The sun shone brightly all morning until about 3:30 PM!  It was wonderful!  After 7 straight days of rainfall, depression was beginning to creep into my soul.  It’s not a feeling I particularly enjoy.  Life is too short for feeling down.  Last week’s weather just confirms that the Pacific Northwest is not the place for me.  I need sunshine!!!  Maybe not the heat but definitely the sunshine.

We took advantage of the awesome weather by taking the boat out in the Indian River to the small spoil islands down South.  It was such fun!  It’s a cross between the Redneck Yacht Club, a family reunion and an elitist boat parade.  Needless to say, there are all kinds of people out at the islands on the weekends!

We managed to find a section of land that would accommodate the six boats in our party.  Two grills were fired up to make hot dogs and hamburgers.  The children had a blast exploring the island and the shallow sandbar.  The adults enjoyed lounging around in chairs and chatting.  To me, this is what most summer holidays are like here where we live.  It was a refreshing change of pace.  It’s like pressing the pause button on the mundane weekend tasks and it was awesome.  We needed that.

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I’ve also been busy working with J to set up our Zumba website.  It’s pretty basic right now but I’m proud of how it turned out.  I designed the logo myself.  We’ll be adding more and more fun stuff to it so check back often 🙂