The 'Maine' Event

We are blessed to have many, many wonderful friends. Lots and lots of very special people in our lives that we adore spending time with. One of these couples is Lynn and Jason and their kids Katie and Ben - and it just so happens that our kids love their kids to death too ...

So, when they invited us up to Lynn's parent's cabin on a Lake in Maine for a few days we were ecstatic and said yes, of course!

We spent 4 wonderful, relaxing days there, doing things that made us feel full of youthfulness again ... and when we weren't doing those fun, kid-like things, we were watching the kids have the time of their lives ...

Take a look at all the fun ...

The 3 girls on the floating dock. They swam or paddleboated out to this dock no less than 100 times per day. They had such a blast jumping off it, playing on it, swimming to it, etc.

In the paddleboat - so much fun for kids - something they can operate on their own!
Doing what I do best - RELAXING on the dock ...
Oh, did I mention this gloriously fun tube that can hold 3 people at the same time??? Oh yeah, one of the funnest things I have done in a really long time - when I was on it I couldn't stop laughing and giggling so much that by the time I got off my throat was dry and my voice hoarse!
There were very friendly ducks that came right up to the dock - isn't the water crystal clear?
Feelin' like a kid again! Jumping off the floating dock with my youngest daughter - oh the pure joy!
A view of the dock area - so beautiful ... so peaceful
One of my fave photos that I have ever taken - capturing the splash at just the right moment as one of the kiddos jumps off the dock ...
Out on the boat - Joy and I
My sweet {toothless} Joy - love the blue coloring in these next two pics ...
Daddy and Joy...
The picture of relaxation, joy and having a great time ...
Hubby impressed us all with his slalom ski skills ...
Yep, that's me on skis ... it's been about 9 years since I've skied but I popped right up out of the water and it was so much fun - forgot how much I loved doing that!
I LOVE this pic of Daddy and his girls just laughing and having the time of their lives on the tube ...
The girls and their friends ...
What would a vacation be without ice cream?
The whole group in front of the lake cottage on our last day. Thank you SO much Lester and Nancy and Lynn and Jason - we had an amazing time!

Back to School Blog Hop - School Room

Darcy at Life with my Three Boybarians is hosting a {Not} Back to School Blog Hop throughout the month of August. It's a chance for us homeschoolers to share things we do in our {home}schools ...



This week is all about sharing your school room. We have moved our room many times and have finally found a space in our house that works really well. We have a very small middle bedroom that we made into an office/school room/craft room. Back in June I completely redecorated it and I'm so happy with how it turned out! Since I never revealed those photos you will get to see the new result as well as all the before photos. The space was so cluttered before and since it's so small I struggled with how I would fit everything I needed in there - it serves so many different purposes! But somehow we made it all work and it looks beautiful, clean and less cluttered now!

I also have to note that we do 'school' in just about every room of our house, including outdoors! We use the kitchen table and island, the couch in the living room, the deck ... etc ... This school room is just a great place to house all our stuff and have a table and chairs in case we do want to sit and do school work there in that room. This coming year Hope will be using the computer for a couple of her subjects so I anticipate that while she's in there doing that I will be working with Joy out at the kitchen area.












With my awesome IKEA shelf in the room we can have all our needs met! I have all my scrapbook supplies and albums on the top two shelves and most of our school books and stuff on the bottom two shelves. The girls basic craft stuff is on the white shelf to the left. There are also dresser drawers in the closet that hold the rest of our craft supplies.

More July photos!

July was SUCH a busy month for us ... two major road trips plus a bunch of other events here at home. Here are some random photos that we took in July - some were too good not to show off!

Fireworks!
Hope and Mommy at the Fireworks ...
Joy and Daddy ...
I've been having so much fun capturing wildlife with my zoom lens! The sneaky little critter was raiding my neighbors bird feeder!
Wish he would've been looking AT me, but beautiful nevertheless!
Speaking of beauty - gorgeous, joy-filled smile on 'Joy's' face!!!
woohoo, wave jumping with a friend ...
And singing on the beach, with giant driftwood as their microphone of course!
More wildlife - with his lunch clenched in beak!
Splashin' in the waves!
Toes in the sand, there is no better place to be!

Ridin' on Grandpa's boat ... Mommy taking more pics than I will ever have the time to scrapbook!

I love my family!