Beach 2014

I am a terrible blogger and got so behind this summer.  :(  Instead of trying to go back and post everything I missed blogging about I will just be going backwards into the summer for one thing---the beach.

This year we went further south to Avon. NC.  The advantage is there are few less people---the disadvantage of course is that it's roughly an hour farther south.  ;)

The kids all had a blast together as they have the past few years----even Brody had a great time with the big kids!  Robbie who is 14 was by far his best buddy that week!  ;)

Riley, Travis, Tommy and Robbie

Brody and Tommy

Too bad this pic is blurry  :(  The humidity caused issues with my camera.

Riley, Tommy, Travis and Robbie

Looking for ghost crabs!

Travis, Riley, Colleen and Kaylee

I know their eyes are closed but it's suck a cute pic otherwise!  lol

Crab

The kids kept digging holes in the sand to sit in and then would wait for the water to come up and fill the hole in---seemed weird but they did it over and over again!

In the pool

Sitting in the hole

Travis, Riley and Collen

Humidity and my camera didn't mix

Gymnastics on the beach

Cuties

"Be a Pilot Day"

On a total whim we went out to Udvar Hazy to their "Be a Pilot Day".  It was something Evan had thought about doing but when Travis' game got pushed back a few hours when we got to the field for his game we decided "what the heck--why not?".  This explains why Travis is in his baseball uniform in all of the pictures.  LOL  The kids had a great time climbing in some of the planes and going into the 777!

United 777

Under the wing

The traffic helicopter from Baltimore

Huge engine

They wanted to sit in all of the different sections of the plane---this was business class

Wings

Sitting in economy

1st class

In the cockpit

In a small plane---no idea what it was  :)

An old Navy plane for Poppa Sam

The 777 again

"flying" a plane inside

Brody was freaked out by this astronaut glove

Target Summer Clearance Alert!!!!

Let me start by saying everything I got today was 70% off and you had to scan them to know--plus some things aren't even marked with a sign.  Yes they will eventually mark the summer clearance to 90% off but there is almost never anything even remotely "good" left.

The first item I learned about from another blog is that the up & up 3 packs of sunscreen were included in the 70% off markdown.  PLEASE don't tell me about that article floating around about the spray sunscreens--it's all about being careful and preventing sunburn/cancer in my house.  Each 3 pack was scanning at $4.19 PLUS they are buy 3 get one free PLUS there is a 5% off Cartwheel (there is a limit on the cartwheel though) PLUS there is a $1 off sun care coupon on target.com.  I paid a total of $38 for what was originally $168 of sunscreen----that's a little over $1 PER CAN!  Yes I checked the expiration dates----some are Sept of 2015 and others went into 2017!

All of the Target brand summer stuff should be falling into the summer sale.  Pictured here are some floats ranging in price from .29-$2.99 after sale, plates that are dishwasher safe for .59 each, lunch box sets that are dishwasher safe for .89 each and that grilling fork (perfect for marshmallows) for $1.49.  I had seen those Glad bags on a site with the sale price and found one box---marked to .89 from $2.99 PLUS there is a .50 off coupon on target.com.

I had seen on another site that some of the coolers were on sale too.  We have two large rolling coolers but sometimes I want to have a cooler but I don't want it to take up SO MUCH room in the car.  (like when we go to the beach)  These stack-able coolers were originally $18.99 each but I got them for $4.83 each after the sale price AND the 15% off cartwheel!  I just may go back and get the last one they had.  LOL

Keep your eyes peeled for these deals because some of them are just AWESOME!  I may be going back later.  LOL

Summer items #11 and #19.....CHECK

Summer list item #11:  Water Balloon Fight

Next year I will only put this item on the list if I don't have to be the one making the water balloons.  Man that is such a pain in the a$$!  It just takes forever---I know we didn't have enough balloons since you can never have enough but I was done tying them!  My fingers hurt!  lol  We did it on the night of Travis' birthday party sleepover.  We had just gotten home from taking the crew to the pool so it was perfect since they were already wet.  :)

L to R:  Tate, Zach, Travis, Logan and Brody up front with his eyes closed

Summer list item #19:  Make sidewalk paint

This was a semi-bust.  We made it with cornstarch and water like the "recipe" said but it wasn't thick at all---it was basically colored water.  I could have added more cornstarch BUT we were out.  LOL  I had used the entire box that we had left on the recipe.  ;)  Oh well........

White heat stains?

Have you ever cleared your wood table after a meal and seen a weird white mark on the table?  I have a few times----but the one I got yesterday was really bad----so bad you can see the outline of the bottom of the plate that I used!

In the past I would clean them with the regular spray I use on the table but they would take forever to go away----like months of daily cleaning.  After yesterday's really bad mark (the others were all MUCH smaller-I guess the plate yesterday was REALLY HOT) I decided to google it.

Apparently all you need is a steam iron and a white towel.  Really?  That's it?  Yep---worked on my table.  Put the towel down and run the steam iron over the spot for around 15 seconds or so.  Now my table looks like this in that same spot:

Summer List items 7 and 8....CHECK!

As always I am very behind in posting on the blog.  (sigh)  We have gotten quite a few of our summer items checked off of our list already.  Here are two more........

#7 Scavenger Hunt walk
We cheated a bit and did this in Aunt Mandy's backyard.  lol  The kids had fun (though they said they were done after about 10 min) and they found most of the items on the list.  The scavenger hunt printable that I used can be found here :  http://www.fivelittlechefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Nature-Scavenger-Hunt.pdf.

#8 Make our own fruit leather
I got the idea/recipe for this here:  http://divascancook.com/homemade-strawberry-fruit-rollup-fruit-leather-recipe-oven/.  Did it work?  Yes  Did Travis like it?  Not really.  Oh well.  I tried!  I guess once you are used to fruit roll ups from a box the real ones are "weird:".  LOL

In the oven

The only bite he took.  GRRRRR.