It's Not Officially Summer Until...

I get around to making a blueberry peach cobbler!

Birthday Afternoon

I had to work my per diem job this morning but I still had a great birthday afternoon, thanks to Mike and the kids. They surprised me (literally!) with noise makers, a balloon, cards and Tasty Kakes (which I had tried to order from our grocery delivery service this week  but they had been sold out.) We had a late lunch at Cheesecake Factory and dessert at Pinkberry after which I ordered my birthday present from Lululemon (thanks Mom and Grammy for the birthday cash!!)

Here are a couple pictures: one of Mike and the kids with their noise makers and one of my birthday beer and "cake " at Cheesecake Factory. 

First Bee Sting

Poor Amelia got stung by a bee at the pool this morning, on the palm of her hand -- ouch!! It looked painful this morning but this afternoon it doesn't seem to be bothering her. 

Birthday Cupcakes

My co-workers treated me to birthday cupcakes 3 days early because, well, it was just one of those days where you need a cupcake!

More Vegetables

We came home this afternoon to our first ripe not-so-cherry tomato and our first ripe spicy banana pepper. Here's Amelia modeling the tomato ;-)

Great Wolf Losge

Mandy, Mike & I took Ben, Becca, Charlie & Amelia to Great Wolf Lodge Sunday into Monday where the kids spent a lot of time in the indoor water park and where Ben & Becca introduced Charlie and Amelia to the game of MagiQuest, which involved running around the hotel tapping various statues, pictures and treasure chests with magic wands to collect treasure, runes and spells to defeat various dragons on movie screens.. Here are a few pictures as well as a couple random ones from the rest of our trip:

Robinson/Kaplan Cousins 2013

Cousin Snuggles

Brave!

While Mandy and I went shopping and had our semi annual dinner at my favorite Charlotte restaurant our brave husbands took all 5 kids out to dinner. Here they are!

We're Off!

To visit the Kaplan cousins!!

First Cherry Tomato!

Despite the fact that our cherry tomato plant looks like its on the verge of dying any day :-P

Baking

Both the kids like baking with me (or maybe it's licking the bowl and eating the end result?) so Charlie picked out a recipe from my Cookie Cookbook to make this morning -- Chocolate peanutbutter sandwhich cookies. (YUM!) Here they are. as well as the kids giving their seal of approval:

Museum Of Science

The kids and I went to the Museum of Science today, where we spent 4 1/2 hours and still only saw about half the exhibits. We caught a live animal show as well as a lightning show but we didn't make it to the Planetarium or to see an IMAX show, nor did we get across the street to the splash park. I, as usual, bought a membership so we'll be heading back in a couple weeks to tackle the things we missed. The membership is also handy because they have reciprocal admission at a bazillion places across the country including the Philadelphia Zoo, Franklin Institute & Academy of Natural Sciences in Philly as well as Discovery Place in North Carolina so if there's a rainy day while we're visiting cousins we'll have somewhere to go :-)

Here are a couple pictures of the kids in the Northeastern wildlife exhibit, the dinosaur exhibit and one of Amelia listening to sea birds:

Back At Gymnastics

For the summer session!

There's a Whale In This Video Somewhere, I Swear!

Whale Watching

I took the kids whale watching today; we got to see a humpback whale and a minke whale and the kids had a lot of fun. Here are pictures, and I have a video I will post at some point. It was in the 90s today & while it was cool on the boat, coming back to land was a rude awakening!

Sunday At The Lake

We kicked off my week and a half long vacation with a trip to Grammy & Grampy's today, where we swam, went for a boat ride and had a delicious barbecue. Here are pictures:

Our First Pepper!

We picked our first banana pepper today from our container garden and sautéed it in a chicken basil stir fry; since I long ago lost track of which pepper plant was sweet and which was spicy I had Charlie taste test the pepper first; it turned out to be sweet so now I know for sure which plant is which :-)

Here is Amelia displaying our pepper and also picking basil for Monmy :-) You can see our back deck is looking awfully green these days :-)

Finding New Ways To Beat The Heat

We met Katie and Kyla at Cambridge Commons this morning and kept cool playing in the sand & water playground there before heading to my favorite pizza place for lunch, and of course, Pinkberry for dessert :-) Here are pictures:

Too Hot To Do Anything Else

Today marked our fifth day in a row of temperatures above 90 degrees, with the heat wave not expected to break until Tuesday. With the weather so hot we have been retreating to the pool, taking the kids 3 out of the past 5 days. Here is Amelia showing off her swimming skills (not without swallowing pool water) after taking her first swimming lesson yesterday.

First Swimming Lesson

She'll be swimming like a pro in no time!

Happy 4th!

(Amelia is sacked out in her stroller, it was a tough day at the pool!)

First Day Of Summer Camp

The kids both had a great first day at summer camp; Amelia had no problem separating from Mike this morning and was excited to meet her new class and new friends. She got to do lots of water play and pronounced her new school to be "more fun" than Toddler Tech. 

Charlie, for his part, got to go on a field trip to Blue Hills where he saw "a deer, a chipmunk and a lot of mosquitos". (Maybe Mom will pack the bug spray next time.)

But all in all a great first day!

First Library Card

We headed to the library this afternoon to get some summer reading material for Charlie where he signed up for his own library card and checked out a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book to tackle as his first summer reading book. We're looking forward to a summer of reading!

First Day Of Summer Vacation

I took the kids to the Aquarium today since it is not only officially Charlie's first week of summer vacation but also the grand re-opening of the Giant Ocean Tank, the Aquarium's main exhibit. 

The kids had a great time; Charlie felt the need to look at every single exhibit in depth and asked a gazillion questions at the feedings & seal show, so we were there ALL DAY. 

The giant ocean tank is apparently now bigger and reconfigured to hold 3 times as many fish, so now it holds something ridiculous like 2000 fish which is a world record for one tank or something. Charlie spent quite a while at the top of the tank lamenting that if he only had a fishing pole..,

Here are some pictures: