Happy Sunday, moving help and, yes, more fair baking!

 It was a full Sunday. Wasn't intended to be that way, but it should not surprise me that it ended up that way. We actually slept in this morning...not enough, but more than we intended. We didn't go to church for 2 hours as planned....but did make it there to help out in Lo's room.  He was happy....though not with the one piece on the train table that is nailed down and messes with the track!  Then it was off to help Sue Sue get some of her moving done.  Wish we could have helped her more. She seems organized and ready for her big move-in day this week.  It was awfully humid today....awful.  Kev almost looks passed out in the new hammock.  Not quite sure that is the way to use one, but Kev is not of normal sorts :)  And it was more and more and more baking.  Still working on it actually...waiting for the 4th angel food to come out of the pan.  Nice. Ash did finish her cute lil' animal cake pops...but we will see how they look in the morning to decide if she sends in pigs or pandas or both...but they were cracking as we were deciding earlier.  Oh the fun of baking! And Shelby learned to use a real mixer today and figured out that it makes better angel food cakes.  But we burned one and then had to go get more eggs and thus the late night baking. Always something!  I will take a pic later to show you all three angel food cakes and her final selection.  Fair food due tomorrow morn! 

All done...now to decide which two get entered...I think the one looks like a pound cake, so probably too dense for angel food...we'll see what she says in the a.m.! Now off to bed...finally!

An exceptional violin day!

 Well, I am only posting a few pics bc I am in desperate need of sleep...but I must say our violinist was exceptional today--a very special day for sure.  She has crossed the line in violin-ing into making very beautiful music.  Not that she didn't before, but this intensive has proved to us that she can work very hard when she wants to and can rise to the challenges.  I am not even sure how much music she memorized and how many hours she put into these last 4 weeks (I should figure that out!), but it was a blessing to be able to watch her use her talents and to have fun in the process. So very proud of our girl and how her hard work paid off for a beautiful performance today. It was very fun to watch and I could tell she was having a good time on the stage.  She didn't seem nervous at all and she actually was smiling and moving to the music. It was like it was flowing through her.  Cool!  Anyway...here's a few pics and hopefully I can post more tomorrow.  Here she is before the concert. Ready to go!

 Can you spot her playing my fav song...6.5 mins of music...all memorized!  Tartini

 They even got to sit in the coveted VV (advanced student) spaces in the back. They were the most advanced students in this concert. 

 Pretty girl with pretty flowers :)

 Celebration at Dairy Queen!  So glad Nina and Poppy and Sue Sue were there to share in the special day too!

 We had Nina and Poppy over for a belated Father's Day dinner, and they blessed us with going through old papers for Kev.  Nina apparently loves to do this. 

We enjoyed Shelb's special "fair cake" for dessert. Yumm!

A special day for sure!

Lots of friends and more fair baking...

 Well, it was a nutso day.  I am not sure why I thought it was a good idea to invite 4 extras over today and attempt to get baking done...but I did. I am not always the brightest person. :) We had to get up early yet again to get kids to and from places on time.  Shelb's friend was over by 9am.  Shelb made her fav. bfast...blueberry muffins.

 On the way out to get three extra kiddos I saw Kev and his dad's handiwork from last night...nice!  Fits all our luggage, I think.

 Got our three extras and although it may look like tameness it was not.  The three in the back were wild...and D and his friend were reading...haha...funny the difference in personalities.

 Lots of birds on our feeder today even with all the extra kids here.  Birds decided to invite friends over too apparently :)

 Back at the sand/water box again today.  Seriously, hours of fun!

 LOL...of all the things to chose to do...playing the Frozen matching game.  Anson won.

 We thought he wanted to be sprayed with water...he was spraying the girls first so they sprayed back...we thought he was laughing.

 He was apparently not happy :( Poor boy. Sorry, bud.

 But we were back to smiles soon :) :)

 Slide time...the poor thing is looking sad lately...popped inside and all distorted.  And the air would not stay in it today. But still fun!

 It's been a great free slide though!

 Water balloons!

 I have noticed that Ash can dish it out, but not take it in.

 Go, Ash!  We decided to add the tripled slip-n-slide to the end of the slide...better on the butt or belly depending on which way you slid down.

 LOL...check out Lo's face sneaking up behind them with a water balloon!

 Ash and two of her besties!

 The slip-n-slide was a good idea...but that slide is just so sad now...

 LOL...no idea how the girls w/o bathing suits ended up in the pool.  But apparently wet clothes were a shock to Shelb.

 They all actually got along...that was one bonus of the crazy day.

 Catching dragonflies and other bugs/insects.

 Lots of them...but it was catch and release.  None were harmed in the making of this blog :)

 Lunch!  They were starving...and that was a lot of kids to feed. Good thing I don't have to feed 8 often.

 LOL...Anson apparently has the talent of burping the alphabet, but today she burped our names.  Very funny to Dylan!

Also funny...these boots are our nemesis...they never come off without drama!  Thank goodness for friends and a watchful brother!

 Seriously...they cracked me up. They didn't want to go on the water toys, but they played all our preschool girlie games...this time the good ol' strawberry shortcake game. It was Hailey's when she was like 3.  Endless fun apparently!

 Silly girls.  They were on a mission to find a big geode I had thrown back in the woods that Ash had found at her friend's farm.  They had it all planned out down to the winter clothes and gloves...so as not to get prickers or poison ivy!

 Off they go...in the wrong direction, I might add.

 Inside, the 5th graders and preschooler were getting rowdy with nerf guns and tent hideouts.

 sad faces...no geode!

 Inside the middle schoolers were baking away...Kaci bakes a lot and really has a love for it.  She made some yummy lemon rolls today.  Shelb helped...and was making her fair entry.

 I found someone who makes more of a mess in the kitchen when she bakes than I do. Way to go, Kaci!

 They said they were lip syncing to songs on Radio Disney.

 Dessert....ice cream cookie sandwiches. Thumbs up...yumm!!

 So glad Kaci was here today bc she knows how to beat eggs til they are stiff! haha :)  I had no idea it took so long! Shelb did awesome beating away...good job, Shelby!

 Shelb is proud of her wave-like eggs!

 Yumm...lemon rolls!

 The girls with their creations. Shelb's didn't make it out of the pan til Kaci left.

 Some ping pong!

 Some air hockey.

 And a finished cake!!  YAY!  One of Dad's favs...and it was very yummy...she did an awesome job. It is our dessert for tomorrow night.

 Awww...seriously...this table was a good idea. Even big kids like it.

 So funny...he asked to put his suit on finally and this is where we found him.  Swimming by himself in like a foot of water.  So happy. :)

 And somehow he busted the inner tube.  Strong boy.

 Someone got a new toy...and someone was having a tough evening.

The joys of having friends over and baking...lots and lots of dishes...and some bad moods.
                                                 
Gorgeous view of Boston from Hailey's high rise roof.  Sunset.
                                                    
Friday pool time.  Such a rough life.  Can't believe in a week she will be packing up to leave and fly to FL.  Time flies!

Whatta day...I was not sure I would make it given how icky I felt this morning, but my little prayer worked and I survived.  The kids all seemed to have fun, it never rained like it looked like it could and we knocked out seeing 4 friends in one day. May as well do it all in one day than spread it out.  But this mama is tired and we have a big concert day tomorrow.  Hoping our violinist is in better spirits tomorrow after some sleep. zzzzz