father's day 2013

we had a wonderful day celebrating the man of the house on sunday.

tradition states we must go out for donuts in the morning. "donuts for dad!" the kids chant until it's time to go.

this year the big car was in the shop, so we had to take the little car. the little car does not fit six people. so dad stayed home with a grumpy boy and four of us headed to the donut shop down the road.

either donuts for dad is not a novel idea or the donut shop was under-staffed on this particular day... there were hardly any donuts to choose from! like, zero sprinkle donut choices. that is shocking to me! thankfully dad's favorite kind was in-stock. the boys didn't seem to mind that there weren't sprinkle donuts, probably because the only donuts that were left were the ginormous kind or the bars that could be filled with goo. they were pretty happy about that!

i have no pictures of getting donuts or eating donuts, which may or may not be a good thing! natalie was beside herself in the donut shop... "CHOCOLATE!!!" it was pretty cute.

after we came out of our sugar coma, we had spent a little time just hanging out with dad and having fun.

observing insects

the princess in her tower

pulling the rocks out of the rock tumbler

later in the day we had a dinner of chicken and veggie kebobs on the grill with rice. then we played a game of croquet.

 the boys got their games faces on.



playing croquet takes focus and concentration...

 



and a little bit of body contortion!





awww!



there were some tears. there always are.



we gave dad a fire pit and the job of building us a fire :)



then we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.





the day ended with a little basketball for the boys. unfortunately, there is only this shot of zach, but they all had fun playing "horse" together.



it was the perfect kind of day to celebrate dad!

july in pictures

we've been busy checking things off our summer list. school starts aug. 10th. that's right around the corner. gotta get check, check, check while we can, can, can.

i will post soon about some of our recent adventures. for now, enjoy some photos!


















































that was a lot of pictures! i realize there are not many of taylor and that is because the boy doesn't want to be photographed like the other hams in our house. "too old, too cool, too busy." i remember going through that phase. i'm pretty sure it means puberty is around the corner.

darn. i was hoping my kiddos would skip that stage entirely. ha!

five

this little token of happiness comes in the form of an iphone app.

two weeks ago (?) an app called "silent film director" was advertised for free. my techie husband put it on his iphone and had fiddled with it a bit, but it wasn't until last weekend that i experienced the joy and sheer hilarity this app can bring.

let's be honest. my children are a bit on the spazzy side. i don't mind that, most of the time. well, this app highlights their whacky ways and makes them actually look cool. it's kinda like those funny face pictures, i know watching these videos when i'm in a funk will cheer me up.

so go ahead and check them out. i hope you enjoy them as much as i do.


i didn't know who to keep my eyes on!


the girl likes to bounce!

did they make you laugh? did you see taylor shove zach's head down? did you catch the little kick at the end of ben's dance? maybe you counted how many times he ran around the pool? there were so many things to look at. we watched the videos over and over and always found something new to laugh at. goofy kids.

what was your favorite part of the videos?

ps: tomorrow i will be posting our annual summer to do list. i think this is our best list yet!

four

i scream.
you scream.
we all scream for...


homemade chocolate coconut milk ice cream with almonds, enjoy life chocolate chips, and coconut flakes as toppings!

that was a mouthful. literally.

making ice cream has become a summer favorite around here. so glad it's that time of year again. looking forward to trying lots of new recipes.

do you have a favorite homemade ice cream recipe? please share if you do!

three

vacation may have just started, but i am going to go out on a limb and say this is the best $35 we will spend this summer.



i was so happy to see how it brought the three brothers together this weekend.







some of the things they did brought back memories from when my brother and i spent our summers swimming...



like naming their jumps.


kung foo splasher


not-so-belly-flopper


oops, watch where you are going
 
beach towels hanging on the fence is a sure sign of summer. (i've had that towel on the left since high school!)

this little pool is going to encourage brotherly love in the parker home...





and cleaner faces, too!

what has been your best summer purchase so far?