An Evening at the Beach

Sunday evening, we met my best friend and her family at the beach for a picnic and playtime.  It was so much fun.  Believe it or not, but we've never played with our kids at the beach like this before.  The one time it was semi-warm enough for them to play in the water in Delaware, there was no way Dan or I were getting in the cold water so they couldn't go past their knees.  Well, they were way past their knees this time.  Jackson and Brody brought their boogie boards and I think Allie and Caden will be begging for surfing lessons any day now.  The waves were high enough for fun, but not so high that I was freaked out the whole time.  I see many beach days in our summer!

Cassidy, Jackson, Caden, Dan, Jaelyn and Brody

Our shell collection has increased considerably in the last few days.

Caden had fun splashing Delaney

Jaelyn and Allie

Jackson boogie boarding

Caden and his half dollar

Cassidy

Delaney

Allie catching a wave

Brody

I love seeing the pure joy on Allie's face

Cassidy is such a great helper with the younger kids

The Writing Is On the Wall

I love you.  Baba Roxs.

Love is Forever!

Baba is Allsome (awesome)

Lemon-Blueberry Crumb Bars

Kraft Magazine had the best looking blueberry recipe last month.  My mother in law has fresh blueberries on her bush.  Put the two together and we were meant to make these.  They are AMAZING.  Everyone who tried them complimented them. 

Lemon-blueberry Crumb Bars

What You Need

1/2 cupbutter

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix

2 eggs, divided

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cupsugar

1 Tbsp. zest and 3 Tbsp. juice from 1 lemon

2-1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Make It

HEAT oven to 350ºF.
LINE 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Microwave butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 to 1-1/2 min. or until melted. Add cake mix and 1 egg; beat with mixer until well blended. Press 2/3 of the mixture onto bottom of prepared pan.
BEAT cream cheese and sugar with mixer until well blended. Add remaining egg, zest and juice; mix well. Pour over crust; top with berries. Pinch small pieces of the remaining cake mix mixture between your fingers; press lightly into cream cheese layer.
BAKE 55 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Use foil handles to lift dessert from pan before cutting into bars. Keep refrigerated.

Dinner with Memaw and Grandpop

Grandpop and Memaw came to lunch Friday afternoon.  We made lasagna and Nanny's lemon meringue pie.  The girls each ate a piece of lasagna and LOVED it and everyone loved the pie, even Caden.  I got to use my Dad's mixer to make the pie and I can't wait till I get my own after we get settled in Missouri.  I saved my birthday money to buy one.

Doris loved watching the kids played outside and my Grandpa enjoyed looking at old family pictures with me. 

Doing Nothing is a Whole Lot of Fun

Is anyone wondering where I've been?  I've been having a wonderful time doing a lot of nothing.  Our schedule has been light on cleaning and cooking and heavy on fun and playing and laughing.  So I guess technically, we've been having fun doing a whole lot of something.  It's been great.

The drive to Florida was kind of long and boring. There might have been some whining involved, but the kids did great. Since then, in no particular order, we've...

Played in the pool Baba and Grandpa got us.  Grandpa even got the dining canopy out of his motor home so we can swim in the shade.

Climbed every tree in the backyard.

Played the Wii and gave Baba a challenge in Scrabble.

Discovered Ratuki, a crazy new card game.  Watch out, Nick and Jared.

Played at Grandmother's house with Caleb, our cousin.

Painted everyone's fingernails.

Had a few date nights out.  Our favorite was dinner, donuts and geocaching in the dark and through the woods with Rich and Jen.

Picked bags of blueberries to make blueberry pie and blueberry lemon bars.

Played at the beach with Dan while I went with my mom for Dad's knee surgery.

I'll try to check back in more often as our summer progresses, but no promises.  I'm too busy having fun and letting my Mom take care of us!

Homeward Bound And Homeless

After a very crazy, stressful few weeks, I'm thrilled to report that we are homeless. We closed on our house this morning. While I've loved our house and I'll miss our friends, I am glad to have it sold and be on our way to florida for our long pit stop before ending up in Missouri. I'm looking forward to relaxing and playing and basically not doing much of anything.

Thanks for all the prayers.

Good Bye House

Now You See It

Now You Don't!

Empty!

The last few days have been cah-razy!  The packers started on Friday.  They packed the entire basement and some closet stuff in the bedrooms.  Then we had three days to live with the boxes and not a lot of toys.  Yesterday, the packers came again and spent the day packing the rest of the house and moving the items from storage back to the house.  I gave verbal directions in the kitchen rather than taking the stuff we were moving out and unfortunately, we had to make one of the packers unpack our medicine and food.  They aren't supposed to pack that stuff, you tell them not to pack it and then they still pack it.  I felt horrible, but it was his own fault.  We had four very able guys show up this morning with two trucks to load.  It took them about 5 hours to empty our house.  Today was probably the easiest load day we've ever had.  I usually get so antsy I have to leave, but I hung around all afternoon.

