"Everyone Else At The Beach" Or "The Last Post Of Our Vacation. I Promise."

My dad asked me yesterday if he had actually gone on our vacation to the seaside with us. Ha ha. He's a very funny man. Or he thinks he is, anyway.

I fully intended to post more pictures of the rest of us, but with Brad's surgery, I just haven't found the time.

No time like the present, right?

Don't worry. There aren't that many.





There's a funny story about this picture. On Friday, we decided to take the ferry across to Aransas Pass and hit Sonic Happy Hour. We're just so much fun like that. When we told Phoebe we were taking the ferry, she asked, "The BABY PACI FAIRY?" She just could not wrap her head around it! She asked 284 questions about the ferry, the boat, why was it called a "ferry", where was the fairy, was she riding on the boat, and on and on and on. We finally just stopped talking about it because it was making us all a little crazy! :)




We didn't build this sand castle. We just thought it made for a great photo op.




A "Happy Father's Day" picture on our last day at the beach. I love these people sooooo much!




A new "Show and Tell" post is coming soon! And it's pretty darn cute, too. Get your own "Show and Tell" ready so you can leave the link in my comment box. I just can't wait!

Our Summer In Numbers (So Far)

4 The number of shoes we left at the condo in Port Aransas. One pair of Phoebe's and a pair of Eli's. Phoebe's favorite game at the condo was "Put Things In Empty Drawers" and I'm pretty sure that's where they

5 The number of days since Brad's hernia surgery last Thursday. He's feeling better now, but there were a rough couple of days in there!

1 The number of brand-new nephews I have! Welcome, Baby Isaac!! This isn't the greatest picture since I took it from my sister's facebook page, but it's the only one I have. Dontcha just want to squeeze those widdle cheekies?!

3 1/2 The number of books I've read this summer. JULIE AND JULIA (marginal). THE RELIABLE WIFE (pretty good). SHANGHAI GIRLS (very good). I'm about four chapters into THE TANGIBLE KINGDOM that we're reading with our small group. I'm also about 10 pages into AN ECHO IN THE BONE.

23 The number of popsicles consumed at our house.

148 The number of tallys Eli has on his WINDOW TALLY SHEET. It's slow going, folks.

47 The number of times Eli has complained about not getting to play with friends this summer.

6 The number of half-finished projects I have going on in my craft room.

872 The number of flies I've killed so far this summer. They seem especially bad this year. There are 3 flying around the kitchen as I type this.

7 The number of times I've called my pediatrician so far. What with Eli's ROUGH START to the summer and Phoebe's summer cold and pink eye, she's my new BFF!

8 The number of times we've been to the pool. I'm hoping the number goes up drastically in the next few weeks!

15 The number of Sonic Happy Hour stops I've made.

56 The number of days of summer left before Eli starts first grade! I think I'll start hyperventilating now.

What are the numbers for anyone else's summer so far?

Phoebe At The Beach

Just as much as our vacation to the seaside (and don't you think "seaside" sounds so much more poignant that "beach"?) showcased Eli's little personality, it also made Phoebe shine, too.

Can't you just feel the anxiety radiating off this girl?

This is about as close to the water as she got on that first day. And the whole time she was screaming, "I DON'T WIKE TO GET DIRTY!!" She's so much fun that way.


So we spent some time building sandcastles.



She and Brad built a whole sand city that afternoon. Actually, Brad did the manual labor and Phoebe was more like the developer telling Brad where to dig and where to place each "castle". We have no idea where her bossiness comes from! :)

By the second day, she was getting much braver. She never did battle the waves like Eli did and she didn't particularly care to be carried out that far, either. But the beach did inspire several spontaneous outbursts of song and dance that amused our fellow beach-goers. She also collected a large amount of "teeny-tiny" shells every day. Phoebe is very industrious...even when she plays she's "working."

I just love this picture. We have a similar one of my sister and a FAMILY FRIEND when Carrie was about Phoebe's age.
Phoebe's favorite game on this day was to run into the water until it was about shin deep and then run back out. Over and over and over again.






That night we tried to get some good family pictures at the seaside. It was not a good experience. The only really good one I ended up with was the one of ELI AND BRAD. We waited too late and lighting was bad and someone (who's name rhymes with Meebee) was in a terrible mood. However, I did take this picture of her pretending to be a pelican.

She's such a little cheesehead!

After dinner at THE CRAZY CAJUN on Friday night, we took another walk on the beach where I got some great pictures of Phoebe. I need to tell you a little backstory on the dress Phoebe is wearing in the next few pictures. My mom made it for me when I was about Phoebe's age. Embroidered on the front are some flowers and a sun that I drew and then my mom traced and embroidered! How cool is that?! You can't see them very well in the pictures so I'll have to take a close-up later.

Eli At The Beach

I decided that since I did take an insane number of pictures at the beach, that I needed to find a way to break them up into different posts so that my readers wouldn't balk at the number of photos in one GIGANTIC post.


Do I even still have readers?


Hello? Anyone?


Eli's very first steps in the ocean. Ever.

