The Last Two Weeks

Well life has just been so exciting around here that we forgot to write last week!

So I guess we'll have to start at the beginning. Grab a comfy seat--this is going to be verrrry loooong...

On Tuesday, July 28, we celebrated John's half birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. It was pretty fun. John invited two friends from church, we brought a Superman cake, and the kids ate pizza and played lots of games. (Because the room wasn't ready for us when we arrived, they gave us nearly 100 tokens on the house--that's in addition to the 100 we received as part of the party package, so we had lots of fun!)

We spent Wednesday getting ready for Lyn's "beach" party, including an "Imagination Station," which Grandma set up, and the marble cake which Margie baked and Lyn designed (including chocolate "rocks" and Twizzler seaweed--the fish are inedible). Margie even made a gluten-free cake for her mom, thanks to Betty Crocker's new line of Gluten Free Baking Mixes. We all agreed it was the best gluten-free cake we had ever tasted--almost indistinguishable from from the gluten-full version.

Thursday was the big event and included indoor activities (a woven fish craft, a drawing station (with beach colored paper and fish stickers), the "imagination" station, and a beach-themed book station) and outdoor activities (playing in the inflatable swimming pool, squirting water pistols, playing in the sandbox and on the swing set, and eating Lyn's beach-themed food: pineapple, fresh coconut, watermelon, and piña colada juice). She had six guests, and everyone had a lot of fun!

Friday was Lyn's actual birthday--she decided to reserve that for family.

During the day, Lyn, John, Margie, and Grandma headed out to visit one of the water parks we had on our list--Downpour at Algonkian Regional Park. They had lots of fun stuff--John especially liked that the water in the kids' pool was really shallow. It was pretty cloudy and humid, though, and when we got out our picnic lunch it started raining--and then it started pouring--and then it seemed we were caught in a hurricane!

Still, it was a fun day with great memories.

In the evening we headed to Silver Diner where we met Gene and Cecile and Debbie and Doug for milkshakes, pie, and whatever our hearts desired. Lyn thought it was pretty cool to have the restaurant staff (especially the funny announcer guy) sing to her and have the whole restaurant celebrating with her. It was a lot of fun!
Then it was back to the house for presents. All in all, Lyn had a great birthday.

On Sunday, Dan had a race at FedEx field. There was a lightning delay in the morning for about an hour, and then he raced on a wet track. You can see the water in the picture:


As usual, he was the only one in his class (which is kind of a bummer), but it means he won both first and last place.

On Monday, Margie spent the day deep cleaning her shower (including taking apart the shower doors). It was a LOT of work, but it was worth it. Meanwhile, her mom spent the day scrubbing the range top, which was also long overdue. That night Margie took Lyn to her piano lesson--changed from Tuesday because we had big plans the next day. We headed to...

The beach!

The weather forecast was for rain every day except Tuesday, so we had to rearrange some things--including heading a little further south than we have in the past (the rain was predicted for the northern part of the shore). So we spent the day in Ocean City, Maryland--which was quite a bit more crowded and commercial than our traditional Reboboth, Delaware.

Still, we found a nice spot to camp out (Lyn says the spot was "just waiting for us") and enjoy the beautiful weather, the sea and the sand. As we headed out, we ran into a lifeguard with a sand wheelchair, which the kids thought was very cool.


On Wednesday, Margie had two meetings related to Plaid Tidings, which she is music directing for LTA's Christmas fundraiser. Auditions are only about six weeks away--it's getting exciting!

On Thursday, we headed up to the VA Hospital so Carolyn could have an oral surgeon take a look at her mouth--she had had surgery just prior to coming out here and was having trouble staving off an infection.

Sadly, on Friday Margie spent the whole day at a funeral. A friend at church lost her 7 month old baby unexpectedly, and Margie helped prepare and serve the food, set up and clean up, as well as attending the services.

Saturday was a big (and well deserved) "do nothing" day for most of us, though Dan did change oil in one of the cars, as well as change the tire on Margie's bike.

Today after church Margie cut the boys' hair and then, as it was in the low 90s, got in the pool for awhile to cool off. Lyn went in with her friend Chloe a little later.

It is expected to be near 100° tomorrow, so we'll head to Pirate's Cove--and we have quite a few other fun things planned for Grandma's last week.

Hope you are enjoying your summer just as much!