You guys, today is my blog's 5th birthday! Apparently five years ago today we were getting ready to leave for Alaska. Spoiler Alert- about a year from now I'll be getting ready to leave for Hawaii! I've spent the last five years documenting our adventures, and I'm really glad that I did- it's a pretty awesome 'keepsake'.
Anyway, I'm sure you're here for this weeks events- so onto them we go! Remember how I told you all about our computer woes? Well, they continued with the brand new HP computer- which was just a total disaster. We ended up sending it back, and ordering the exact same computer we had gotten for Calib. The return process has been a bit slow as well. But, after nearly two months, we're finally back in business.
Sunday, of course, was fathers day- which we here at the Waterstrauts celebrate as Hobbit Day.
Basically, we live like hobbits- by eating like hobbits.
They have seven 'meals', though understandably, like hobbits- the meals are small. (Take note on the pictures, our serving size was like half the size of his).
This year, since we had just gotten back from Disney the day before, I took a lot of help from the store. First breakfast was grilled strawberry shortcake with lemon creme. I got up before Asa so he could have first breakfast in bed.
Second breakfast is meat heavy- we had bacon, sausage, and toad in the hole. It's a family favorite, but for some reason, I only make it for hobbit day.
Elevensies is at 11, as the name would suggest. And for elevensies, we always have lembas bread. One bite is supposed to keep you full for days. But, it's really just some plain old cracker like bread mixture. It's not my favorite thing. But, as far as having to bake something, it's not too bad. And I've almost never burnt it. So there's that.
As hobbits would prefer, it's served with ale. (Or the best damn rootbeer if you're Asa and hate beer/ale of any sort).
Oh, and worth noting- the blanket for was renamed to the Hobbit Hole for the day.
For luncheon we have SAMwiches, which is basically just a grilled cheese with sauteed onions, mushrooms and bacon. We also have a spring salad (with mushrooms- Hobbits really like them), and berries (another hobbit favorite).
After luncheon and dinner, hobbits enjoy afters. I just went to the Publix bakery to pick out something that looked good, and then cut it into enough sections for all of us. This is their lemon crumb cake, we had it for some presidents birthday- and it was really good, so everyone was happy to have it again.
Aafternoon tea is also served with sweets, and we had the cheery cobber from Washington's birthday. It's super easy to make with canned cherries and bisquick.
Oh, and some of us had coffee instead of tea.
Dinner was bangers and mash, berries and crusty bread. I even bought the prepackaged mashed potatoes. (I told you I took a lot of help from the store!)
I had each of the kids take a picture and different meal times with Asa- of course trying to get a picture of Asa and Calib is always the most problematic. These two.
For Afters we split two apple turnovers from the Publix bakery.
Not everyone always makes it to supper, but it always finishes up with some bread and mushroom soup. I bought this stuff premade, but cooked mushrooms and bacon to add. It was pretty decent.
And, some people, who weren't up at first breakfast asked to have that instead. I had plenty of pound cake left over from fondu the other night, so I obliged.
The next day was the first day of summer. Usually, it's so hot and miserable, that's when we build the blanket fort. However, we already had the blanket fort up, and we had some unusually nice weather for a couple days in a row. You guys, it was SO nice out. It was hot, sure, but the humidity was non-existent. It was LOVELY! So we decided to celebrate by turning the back yard into a mini water park. I had gotten the plastic sheeting to make a water blob (like the ones you see on the Pinterest), so I put that together. We also got out some of our baby pools from the Target end of summer clearance last year, and the slip n slide from the tropical storm- and ta da! A note on the water blob- they are SO annoying to put together, but I knew this- as I think this is the third summer in row that I've made one. But the boys love them, so I oblige.
We did have some friends come join us from the neighborhood, and we broke out the water balloons- with this nifty little contraption, you can fill a whole slew of them at once. You just plug the hose in, and fill...
They get full and you can slide them right off (I think they are supposed to fall off- but on our first go around a bunch of them got too full and started popping, so the next time we pulled them off before they could pop).
We also had a few slingshots for the water balloons- but mostly everyone just threw them at each other. (Notice the waterballoon baby welts Hayden has on him- ouch!)
The kids spent the afternoon playing in the water, and eventually Asa and I joined them.
We kept the party going for pizza in the blanket fort for dinner...
....and we had a smores bar for dessert. I had gotten all the stuff for Disney, but then we never got around to cooking any of it.
In the evening, everyone decided to go back out for a second round.
By then the water blob had some holes, and was leaking, but it was super warm water, since it had been sitting in the sun all day. So everyone wanted to open up the blob .
Then they decided the water was so warm, they could dump it into the big baby pool and have a makeshift hot tub.
Some of the kids from the neighborhood slept over, so I made pancakes for everyone the next morning, and being a good host, I got out a variety of toppings. Peyton took full advantage.
The next day the weather was SUPER nice again (it's back to being crazy muggy, I knew it wouldn't last long), so we nixed our plans for an indoor day (of Finding Dory and bowling) in favor of another day outside.
And, I had enough plastic sheeting left for another water blob. I can't believe I made one two days in a row. (I seriously hate making them!) You really just tape the sheeting together, but it's tricky to make sure you won't get any leaks. And you have to remember to leave room for the hose (I forgot and had to cut out a piece.
Then you fill. Our water bill is going to be seriously something this month.
When it's done filling (and you have to sit there and babysit it forever, holding it slightly up, or it'll just spill out the hose opening- though if you have two hoses you can just tape one in and be done with it though), you pull out the hose and tape it up. And ta da! Water blob.
Again, you'll notice I had some extra kids on hand. But, they all had a good time with the slip n slide, the water blob, and the baby pools.
Even Jan from next door came over for a few minutes.
Everyone basically spent a second whole day outside. I'm telling you guys, we had gorgeous- very unlike Florida in June- weather. It was glorious.
And once again, at the end of the day, they wanted to rip apart the water blob and make a hot tub.
We did also take advantage of the nice weather and get the garden in order, and a few flowers planted. The patio looks all pretty now.
And our papaya tree has it's very first papaya on it!
Lonnie and Jan did drop us off a couple from our papaya tree's parent too.
Oh, and look how great our lily pads look finally in their home!
Summer Reading Club also kicked off at the library, and today we went to the martial arts demonstration.
Hayden even got to break a board with his fist!
And we are halfway to our free Rays tickets. If you're one of my Tampa friends, check out your local library. If you complete the hourly requirements of reading you get prizes and two free Rays tickets per child! It's totally free, which is awesome.
In other news, Ellie has been a part of our family for six whole months. We love her to pieces, she's such a great dog! Although, I could do without her recent obsession of trying to climb trees to get lizards. But everything else about her is just the best. And I've never seen a dog like blankets as much as Miss Ellie. If you are thinking about adoption, please, please, please go to your local shelter. There is probably a dog just as awesome as Ellie that needs a home. I leave you with adorable Ellie pictures.
