Summer Fun

A list of summer fun to remember some of what we did this year...

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  Camp--autism camp, summer camp, youth conference, and LDSEHE home school conference


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  Family visits-- Grandma and Grandpa came and stayed with us for 2 weeks in June. Loved meeting our new cousins, Brenen and Logan. (of course we like to see Aunt Risa and Uncle Brian too)--Can't forget Aunt Cheri and Elizabeth, we had a great time with them coming over the 4th of July weekend.


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  Going to Historical Sites....USS North Carolina, (Cailin's favorite), Ft. Fisher Civil War site, and Harper's Ferry, WV.
  

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  Free movies in Wytheville at the Regal Cinemas. The kids particularly like going to these because we don't often go...(or ever,) when they are full price.
  

The Garden was bursting with green beans and tomatoes this year. With lots of help from Liam, I canned spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, diced tomatoes, sweet relish, and many, many quarts of green beans ~80, peaches, blackberry jam and peach jam too.

Music lessons continued through the summer. Cailin loved learning to play the flute from her teacher Meredith. Her family moved to Sweden for a year....sad for us...but happy for them. Luckily we found another teacher and she'll continue in the fall.

Picking berries! After reading Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, Barry and I took Liam and Laney out to pick blueberries. We picked two gallons worth and look forward to eating yummy blueberry muffins and pancakes, just like little Sal, during the winter.

A month or so later, I took the all the kids out to pick blackberries. Not sure how many berries we picked but, it made wonderful jam and cobblers...with more in the freezer for later.
A new friend of Barry's, Joe, let us pick to our hearts content from bushes on his land. He not only let us pick his berries but he helped us pick them and told the kids about sassafras beer --it's suppose to taste like root beer--and other great medicinal remedies that are found in the wild. Connor of course ate this up...he even brought home some sassafras root and brewed some tea or root beer, which ever you wish to call it.

I think he liked it....I tried some, I didn't like it. I'll stick with root beer.

Every year, we like to go to the creek and play with our friends catching bugs, spiders, fish and the such. Mostly just getting wet and playing with friends is what it's all about.

During the summer, the local libraries sponsor a summer reading program. We often start with a bang, but seem to fizzle out towards the end. However, they always read enough to earn their prizes--coupons to local restaurants, items from the treasure chest, a free book to keep, and a ticket for free entrance to the local swimming pool.

They all earned a free meal from Wendy's, yeah a no cooking night for me! Cailin earned an extra meal from Apple bee's. We spent the afternoon at the pool with the Matton's. School was in session, but the pool was still open so it was relatively empty. The older ones loved having free reign of the slide.

The library also has special performances and plays they sponsor. We went to one at the Pulaski theatre. A gentleman from Florida plays the didgeridoo. These are musical instruments made by termites indigenous to Australia. The termites eat the inside of a stick till it's hallow and the natives then use this to create a deep haunting horn type sound. He also brought along a large lizard from Australia to show.

Last, but not least, we love to sit outside as the sun begins to set and the fireflies start dancing all around, to just relax and enjoy the summer breeze. The kids try to catch the bugs. One night Cailin tried to see if she could get enough to make a 'flashlight'. They kept crawling out through the holes but, she had lots of fun catching them.

We didn't get to go camping this year....the mowing business kept the boys pretty busy so it's often hard to find a free couple of nights and days together. However, we did go to the BEACH! and that was fantastic!