Summer 2011

I know I haven’t blogged much this summer. The summer has flown by and I don’t know where it went. I have been extremely busy with real estate this summer and then every time I am not working I am trying to create fun times with the kids. We have done most of the stuff that we wanted to do this summer, but haven’t gotten to spend time with as many friends as we wanted. So, now we have 2 weeks to play catch up from work and get ready for school and still make some time for fun.


It has been an unusual summer for us as it is the first time that we didn’t do swim team. We have been swimming for the last 7- 8 years and just seemed a little odd not to have practice every morning. We started sleeping in almost immediately.

Dale actually took the kids to Six Flags for the first time without me since I was working and he hadn’t gotten to go in a long time. We have been to White Water a bunch as usual this Summer but still need to fit in a few more times.

We went bowling some with the free bowling program. We went to the zoo with some friends (another post). We went to the lake almost every week again this summer. We went skating with the church.

Justin went to his first Summer Camp and first OVERNIGHT camp with Johnson Ferry Baptist Church this summer. There is a separate post about that. Jennifer helped out with VBS by leading a group this year, and loved that. She had the first grade class and did a great job with them. I got several compliments from others about the terrific job she did.

She also had a week of summer classes that were totally optional at Pebblebrook. She loved loved loved this, and declared her minor after experiencing all the areas of concentration (drama, technical theater, vocals, and dance). She is officially a drama major and dance minor. She is excited to start this new chapter of her life. She even got used to wearing her leotards and tights into Walmart and Publix after the first day. 



This is the first time she has been dressed like this in a long time.

We also met another family with a daughter who is going to Pebblebrook and will be a drama major and dance minor at Dave and Busters and enjoyed getting to know them. They are mutual friends of our next door neighbors. Jennifer and Alexandria are a day apart in age, and so it will be nice to know some other kids when school starts.

We also joined Netflix this Summer, which is the only time we really have to catch up on the movies we don’t get to see during the school year. I signed us up for it and Justin helped me figure out how to use the Wii (which was super easy) to stream and watch movies and shows instantly. This has been out for a while, but it was super new to us. And pretty darn cool!! We were able to show the kids some movies and shows that we grew up watching. We will probably cancel part of the service once school starts back but we have thoroughly enjoyed it this summer.

A new show for us which we all really enjoyed this summer was Cake Boss. This is a show about a bakery in New York that makes extreme type cakes. It is funny and amazing to see the cakes they make. So, one day at White Water, the kids and I decided we should make a cake. We brainstormed for about an hour while we relaxed in the lazy river about what type of cake we should make, and how we should do it. They even came home and drew up the plans for the cake.

We decided to make a real estate cake with a house and a for sale sign and take it into the office. So, a couple of days later, we went to Michaels to get the stuff. It is amazing how cake decorating terms have become commonplace in our house this summer. So, we made several cakes and several pans of rice krispy treats. I mainly let the kids do everything by themselves, and they did a great job.

Jennifer made the rice krispy treats -about 3 pans full!

Justin made the cakes-3 sheetcakes

Dirty icing the cake

Justin rolling the fondant

The finished product!!! Ta-da!!

They made the cakes, assembled them, and made the icing and dirty iced it then put the topcoat on there. They had a lot of trouble with the house and ended up just laying it down. The for sale sign stayed up better.

What a sweet cake...but even sweeter kids!!

We ended up taking it to the office, and I made them bring it from the car to the office, where a big deal was made by everyone. The kids were hilarious “fighting” with each other by using lines from the show such as -“I’m holding up my end, you just hold on to yours!” and several others using their best Jersey accents.

Transporting the cake is always nerve-wracking!

At my office presenting the cake

Everyone loved the cake and the office took a picture of the kids and cake and put it on their Facebook page. I was proud of their effort and that they stuck with the project because they learned that they make it look very easy on TV, but its really not so easy. As soon as we walked out, Justin started asking what kind of cake we wanted to make next....Jennifer and I just looked at him and rolled our eyes!!