More summer fun!

This was probably our last day trip with Penelope and Baxter before school would start for them.  It was another relaxing day at Jacobsburg Park.  Xavier even found a snake in the river and caught it in his net.  It gave me the hee bee jee bees.

 P and Reid were little buddies.  She is like his little mother's helper always following him and making sure he's safe.  Reid just eats up the attention P gives him.

 Here he's trying to float on his back like Baxter.

 Here's Baxter totally surrendering to the waters flow.  Gavin was even brave enough to try it and it was this day that Gavin was able to float on his back.

 Our friend Wence is also our realtor.  We've been house hunting A LOT since March and Wence decided to stop by to talk about house stuff with us.  He decided to arrive in style.  The boys loved it!

 They had to touch it, try on the helmet, and sit on the bike just to see what it was like to be a cool guy like Wence.

 And of course we swam and swam and swam some more.  This time it was with Nicholas and Martin.

 Snow cone snack!

 Gavin also participated in a soccer camp to get him ready for soccer season.  He couldn't get enough of kicking the ball and scoring.

And this picture I just threw in for fun.  It's proof that these boys don't go a day without making me laugh and smile.  There is never a dull moment at our house and I truly love my boys to pieces.  They make my life and my heart more full than I could ever have imagined.

Mars Sponsorship Day

Every year Mars hosts a Sponsorship day for their employees.  What that means is any athlete that Mars sponsors comes in to sign autographs, do a short presentation on what they've done for the year,  and talk to the employees.  This year, Mars opened it up to all the families of employees as well.  The boys were seriously stoked!

Here we are meeting Kyle Busch.  The boys just happened to have racing hats they got a couple years back.  They wore them on this day and Kyle Busch signed the hats for them.  Pretty cool.

The Mars race car up close and personal.  The boys were pretty much drooling at the sight of it.

To make the day even more enjoyable for the families they had all sorts of games and activities set up for the kids.

Tic-tac-toe tossing game.

A mini race track with stock cars for kids to try their hand at racing.  It was super hard to control those cars.

But the boys couldn't stop trying beat each other.

The boys got hats, sunglasses, small cars, and lots of goodies.

Xavier being 9 years old got a super special treat.  He got to take a tour of the plant to see how M&M's are made.  Now this is pretty much unheard of at Mars.  They are usually so secretive about the process that it's hard for employees to even get a tour let alone an outsider.  But again they opened this up to kids between the ages of 9 and 12.  NO FAIR!  I want to go too!  I count don't I.....I'm 9 with 25 years of experience.

Let's just say this was a day that most kids can only dream of having and my boys were so lucky to be able to participate.  We are so grateful to Mars for making this day truly magnificent for Mars employees and their families. 

We are SPARTANS! Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!

My friend Mary had the crazy idea to sign up for a Spartan Race 5 months after giving birth to twins.  She somehow convinced her hubby, Tim, and me and a few other friends to join her in the "torture" I mean fun.  I'm kidding but seriously training for this event was like nothing I've done before.  I love running and have competed in many running races, but this is all about strength and endurance and mental toughness.  We just so happened to be doing it on the hottest day of the summer and our wave started at about the hottest part of the day....between 12:30 and 1 pm.  Ha ha!  I was just hoping I didn't pass out due to heat exhaustion or dehydration.  Tim and I hydrated A TON leading up to the race because we knew how hot it would be.  We got proper rest and hopefully did decent on our nutritional needs.

Here is Tim getting amped up for the race.  This race consisted of almost 5 miles of running and up to 20+ obstacles.  If you weren't able to complete an obstacle you had to complete 30 burpees as a penalty.  Let's just say that I was extremely motivated to complete as many obstacles as I could.

 Here is our team.  Team Stripling Warriors!  Elliott, Wence, Cheri, Me, Tim, Mary, and Travis.  We had an awesome group of people going through this together.  We were definitely not going for the fastest completion time, but more of a have fun, do the best you can, and don't die approach!

The first mile of running was literally up the side of a ski mountain.  Let's just say I ran about the first quarter mile and then had to walk the rest of it......No one else was running at that point either.  Many people had to stop and even a few turned around and didn't keep going.  Then we started into the obstacles.  The first obstacle was throwing an arrow at a target, there was monkey bar crossings, there was one where you had to fill a bucket full of small rocks and carry it down and up a hill.  That wasn't too bad until the going up part.  But I did it!!  There was an obstacle where you had to climb these tall ladders, you had to jump over walls, you had to climb a rope and get over a 30 ft wall, there was one where you had to carry a small log down and up a hill.  That was extremely hard on the strength aspect but I went pretty dang fast on it.  I was proud of myself.  One obstacle you had to pull an anvil across the ground using a rope.  Another one you had to climb a rope and then cross monkey bars to the other side.  I did not complete that one.  The grossest was going up and down these small hills into big moats of water that smelled like sewage. I almost vomited on those ones.  We also go to cross a lake by swimming.  That was my favorite because after sweating my butt off it felt nice and cool.  

Here I am crawling under barbed wire.  It wasn't too bad other than the ground was totally uneven and sometimes the space between my body and the barbed wire was more and sometimes it was less.  I rolled for parts of it until I got too dizzy and then I army crawled it other times.  There was rocky terrain which killed my knees and hay that got in my eyes, but I made it.

And we chose to do this for fun!  Ha ha!

Before our last obstacle we had to go under a wall into another pit of water that smelled like sewage.  I actually had to put my whole body and face into that nasty water.  Oh my goodness!  Coming out of that water was the most disgusting thing because it was on my lips.  All I could do was to not taste or lick the filth.  Bleh!

