The Grove

Grandpa Pauly's best friend (Tiger) owns a gorgeous piece of property in Woodbury that his family uses for parties. We played in the river catching fishies and (Mommy) failed miserably at finding crayfish....

 

We played ball, and frisbee, and catch, and football...

 

 We ate a lot of donuts with frosting & blue sprinkles...

Gage tried to catch Mommy in a net and picked some flowers for me...

We went for a few paddle boat rides...

 And while waiting for the fireworks to start, the guys shot off some parachutes for the kids to catch...

 And then...we just messed around while waiting for fireworks. 

Gage made it up for about half of the fireworks, and then crashed asleep.

take you for a ride in the big green tractor

In previous visits, Gage liked to SIT on Grandpa's big tractor, but this year....he has been DRIVING the tractor with Grandpa. I don't know if Gage or Grandpa are happier, but it's clear that they both love this :-)

A day at the beach with our cousins

As kids, I used to go to the beach with my cousins Kevin & Kristine every summer. This year, we did it again, but brought all of our kids!!  We went to Rocky Neck State Park in Old Lyme, Ct. The kids had a blast with their cousins catching sandcrabs (and Savannah kept "catching" seaweed), building a haunted house (a hole in the sand with sticks pointing out that were really worrying the mommies), playing in the chilly water (definitely not as warm as the Gulf Coast!!), building sandcastles, and eating a LOT of snacks.

 

Happy 4th of July

The kids and I got to join the fun at Aunt Jean's house for their annual 4th of July party.  Kiddos had fun swimming in the big & little pools, playing in the sandbox & castle at their cousins' house just next door, and just running around being crazy kids. We had a little break for some rain showers, and while everyone else hid under the big tent, Gage was happy to run in the rain. Although it seemed to take forever to get dark enough, we finally got to break out the sparklers (lots and lots!), watch some fireworks, and get eaten by mosquitoes!!

Spending time with Great Grandma

We were happy to get to be here for Grandma Rooney's 87th birthday this year!  Savannah picked a bouquet of wildflowers for her on her birthday and we've been out shopping, out to lunch, and out to ice cream with Gram so far.

Gage, Grandpa, and "boy things"

Gage is in boy heaven here in CT.  Last year he was afraid of Grandpa's digger, but THIS year he is NOT afraid.  We thought he would be happy to just sit in the digger, but he told Grandpa that he wanted to start it up and dig. So, he and Grandpa started up the digger and smashed a car that's going to the junkyard. And, rather than just walk to the moo cows, he and Grandpa rode out on the four wheeler.  Grandpa is excited to have a little guy who wants to play with Grandpa's "toys"!

 

walk this way.....

We have talked about putting a walkway in between the driveway and the deck, and anyone who knows us Rapps knows that when we want to do something, we do it. Although Adam was hoping I had chosen some big 12 inch square pavers, I decided to make things more difficult and do small cobble stone style pavers. Adam decided to do this project on Memorial Day weekend, with temps near 100, AND to combine it with another project to correct some drainage issues we had. Lots of digging, crushed stone, and sand later, this is the finished project.

mad scientist

Last night we decided to do a few experiments after dinner. We started with the baking soda & vinegar trick (and added some food coloring to make it extra fun), which was a big hit.  The only problem with that....Mommy didn't realize that we were so low on vinegar, which meant the kiddos were begging to do MORE MORE MORE but the vinegar bottle was --  unfortunately -- empty empty empty.  You can see by the look on their faces that they thought it was pretty cool.
.....ready.....

....set......

...GO....

  

Next, we decided to try microwave a bar of ivory soap. This turned out to be a bit of a dud. It was cool to watch it grow in the microwave, but it did not get nearly as big as what it was supposed to (according to the trusty internet).  Of course, that may be because that bar of Ivory soap has been sitting in a drawer for 5 years old because no one here likes to use it. Maybe we'll have to have an Ivory soap-microwave rematch one of these days with a fresh bar...

poolside

Well, it's a far cry from our (sniffle sniffle) pool in SC, but with temps in the 100s for the next week, we decided it was time to go back to the kiddy pool.  So, we spent the afternoon splashing, squirting water guns, eating popsicles, and cookies (hey, splashing works up an appetite!) in the pool.

easy like Sunday morning

Months ago, Adam suggested that we take the kids to play in a big fountain he found on the University's campus. However, since it was 50 degrees that morning, I decided it was best to delay that little adventure. But, with a heat advisory and temps nearing 100 for the  next week (who are they kidding, it was 106 on our thermometer in the shade yesterday afternoon!), we figured now was a good time. So, they had a blast!

After a while Savannah got brave enough to run through the big fountain in center of the fountain...

And in true kid style, Savannah had to back up to the water and fill up her bathing suit with water.













And of course, monkey see, monkey do. Gage had to get in on the action :-)

Ember's birthday party fun

Savannah's friend Ember had a dinosaur-water splash birthday party, so the kids had a blast playing in the pool ,throwing water balloons, and shooting water guns. Savannah never cared a bit about them!!

Gage was particularly excited about the water guns. Are boys just born with a gene that attracts them to guns?  They also got to take a crazy golf cart ride with Ember's mom Lani, bounce on the trampoline, go on the slip & slide (and Ember's Grandma added dish soap to make it a superfast slide -- we'll have to remember that one)and Mommy was happy to go home with a big bag of veggies from their garden :-)

Savannah and her "maybe" future hubby Ross

While in Clemson a few weeks ago, we made sure to visit our friends the Hanahans. Savannah and Ross had agreed that they were getting married quite a while ago, but now Savannah isn't so sure now becuase she has met some other boys in AL that might be good choices too. She DOES like that Ross is silly, especially when he says funny things like poopyhead. This time he tried to get her into trouble by egging her on to say shut up (or stupid, I can't remember now). They always play so well together, and are just real genuine pals. Sullivan and Gage (who hung out together while Mommy & Anna waited for Savannah and Gage to be let out of school) have been playing together for all of their almost-3-year lives :-)

summer summer summer time

What does summer mean...swinging, bikes, popsicles, and fun crafts when Mommy feels like doing something crafty -- like making our own sidewalk paint out of cornstarch & food coloring.  Savannah is the helmet enforcer -- just mention riding a bike to her and she will talk about making sure to wear a helmet (how did we survive as kids when we were young?). Luckily, Gage doesn't mind riding pink & purple girl bikes/big wheels because his spiderman bike is still too big for him.  Give him a popsicle and he's happy.

South Carolina wedding bells

We made yet another trip to SC for our old neighbor's (the Webbers) daughter Michelle's wedding. Savannah was very excited to be at her first wedding, and it was fun to see everyone. While we were in SC, we went to the "toy trailer" (of course), and the kids each got their own box to fill with toys. They were VERY excited and spent 3 hours digging through bins to fill their boxes with exactly what they wanted.  How fun for them?

Preschool graduation

Hard to believe, but Savannah "graduated" from preschool and is getting ready for kindergarten!  On the last day of school, her friend's mom spent the whole day painting faces for the kids, and they held a little graduation (but didn't invite the parents?!?!).  In any event, we are excited and ready for kindergarten.  Savannah said she's a "little nervous", but very excited because the school has a great playground. Now...if we could just make up our minds (both mommy & Savannah) about riding the schoolbus or not.....