What a weekend ~ full of wonderful visitors and lots of fun!! We kicked off Memorial Day Weekend with our Second Annual Lobster Fest! This year Bob, Rischa, Paige and Liam came up from Vancouver, WA to spend the weekend, and Sean and Amber joined us Saturday/Sunday! we had a terrific time!! Although most of the pics are of the kids, I can assure you, we adults had a blast as well!
Grilling brauts/sausages/hotdogs to go with the pesto and ...
Lobster!
Owen and Paige Saturday afternoon
After dinner, we lit a fire and roasted marshmellows for dessert! Collin played a round of Chubby-Bunny, stuffing quite a few uncooked mellows (5 or 6?) into his mouth. Holy moly ...
Once he'd "choked" those back out, he enjoyed a roasted mellow. Yum.
It probably goes without saying, but after that sticky evening, BATHS all-around were in order:
This is one of my absolute FAVORITE photos! : )
Some battles just aren't meant to be had ~ how could I stop the splashing when clearly they were having SOOOO much fun!?! We'll work on splashing again after our friends leave ... : P
Sunday afternoon Chrissy and the girls also came up for a day-trip visit. Jacqui came too! We were so glad to see them! With the girls added to the pack, we had six kids running around (ok, Baby Liam wasn't exactly running!) and it was a fun challenge! Of course they played in the yard, running up and down the hill [and learned not to slide down the middle of the barked hillside ~ Marley! : )] and played in the sandbox [and continued
not to learn that the sand is supposed to stay IN the sandbox ~ Owen!]. There was also window painting with shaving cream, one the boys' favorite activities, coloring with crayons (nice and clean ~ phew), jumping on a bed mattress on the floor, Ring Around the Rosie, more bathtime (thanks to the shaving cream and a game of "Let's Wash Owen's Hair - and then our own too"), and toys galore ~ every toy was out at one time or another. Here's a few pics of our other projects:
PAINTING
Thank goodness I had the good sense to move the easel outside! The kids created two wonderful pictures ~ one is still on proud display in our kitchen!
Collin shows Paige how to make hand-prints.
Paige, in true gal style, decides to polish her finger and toenails!
Owen "polished" his forehead!
BALLOONS
Every mother should have a bundle of balloons in her bag of tricks! Children love to play with them - hot potato, keep them off the ground, toss them to one another, or just innocent enjoyment and laughter, romping in a "balloon world." Notice below that all the balloons were the same color ~ another helpful trick if its later in the day and you don't want to battle the color-fights and spread the sharing lecture! What fun they had!
It's berry season! What a treat! Especially for young boys that LOVE to eat berries! Can you imagine anything more wonderful than picking and eating as many berries as you can possiblity cram in?! 
We spent a lazy Saturday afternoon in July at Boxx Berry Farms, where we picked over 6 pounds of raspberries, eating a pound of them as we picked! They were so yummy!
When we got home, Kevin helped the boys make their own raspberry/blueberry pies!
We all enjoyed eating the filling as we loaded the crusts!
When they were finished baking, whip cream was added as a finishing touch, and the boys dug in!
Everything was neat and clean ...
... until Owen learned berries also make fantastic body paint!
Oh no, O! Not in the pool!
