Summer Fun

Kevin started his summer golf lessons.  Here he is with his buddy from school Michael.  2 other friends from school are in his session too.  Small world!

Here are the kids doing a putting contest.  Kevin had 2 closest to the pin. (He is in the orange shirt in this picture)

One night I went into Kevin's room to check on him before going to bed myself.  I found a piece of gum in his bed.  WHAT?!!?!?! Luckily I found it...or so I thought.  I had found part of it.  The other part was in his hair.  So what's a mom to do?  Well, I got out the peanut butter of course.  This led to a lot of irritation from both Kevin and myself.  Then I realized that the screaming and picking and whining and picking just weren't worth it.  Kevin's hair was getting too long anyway, so I just decided to cut it out, thinking we'd just go get a hair cut afterward.  Funny thing though...you couldn't even tell that I'd cut any hair at all...so I gave in and skipped the haircut...for the time being.

One Saturday, the kids got bored, so Caroline organized a family ping pong tournament.  She laid out the schedule.  First everyone played each other.  That determined the seeding.  Then #1 played #4 and #2 played #3.  In the end, Caroline played Kevin for the championship.  Unfortunately there were so many games played that by the time the championship game rolled around, we were all pretty much done with ping pong for the day.  Silliness (possibly caused by heatstroke) ensued and Mommy and Daddy declared a tie for 1st place.  Time to cool off with some ice cream.

This summer is quickly becoming known as the Summer of Playdates.  One afternoon, Caroline had her friend Logan over to play.  Of course they got out the science experiment book.  One experiment was to make soda, and the other was to make ice cream by hand.  The soda experiment did not go well.  They mixed lemon juice, sugar, water, and added baking soda for fizz.  All 3 girls (including me) thought it was absolutely disgusting.  Kevin and his friend loved it and begged for more.  The ice cream experiment worked much better.  You put cream, sugar, and vanilla in a sandwich size ziploc bag.  Then you take the small bag and put it into a larger ziploc bag filled with ice and salt.  Then you knead the 2 bags together.  It was really cold, so the girls got warm fuzzy socks for their hands.  The result...soft serve ice cream.  Delicious!

While the science experiments were going on, Kevin and his friend Micah found the iPad. I got this picture before sending them back to play.

Another day, Reese came over to play with Caroline.  They got into the makeup.  What happened to my 9 year old little girl?

Meanwhile, Kevin modified a Chima vehicle into a cooler one with lots of sharp crocodile teeth.

Uh oh!  I think this mustache craze has gone too far!

By this time, Reese's sister Whitney came over to play.  I spent too long with the older girls and found Kevin and Whitney in the tent...and they'd stolen the iPad.  This may not have been the best purchase...

Caroline had a soccer camp at the University of North Florida (UNF) with her friends Reese and Kamryn.

The camp was put on by Linda Hamilton, who was on the USA Women's National Team with Mia Hamm the year they won gold in the World Cup.  Here is Caroline with Linda, wearing Linda's 1995 Bronze Medal and holding her 1991 Gold Medal.

Kevin has really fallen in love with golf and creates little Lego obstacles to putt to, through, and over.

Here he is setting up the minifigures in front of the ramp that is in front of Razcal's Glider.  He had to get it perfect, so he could make the perfect putt.

We met the kids' friends at the community pool this week.  Kevin, my son who doesn't like water in his face, has come a long way!

Kevin's reading has really taken off.  He doesn't want to read to me anymore and snuck off to read by himself.  I found him hiding behind the ottoman.  I snapped this picture before I so meanly called him back to read to me.