Summer Recap!

Since I didn't blog all summer, I figured I would do a "recap" of our summer adventures. We stayed close to home most of the summer, but took a "field trip" or two. With the Disney trip looming, we are saving all our $$$ for that and with the price of gas, we didn't go too far from home!

So, lets start with June.

Baseball was coming to an end - both boys had a lot of fun this year! It was tough, since they were at different levels, and most of their games were on the same night! But, we did what good parents do - divide and conquer! Doug coached Adam's team, so he spent most of the first half of Andrew's games with Adam, then came over to the other field to watch Andrew.

As soon as school got out, it was time for the kids annual swim lessons. This is the 3rd year the boys have taken swim lessons from Donna O'Leary, a lady in town. She does a great job with the kids! One of the things they do is swim with their clothes on. This is a life saving exercise they are taught.

Andrew:

Adam:

Also in June was the Fish Family picnic at Matt and Nancy's house....hmmmm...no pictures of that - I'm not sure why! It was a great day and lots of fun - just no pictures to prove it!

Moving on to July....

We attended the Paulsboro 4th of July parade, as always. But hey - no pictures again! The next day was the Stetser Family Picnic. It is a lot of fun, but it's a ton of work. I spend about 5 or 6 hours preparing for it. It's held about 70 minutes away at Delanco Camp in Vincentown NJ. It's an all day affair, so lots of food to pack, games, swim equipment, fishing equipment and so on. But, it's so nice seeing all the relatives we only get to see once a year. And, the kids have a great time fishing with Poppie and their Uncles

There were sooooo many turtles in the lake this year. It made it very hard to fish. Some of the turtles were HUGE. The kids thought it was great! Poppie, Uncle Wayne and Doug didn't think it was so great getting the turtles off the line when they were caught!

All the "Stetser Guys" wore the shirts that John bought for them. The shirts have the image of John Stetser, Sr.'s fishing boat embroidered on them and the name of the boat, the Capt. Stetser

Another highlight of July was a trip to Northlandz in Flemington, NJ with Grandmom and Poppie Stetser. Northlandz is a HUGE model train display museum. When you are doing walking through, you have walked 1 mile! The displays are unbelievable - so much detail. I can't even begin to describe it!

We all had a great time - what a neat place! Thank you Grandmom and Poppie!

Another highlight of July was the Lee Graduation Party. If anyone can throw a party, it's the Lee's! The party was to celebrate Russell's 8th graduation from St. Margaret's and Kyle's graduation from Gloucester Catholic. They rented a HUGE gladiator pit and it was the hit of the party! Doug and I even gave it a shot! I won :). Adam was using it as a trampoline. The boy loves to flip! Sorry for the sideways video - I don't think there is a way for me to rotate a .avi file!

Katie and Annie doing battle on the gladiator!

Moving on to August.....

August 3rd was Mom's birthday, so we had a cookout at Jean and Sean's. While dinner was grilling, there was a card game going on! Surprise, surprise....

And yes, that is a mohawk on Kyle's head. It was something he wanted to do, so he did it. It lasted about a week and a half before he shaved it off

Opening presents and hanging out

And like I said earlier, we hung out at the library - a lot! Our children's librarian, Miss Heather is amazing! She comes up with great programs, great crafts, great fun for the kids! This years summer reading program theme was "Catch the Reading Bug". Here are a few highlights from some programs:

Mr. Malcom - we love him! We are groupies! He know my kids and Kevin and Annie by name!

A play the kids were in

And the end of the reading program party and a day of water fun!

All in all, it was a great summer! We hung out at the Gibbstown swim club a lot with the MacKenzies, had play dates, hung out, went to the park and really enjoyed ourselves! One week left to have more fun!