My Date with Sav

It has become common practice for David to text me a picture of his delicious meal when he goes out to eat for a work lunch at a restaurant that I love. Many a time I have been left salivating over a picture of his yummy burrito from Café Rio while I dig into my own subpar meal of Kraft macaroni and cheese. So when Savannah and I had our July Mother/Daughter date to eat at a restaurant of her choice I couldn't resist rubbing it in a bit, especially because he had tried, unsuccessfully, to join us. I sent the following picture and asked, "Guess where we are?"

Ok, so it was a touch mean, especially since he really likes Famous Dave's, but I figured he's done it enough to me that I would return the favor. This is the text I got back that included, "Guess where we are?"  Too funny!

  
As for the rest of my date with my cute girl, we had a ball. We talked about a ton of things while we stuffed ourselves with delicious food. I definitely did not go wrong when I picked the "Going Out to Eat at a Restaurant of Your Choice Date" as the one with mom.

Havre de Grace

We spent a wonderful afternoon up in Havre de Grace, a little city that sits right on the Chesapeake Bay. First stop was the playground followed by a picnic lunch.

Next we walked along the boardwalk, checking out the beautiful water.

Noah loved "talking" to all the ducks and birds that we saw.

Every once in awhile I make it into a picture.

At one point we were able to walk down to the water and play on the rocks. We must have spent close to an hour in this one spot, each involved in our own little activity. I love the water so just gazing out at it was enough for me.

Savannah loves collecting shells so she made sure she grabbed a bunch to add to her collection.

Noah walks his own path in everything he does so he headed off on the rocks, exploring and finding happiness in just being alive.

Xander loves skipping rocks ever since Grandpa Schaeffer showed him this skill a couple summers ago. He spent his time looking for the right kind of rock and counting how many skips he could get. Finally we decided it was time to move on. The boys were anxious to head out onto the pier though it made Savannah nervous so she stayed closer to land.

Some cannon fun!

The beautiful lighthouse.

What better way to end our fun afternoon than ice cream and Kona ice!

Susquehanna State Park

As the summer was drawing to a close, the kids and I decided to head up to Susquehanna State Park for an afternoon.  As soon as we pulled up the kids were enthralled with all the butterflies flying around and were able to get a few to land on their fingers.

We checked out a few of the old buildings in the area, including a mill and spring house.

We then headed up into the woods and had a great time checking out all the rocks, trees, plants, and streams. The kids were really surprised to find shells all along the trail we were on.

At one point Xander excitedly pointed out this "huge tree".

So of course Savannah had to find something equally as cool - this "really skinny tree".

And nothing is as cool as a stream with big rocks to climb all over. It didn't take too long for Noah to "fall in".

Beautiful Rock Run House, the home of a US general who resigned from the army to join the Confederates. He was captured at Gettysburg and died shortly after his exchange.

When Noah isn't falling in the stream, he's falling off the path.

Thank goodness he has a great big brother who came to help him out and be a crutch for him as they continued on.

Another fun little friend.

Checking out the river - the boys were thrilled to find this old rope stuck in the sand.

We definitely would have stayed longer but my allergies seriously kicked in and after only 15 minutes of hiking I was in misery. I struggled through the afternoon, going through Kleenex after Kleenex until I finally told the kids we had to go home. I could barely breathe! Plus Noah got stuck in the "quicksand" as he referred to it and his shoes were so covered with wet sand and dirt that he could barely lift his feet to walk. We were quite the comedy act as we headed back to the car. But what a beautiful area, one that we will definitely head back to.

Soccer Camp - Week 2

The night before week 2 of soccer camp I told Noah that we would follow the same schedule as week 1 - on Monday he would stay home with Daddy and then join us at camp for the rest of the week. Noah just looked at me for a second and then the begging began. "Please, please, please, I want to go to soccer camp ALL week!" Well, since he had done such a great job the 3 days he attended the first week I decided to just let him give it a shot and, to my surprise, he lasted all week just fine. Maybe, just maybe, Noah is growing up a bit. Or maybe it was just the fabulous weather we had. Or maybe it's because soccer camp is just so much fun!
Week 2 was another wonderful week of soccer drills, a soccer piñata, a bubblegum blowing contest, World Cup, concerts at lunch, a daily supply of Dr. Pepper and Milky Ways from my teenage boys, the coaches/campers game, and just overall fun. The hot days were gone, cooler weather reigned. Our last day it was so cold that we all wore jackets and sweatshirts for most of the morning.
A morning warm up run with the campers.

Soccer tennis.

Working on our dribbling skills.

Always having fun with friends.

Working on our headers. Not such a good idea to have those eyes closed!

A much better header...look at the ball rocket forward!

Two of the groups with Coach Paul...he's somewhere in there!

Noah hangin' with his special bud Jesse. Love this picture!

The next sequence of pictures just cracks me up. The kids all participated in a contest, going against the other kids in their group to see who could either volley or head one of the balls off any of the three cones first. Noah tries a volley...no luck though great form!  The open mouth adds a special touch.

Since the volley didn't work, let's try a header.  Hmmm, that didn't work either though, once again, great form!

Yes! Finally success!

Noah made it successfully through several rounds until it came down to the final round to see who would be the ultimate winner, Noah or another boy, Cameron. Cameron ended up winning but immediately ran over to Noah, gave him a high five, and told him "Great job!" I love kids like Cameron who have obviously been taught good sportsmanship. Cameron actually plays on Xander's soccer team but since camp he and Noah have become close buddies.
  Cameron and Noah.

All too soon camp was at an end and it was time to say goodbye (sniff, sniff). Two of the older boys, Alex and Jeffrey, who will be too old to attend camp next summer.

The kids love Coach Potter! I can't help but laugh whenever I look at this picture - between Xander's zombie eyes and Jesse's photo bomb in the back, it's just too funny!