Our summer is in full swing and looking back at pictures, we have been pretty busy so far. I was going to do a post about just our visitors that came in June, but then I saw all the other fun things we had going on before that, so it has now become a post about the beginning of summer.
June 7th was a free fishing day in New Mexico, so our family took a trip to Grindstone Lake in Ruidoso, NM. We thought it would be a quiet day of fishing and trying to entertain children around a lake, but when we pulled into town, we saw all the signs for their Kids Fishing Day. It was a like a kid-palooza at the lake. It was good and bad. We had to park far away because of all the people and Tyler couldn't find a good spot to fish because it was so crowded, but they had so much stuff going on, the kids were entertained all day. The kids were immediately given raffle tickets, visors, goodie bags of trail mix and other snacks, and water. We stopped by the coloring table while Tyler set up our fishing stuff.
There were other booths for the kids to go visit like face-painting and getting a branded "cookie" which was a chunk of tree trunk that the forest service branded with their logo. The kids could even take a turn at using the two-person saw. They even got to meet Smokey the Bear (Taryn wasn't scared at all!)
The best part of the day was the raffle give-aways. There were a ton of people there, but there were even more prizes to be given away. Aubrey's number was one of the first numbers called and she won a Vera Bradley backpack. It's purple, pretty, and she loved it! Abby's number was called later, and she picked out a small leather purse. Tessa's number was called near the end when they were just letting kids go up and pick something of what was left and she picked a small stuffed animal. Then they let everyone else go up who had not yet won a prize to get something, so we got another stuffed animal for Taryn. They then put all the numbers back in the box to call out winners for the "big" prizes like bikes and gift certificates. Tessa's number was called and she won a certificate for a free pizza at one of their downtown cafes. She was very excited to tell everyone after the fact that she had paid for our lunch since we picked up our free pizza as we drove out of town to go back home. We had also won another gift certificate for some free buffets at another restaurant in town, but we'll have to go another time to Ruidoso to use those. It was a lot of fun to leave with all our goodies, even though we didn't leave with any fish.
This sink planter was right outside the pizza place. The girls loved playing with it and pretending to wash their hands while we waited for our pizza. This other picture is of the "world's largest pistachio" which we drove past on our way to and from Ruidoso. I thought it was a picture we needed to have to say we saw the world's largest pistachio - too funny. We did not stop to buy any nuts however - maybe next time. We had so much fun on our little family get away, and can't wait to go back and find other fun family-friendly spots and to hopefully catch a few fish next time.
We spent the first three weeks once the girls were out of school stuck at the house while workers fixed our roof and repainted our house. We were definitely stir-crazy by the end of that time period, but luckily we had our pool to use in the afternoons and a few play dates scheduled so at least the girls could get away every once in awhile. I was at the house pretty much all day every day as workers blocked our driveway (and my car) with their equipment. They worked hard and now we have a leak-free roof and a brand new painted house. I should have taken more pictures, but I at least got a before (actually it's a during) and after picture of our exterior paint.
I've tried to stay busy and keep the girls busy during the summer, especially while we were more or less stuck at home with the workers around. I spent one day making felt food and used the girls to model them for my pictures. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Before and after this, the girls and I have made other food like carrots, pizza, tortellini, cupcakes, donuts, cookies, and kiwi. It's a fun project for the girls to help with, but this hamburger was busted out mostly on my machine, so it was fast and easy.
Another project we did in June was paint some patio chairs that Tyler had made. He finished the chairs one weekend and we decided to let the girls paint them. We had a few colors of paint already, so we bought a few more and decided on a similar design for each chair but let the girls pick the colors for their own chair. Here's how they looked before painting.
I used my Cricut machine to add names and a few personalized stickers, so the girls love them. I did all the taping, but they did the majority of the painting. It was a fun project to work on all together and it made me want to paint more things. Here are some pictures of the final outcome. They love them!
This was only the beginning of our summer, but it started it off with a bang! We're enjoying every day.
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