There's still cleaning and touch-up painting to do.  We have to pack a trailer and sign on the many dotted lines on Friday before we hit the road to Florida.  We are excited to get our summer vacation started!

A Maryland First and Last

My friend, Krissy, invited us over to dinner Monday night.  She called a few days beforehand to see if we liked crabs and was SHOCKED when I admitted we had not had the Maryland staple blue crab.  I think it might be blasphemous that we've lived here 4 years without eating them.  They fixed us what they called Maryland Surf and Turf:  blue crabs (boiled with old bay seasoning) and pit beef.

 Ben patiently gave us lessons in how to crab them open and get to the meat.  It was hard and extremely messy work.  I managed two crabs before I couldn't stand the mess on my hands anymore : ).  They were good though.  Dan really enjoyed them and the kids enjoyed their hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

Honestly, the kids weren't too interested in the food as Krissy had about ten new baby chicks.  I wouldn't be surprised if I start hearing "can we have chickens, Mommy?"

It was a hot day.  Jaelyn is experimenting with new hair styles to keep cool.  This one seems to be a favorite.

Caden had a great time playing with his best friend, Nathan.  Nathan told Krissy "I know they are moving away, but they are moving back, right?"  Ughhh....moving is so hard on kids.  Nathan and Caden have been best buds since they were in preschool.  We'll miss him.

Preparing for Florida

Seriously???

Priorities

Trash day is Monday so we had to clean out our refrigerator and freezer last night.  Jaelyn helped.  We only left the most important things :).

Our Escape From Crazy

We had a great time today.  It was so good to get out of town and away from all the things I have to do at home.  I'm not capable of walking away from them if we are in our house.

Dan and the kids outside the Independence Information Center

Last time we were here, the Liberty Bell was outside and the ropes were close enough that you could reach over and touch it.

The cemetery at Christ Church - call me weird, but I love old cemeteries.  They remind me of my Grandma Mac.

Dan couldn't leave Philadelphia without finding a couple of geocaches.

I smelled the rose while the kids were geocaching.

We took a break for ice cream and cartwheels before our Independence Hall tour.

I love the mesh facade to cover up the renovation.

The Hardest Part About Moving

I know I've written about Target being 50 miles away from the base in Missouri.  I've lamented the fact that I've been told there's one dentist practice in the small community off the base.  I know we won't find another pediatrician half as wonderful as Dr. K.  All of those things make it so hard to leave here.  We love the conviences of living here.  But more than that, we love the people here.  We have settled into our community.  We have friends we love and that we can depend on.  Leaving them is the hardest part about leaving Maryland.  Last week, we had a chance to play with one of Jaelyn's best friends and her brother, who's in Allie's class.

Jaelyn and Heather have been together since 1st grade.   I LOVE Heather.  She's been such a good friend and she's a good girl.  I can't say that about all of Jae's school friends.  We'll miss Heather. Jaelyn used to come up to Heather's chin and now she's barely taller than her shoulder.  Heather carries her around like a ragdoll and even calls her "my ragdoll."  Thankfully, it's relatively easy to keep in touch through emails and webcams.  Would you pray for good, kind friends for my kids? 

Encase you are wondering, the kids are color coordinated because Friday was field day at school.

I just had to share this one....it's Caden's "I'm going to get you" face.

Putting Crazy On Hold For a Day

Next week is going to be crazy.  I would love prayers for our family.  Tomorrow, we are putting crazy on hold and taking a road trip to Philadelphia.  We are going to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross's house and the U.S. Mint.  I think the kids will love the mint the best.   Personally, I'm looking forward to a "Philadelphia" Philly Cheese Steak.  We really need a day off.  The stress is getting to the kids.  Our entire basement got packed on Friday.  They also packed some closet stuff and filled up a corner of our master bedroom and some in the bathroom.  I've been a frazzled mess today.

Monday, I have to pull all of our clothes out and finish packing our partial dity stuff.  We have to drive into Baltimore to drop off the Odyssey at Uhaul. We need a trailer hitch.  Thankfully, some sweet friends have offered to fix us dinner Monday night or the kids might have gone hungry.  Tuesday, the packers will finish at the house and bring the stuff from our mini-warehouse to our house.  We also have to figure out how to get the car picked up.  We are going to stay at a hotel Tuesday night so the kids don't have to sleep in rooms filled with boxes.  Wednesday, the movers will be here to load up and we'll move back into the house and "camp."  Thursday, we have to pick up our trailer and load it.   We also have our Brownie Troop's end of the year picnic.  It's our last night in Maryland.  I'm glad the kids will get to play with their friends.  I'm just hoping saying good-bye isn't too traumatic.  We close on our house at 11:00 on Friday and will drive out of town hopefully by 2:00.

Are you crazy after reading that?  After rereading it, I feel like I need to go drink a coke or a fruity adult beverage.  I'll leave you with this...I packed our "first night" box with all of it's necessities for Missouri.  It has sheets, a shower curtain, towels, toilet paper AND two cokes and a hershey bar.  You've gotta get your priorities straight.