I am so glad I captured this moment. Don't you remember your very first time to see and touch the ocean? It's something that can't quite be described that is etched forever in your memory. And my little Eli turned out to be quite the beach bum.









After our first full day at the beach, Eli was WIPED OUT. And it's no wonder. He attacked every single wave. And I'm talking jump-into-every-wave-yelling-at-the-top-of-his-lungs-and-use-every-single-ounce-of-energy attack. It's funny, but being at the beach brought out the quintessential Eli. The Eli who challenges every single thing. The Eli who makes his own way, even when another would be easier or safer or make more sense. The Eli who is not daunted by what others think he should be doing. The Eli who does not back down and sees a battle in everything. The ocean was a good place for this. It allowed me to see who Eli is without being frustrated or at my wits end because (for once) he wasn't battling me. It also let me see that when Eli has something to challenge him physically and mentally, he is so much more pleasant to be around. My brother was like that. I think I'll just store this little nugget of insight away for the future and spend more time looking for ways that Eli can wear himself out.

It also increased his appetite tenfold. I mean, the boy could put it away! Sheesh. I can't imagine what his teenage years will be like.

Luckily, a good's night sleep helped him recuperate.

And We're Back

Did you miss me? :)

It's funny, but I missed posting on this blog while we were on vacation this past week. I had every intention of posting while we were away, but the condo where we stayed had spotty internet at best and just didn't feel like leaning over the third floor balcony to find the best connection. Call me crazy. And while I would love to post all 947 photos from my trip (and I am sooo not joking on that number!), it's going to take me a few days to edit and sort through them. In this wonderful age of digital photography, I seem to take waaaayyy to many pictures and then have to spent a good amount of time sifting out the really, really good ones. And there were several good ones!

But I do need to leave with you a recipe. We made THIS yummy pasta dish the first night we were there. There are no words to describe how utterly delicious this dish is. And it was easy! I was going to use basil instead of parsley because I'm not a huge fan of parsley (I think it tastes like soap), but there wasn't any at the grocery store where we shopped. So I bought diced tomatoes seasoned with basil, garlic, and oregano and added just a little fresh parsley. My only tip for this dish is add lots of salt. And I mean LOTS. I added what I thought was a good amount (a good sized palm-ful) and we ended up adding much more after it was cooked. Also, use the widest, thickest foil you can find. We had a smaller, cheaper roll of foil and while we did cross it over, some of the "juice" leaked onto the baking sheet...nothing that couldn't be sopped up with a good piece of bread!

Please make this for me. You'll thank me later. I promise. And be checking back as I start to post all the pictures from our very first family trip to the ocean.

Eli's Legomaniac Party

I do love me some birthday parties!

That's why I can't believe it's been almost a week since Eli's birthday party and I'm just now blogging about it! We've been a little BUSY and DISTRACTED, I guess.

I think Eli loves Legos almost as much as he loves Star Wars. And he's starting to form his own opinions on what kind of birthday he wants. (I dread the day he tells me he just wants to take a few friends bowling and have a slumber party!) So I started looking around for fun Lego birthday ideas and there were a bunch so I started to get excited too! It started with the invitation which I found on HERE.


After invitations were sent, I started thinking about decorations. Eli had decided on red and blue as the colors. Mainly because I bought his birthday shirt HERE and there were limited options. (Is ETSY not the greatest place on Earth?!) Instead of streamers (because that would just be way too easy), I decided to decorate with paper chains. Guess who got to put together paper chain as one of his jobs for the TALLY sheet? Even though I made about three times as much as I needed they turned out spectacular and I'll probably use this idea again!


I also made a "Happy Birthday" banner...with the help of my friend, Ashley, and her Cricket! :)


The food was kept pretty simple. Cupcakes.


A personal Lego cake for Eli.


Ice cream. Is my new platter from WALLY WORLD not to die for?!


The dessert "table" looked awfully festive!


Our guest list was a little shallow this year. Summer birthday parties are always a hit or miss when it come to guests, but the smaller number was actually so much more fun because we got to do each "game" slowly and enjoy it!



And I had several games planned for the party. Games like "Guess How Many Legos" in a large jar.

There were 946, by the way.

The kids dropped legos from our balconey into a plastic bucket.


The "Who can build the tallest free-standing tower in one minute" game.



Lego Charades. I gave each "team" a card with instructions to "build something that floats" or "build something you can ride on".



The Nena-Phoebe team made a flying refridgerator. Nobody guessed that.


The best game, by far, was the "Find The Lego" game. I piled whipped cream on top of a candy lego and told each boy they had to find the lego without using their hands. So. Much. Fun. And a great photo op, too!







Phoebe decided against playing because it might "get her shirt dirty!"


Eli loved his lego cake!

I forgot to take a picture, but the inside was "tie-dyed" red and blue using THIS technique. Although I didn't use a "diet" cake.

Each guest took home a Chinese take-out box that contained one of those little bitty lego packages you can find at Christmas and Easter at Target for about $2 each and some LEGO CANDY. You can really build with them!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI!!