Life with Kelly's Monsters: Summer is Flying...

When I first thought of Summer I thought, "What am I going to do with these kids for 3 months!" But here we are with less then a month left and we have been so busy having fun I've not found time to document the daily events.

Living here in Texas we are lucky to have Andy's parents close, 3 hours door-to-door.

And with Dennis, Andy's Dad, getting his cancer treatment at MD Anderson they come to stay often. The kids look so forward to their visits. In fact when Aby found out today that they would be visiting next week she yelled, "YAHOO!" She is a bit of a Grandpa's girl.

With them so close we also spend many weekends at their house, and their neighbors have a pool!

They also have a LOT more stars then we do here, so its special to go star gazing.

Our last visit we were sitting on the back porch talking after the kids went to bed and I kept hearing something below us in the bushes. Andy and I got a flashlight and against his mothers wishes we went to investigate, guess what we found rooting around...

Let me tell you this sucker was HUGE! So excited Andy and I chased this guy around a bit but every time it came near us we'd run, until Andy got this great idea that he was going to grab its tail. Armed with my camera and standing on a rock I screamed and egged my husband on. That GIANT armadillo ran out from the bushes, Andy reached for his tail and basically 'goosed' the guy. You should have seen the guy jump, the armadillo not Andy. I was hoping it was going to roll up into a ball but it just ran across the yard and off into the darkness.
Besides hanging with Grandparents we've also enjoyed lots of family time.

Water Balloon War

Pizza Making

And with Summer and Family time come lots of treats

Root Beer Floats

Snow Cones from Bahama Mamas ~ Let me just say these are not you blue and read snow cones from the fair. This is ice shaved so fine it is really fluffy like snow, and the flavors there are more then 50! My favorite is Pinola Colada, Claira's favorite is Strawberry/Wedding Cake, AbyKate always gets Root Beer and William is still working his way through the weird ones like Snake Bite.

cooling off some more with Popsicles

What do you do when you stuck at home? Make Cookies!

Besides all the random treats this summer has taken us to the beach a few times this summer. We usually go to Surfside or Freeport, it is a different sort of beach then what I grew up doing but just as much fun. The strangest part is that you drive right onto the beach park and just tailgate it. It really is about the perfect family activity, I read a book, play in the sand with the kids, go swimming in the waves, while Andy does what he loves most Fish all the while the four kids build Sand Towns, Seaweed Hills, and collect shells, and eat snacks!

A few weeks ago Andy went fishing, he and his friend, Gabe, were so excited about the prospects of catching a shark that they left as soon as the truck was packed, about midnight. I guess sleep is for us lame folks. Anyhow, they did not catch a shark but Andy caught this 42" Red Drum.

It was quite an event watching Andy carve this beast. The scales alone were 2" in diameter and to cut we had pull a row out and use an electric knife.

Once the fish was carved it was put to another use, science class for William. We went through all the parts, dissected the eye ball and stomach (last meal was some blue crab).

We really put this fish to good use, not only was it a science lesson it then feed 3 families dinner! We made a good'ol Southern Fish Fry,

Hush Puppies and all, courtesy of my Friend Rachel.

YUMMY!

Mentioning Rachel, she and her whole family came here from Alabama for 5 wonderful days.

I can't express how great it felt to have her close to talk, cook, eat, drink, shop and hang out with. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who enjoyed their visit, Andy and Glenn stayed up late every night hanging out, and the kids all loved each other. Nora hit it off great with AbyKate and Emilia was sure to follow them around. While the older 3, William, Claira & Shelby spent lots of time giggling and running around.

William had a great time teaching Shelby all about his love for bugs, and being a smart little girl she ate it all up. I think by the time she left there was a little bit of a crush going on between the two of them!

William's obsession with bugs has begun to take over our lives! He has two microscopes and a full library of books on the subject. We have been on family "Bug Safari's"

and I have spent many afternoons reading about an insect or spiders that he has found or the best are when he finds something and we have no idea what it is and we have to figure it out.

We are not the only ones he has dragged into his bug obsession, his good friend Collin who lives next door has also had to endure this. Though Collin will cringe or run or goes home when he's grossed out, he too has learned a lot.

I really wonder how long this 'bug phase' is going to last?

June Bugs are his favorite

Insects are not the only 'bugs' William has been into this summer. He has been begging to get a lobster from the grocery store and on Father's Day he talked his Daddy into it!

Fathers Day was a day of hanging out with the Daddy,

They made him gifts, bought him gifts

And showered him with love, "CHEERS TO DADDY!"

Fathers Day was not the only special Day we celebrated this summer, there was our 8th Wedding anniversay. We didn't get to go on an offical Date but we did put the kids to bed a bit early and had take-out Chinese food to enjoy with Andy's new sake set.

Then there was the 4th of July!

Considering there was a fire ban we really had a wonderful time. The neighborhood had a great party.

Then we went to a friends house for a BBQ, some fun on the slip and slide and their bounce house. We all had a great time.

The summer has not been filled with all smiles though, we lost a dear family member.

Cleo our Cat had been sick on and off for a couple months then just as we thought she was turning the corner she crashed again and we had to say our goodbyes. R.I.P Cleo, we love you.

Just after Cleo's passing we had some wonderful visitors from Mississippi, Mr. Tim (Aby's God Father) and Melanie came by for an afternoon and dinner. It was so nice to hear the kids laugh with them again, oh how miss our wonderful old neighbors of Ocean Springs.

And really its not just visitors that make us smile and have a good time. We're pretty good at doing this ourselves.

Or we find local events, usually free. Here the kids are after building Binoculars at Lowes. I have to say this was one of the best Build and Grow activities we've gone to.

And on the days when I have to fold laundry or do some other 'Mommy' chore, the kids make their own fun. Here is our little puppy.

And then there is the many trips to the park. In the area we live, there are parks all over the place! This is one of the kids favorites!

Emilia is not picky when it comes to parks, if it has a swing she is happy :)

But Claira loves the horses at this particular park.

If you haven't noticed my kids don't lack an imagination or creativity. Sometimes they put on plays. And this particular day they got many of the neighbor kids to participate in their version of Sleeping Beauty...it was hot, with mesquitos but that didn't stop them.

Besides creating plays Claira loves, I mean LOVES her Annie Baby. She eats breakfast, lunch and dinner with us. Takes naps when Emilia takes naps. Claira even has built a potty out of blocks for her to use when she used the 'big' potty. A few weeks ago I found some Pj's that had a baby pair to match, I'm not sure they have worn anything but those to bed since! Her love for her baby is so sweet and cute.

We don't like the heat to stop us from venturing outside or even stop Daddy from taking the big kids to the zoo. Its crazy how the kids don't even notice how crazy steamy it is out, they just keep going...and going...and going!

And when its raining or thundering outside and we physically can't go outside then I'll take them to the Inflatable Zone...Always a fun way to bounce the sillys out :)