Last Hurrah of Summer

I've been really busy so have not had time to post pics from over the holiday weekend. We didn't have a planned celebration since my kids all seem to have jobs that makes it necessary for them to work while the general population gets off. One grandson asked if he and a friend could come over and swim on Sunday night so I asked if he wanted to pitch the tent and watch a movie and play video games also. He was all for it. I rode the mower over to my son's house with the trailer attached to pick up a load of small limbs for the fire pit and the older granddaughter road back on top of the load. Below is a pic of the movie on the side of the house shot over the top of the fire from the firepit. I don't have a camera with a lot of function adjustments so this first shot is simply with the flash turned off.

The next shot is with the flash on, you can see more details.

What the pictures don't show was the kids having a blast with the glowsticks I gave them. We buy bulk off ebay so during the summer holidays the kids have them. They love playing with them in the pool and it makes the little ones feel safer, plus you can see where the little ones are! We also cooked marshmellows and made s'mores. Everyone had a great time.

The next one I stepped in front of the fire and used the flash. The kids and my son are playing xbox on the side of the house.

Just a shot I took as the fire was dying down, waiting for the kids to fall to sleep.

Here's the tent they slept in.

This is Labor Day, the kids are rolling up their sleeping bags.

Clowning for the camera.

A bunch of kids showed up to play with our trikes in the driveway. It amazes me that the older ones still get on these bikes to ride up and down the drive.

Some things I want to share

Every 4th of July my family has a reunion of sorts at my house. It's all about family, having fun and kids. My son and I have been working on making my yard a place to have fun for the last 3 or 4 years. Here is some of what we have accomplished...

These are from July 2007:
The pool with deck built next to it...


We seperated the ladder that came with the pool placing the half with the platform extending into the pool. The platform is screwed to the top of the deck and we replaced the tall handles with smaller ones that are easier to get around. The ladder on the outside of the deck raises up when the pool is not in use, keeping the little ones from climbing in when they are not supervised.







Below you can see the deck behind my granddaughters blowing bubbles. When not in use the ladder is simply raised, it's hinged at the top of the ladder, and I use a bungee cord to secure it as high as I can reach. The building to the left is the showerhouse/outhouse (more about that later).

Here the kids are playing in the sandbox. This isn't the best picture, but the only good one I have from this year. This is the second sandbox we've had, the other was half the size and as much as the kids enjoyed it, we HAD to make this bigger one.

On the right hand side of this picture you can see my lawn mower with the wagon hitched up. All the children come running when I fire it up to take a ride in the wagon. Being in a small town we travel everywhere with it.

Here's a picture of our dining area in the front yard. The chandelier I had gotten for free off of "Freecycle". It was originally electric, but I gutted it and use votive candles in it. The reason it was given away is that one of the globes was missing and I had a difficult time replacing it. The globes on the table are two that were purchased thinking I was buying replacements only to realize they were too big. But a nice big candle and a couple of pie plates make for excellent table candles that match.

In this next picture you see the swimming pool to the left, the fire pit center front and the projection booth with the screen on the side of the house to the right. Beyond the projection booth is the children's playhouse and stage which I will show in a later post.

Here's a pic of my granddaughter and her friends around the fire pit for her 9th birthday sleepover that she had last Friday night. It started with a pool party and BBQ then they gathered round the fire and watched a movie and roasted marshmellows and made s'mores. After they'd had enough sugar they moved closer to the screen and played a Shrek xbox game till mama decided it was time to roll into the sleeping bags in the tent.

Here's a picture of the back side of the tents that we pitched for 4th of July. It gets really cramped in my house if we have to put everyone inside, which the storms have forced us to do on the 4th of July.

That's all for now.