And finally, after over 3 hours of testing our strength and stamina, we had reached the finish line.......We jumped the fire together.  

 We survived!  We completed almost all the obstacles!  And we didn't give up.  This was such a great experience pushing our physical abilities to the max.  It truly showed me that I'm capable of more than I think I am and I AM A SPARTAN!  I'm so glad I did this.  It was such a great feeling to say that I started it, I didn't give up, I dug deep, and I finished it.

 Go Stripling Warriors!  We rocked this day!

Now off to celebrate our accomplishment.  We went home to shower the nasty off and then headed over to Mary and Travis's for some pizza and a Chewbacca cake (made by our amazing friend, Lori Lawton)

FIsh Hatchery and an Indian Museum

This summer I organized a weekly outing for any moms and kids that were interested in exploring free or nearly free events during the summer.  This activity took us to the Allentown Fish Hatchery.  The boys got to get bags of fish food to feed to the trout. 

Off we goooooooo.

Some were teeny, some were medium, and in this picture some were ginormous.

My school of fish right here.  Reid was hilarious to follow because he'd take a few pieces of food out of his bag, say "here fishy fishy"  and throw the food into the water.

These boys were thrilled to see what a fish farm really looked like......the grounds were beautiful and there was plenty of space for the boys to play.  They even got to see some people fishing in the river nearby.  We rested in the shade and ate a picnic lunch too.

Most everyone that came decided to head home after our visit to the fish hatchery, but I noticed there was an Indian museum right next to the hatchery so we stopped in for a visit.

The tour guide taught the boys how to throw atalatels.  Reid loved running after the arrow after each person tried to shoot it as far as they could.

We even got to go in a real tee pee.  This tee pee was sewn by hand.  The craftsmanship is incredible.  It endured all types of weather and withstood natures wrath.  Incredible.

Inside the museum we learned so much about the local Indian tribes and the differences between each tribe and people.  It was so interesting and the tour guide was amazing.  He kept the boys attention.  He would ask them questions to get them to think, he would challenge them, he would joke with them, and he truly made the experience so much fun and engaging.  The boys learned a ton in just a short afternoon. I think the American Indian beliefs, traditions, and their deep love and respect for nature is absolutely beautiful and something we should all follow.  The other interesting tidbit I learned is that in all but two tribes the women were the leaders of their people.  They also had a profound respect for the elderly people in their tribes and they were highly cared for and revered.  If only we all treated our older and wiser generations as well as the American Indians did.  I'm grateful for my mom for always showing such a wonderful regard and appreciation for the Native Americans and for teaching me to do the same.  It was an honor to take my children to this museum and start to cultivate that same love and appreciation for the American Indians in my own boys minds and hearts.

Gavin turns S-I-X!

My daredevil and adventurer turned six this summer!  Whoa!

Why go in the slide when you can go on it?

 A number 6 balloon collage.

 Birthday banner.

 And streamers.

This boy is our never-stop-moving, always exploring, question asker, car racer, random act of kindness expert, math whiz, book lover, sport player, practical joke instigator, one of a kind supertastic kid!  We love him oh so much and are so grateful for the color he adds to our world.  He lights up our home with giggles and excitement.  He's always tinkering with something to see how it works or building his own creations out of random items around the house.  He loves to read and play with his friends.  Tim and Gavin have a special connection that only a father and son can have.  I love when Gavin runs up to me with a random hug or a flower he picked to brighten my day.  He is a special boy that we are lucky to have as our son.   So on this day we celebrate the miracle that happened the day he was born and joined our Richardson bunch.

 The 3 stooges gearing up to go to the beach.

 Gavin got some new wheels this year....a green bike.  His favorite color.

 Look no hands, oh wait I mean 6 fingers.

 Look at him sitting tall proud to be another year bigger.

 For his breakfast surprise I had a little scavenger hunt for Gavin to follow after he ate his donut.

 It took him to some sill places....first stop, his shoe sitting in our coat closet.

 Second stop, the dryer in the basement.

 Third stop, his bedroom by the toy drawers.

 Fourth stop,  outside to the deck where he found a gift waiting for him.  He got a watch that looked similar to a fit bit.  He'd been asking for one like his friend Dante for a while.  He was stoked to see it.  He also got a little wallet, some Pokemon cards, and (his bike) of course.  Grandma and Grandpa got him the coolest pop out dinosaur book I've ever seen.

T-Rex Roar!  After we finished breakfast it was off to the Jersey Shore for some swimming, sun, and boardwalk fun.

 Mom and Dad happy to be hanging out at the beach.

New this year was boogie boarding......The only one that seemed to enjoy it a little was Xavier.  Reid only tried it once not by his own free will.  Gavin tried it, but hated the feeling of falling off of it into the water.   Gavin was perfectly happy chasing the waves and getting his feet wet.  Reid dug in the sand most of the time.  Xavier was all about diving in and splashing around.

After several hours of swimming we headed to the boardwalk to collect some delicious salt water taffy and play some arcade games.  Gavin won a Pikachu in one of those Claw machines that are pretty much impossible to win.  They must have known it was his birthday.  I think Tim spent another $20 or $30 trying to win stuffed Pokemon characters for Reid and Xavier.

At the end of the day Gavin requested Chinese food for his birthday dinner.   Dumplings are his favorite.

 Our family favorite- ice cream cake for dessert.

If that smile doesn't tell you, Gavin had a pretty awesome day!  Cheers to the newest 6 year old on the block.