Sundays

I like Sundays around here. 

There's something kind of special about Sundays here. It seems particularly peaceful, all (well most) of the daddy's have the day off so lots of Coastie families are outside playing with their kids or riding bikes or taking walks and all that cute mushy family stuff. My family was going to go to church together this morning but since certain little boys decided to wake up at 2 and 3 am and then be especially crabby this morning, Daddy went by himself and I stayed home with the crabs. 

So we did some painting. And Calen (who isn't necessarily artistically inclined) painted a Ninja Turtle all by himself and even though to the majority of the population it probably looks like a sad green bloated alien, I was impressed and had some pretty big mommy proudness going on:

It wasn't too hot today so Calen actually got to play with the neighbor girls outside without being in the pool, who knew? After maybe two hours taking turns driving our little 4 wheeler around, we came in for dinner and then went to the big neighborhood playground for the first time in probably three months. It's WAY too hot on most summer days to go to that burning plastic wasteland, but tonight it was just cool enough. And the boys of course were elated. 

And, like many Coastie kids on this street, ended our Sunday by sitting on the street curb watching the recruits run by chanting cadences. Calen asked what they were singing about. How do I explain that they're singing about Chuck Norris kicking their grandma's asses (or something like that)? Yeah. I just told him "recruit stuff."

A How To By Camden

Why is it raining so much this summer?

It even faked us out today. It was sunny, and warm, and as soon as we were ready to go outside and play this afternoon with the neighbors, the sky opened up and it was a seriously blinding downpour of violent rain rage. 

Poop!

Luckily, we're good at improvising around here. I give credit to living in the Pacific Northwest for 26 years prior to here and always having a backup plan when the weather decides to go to shit. 

So, instead of meeting the neighbor girls outside, we brought them to our house for some play, an 80s Ninja Turtle movie, and an awesomely processed dinner (Mac n Cheese and hot dogs, holla!). 

And somewhere in there this weirdness happened. 

 And then we took the weirdness outside for Tball, tire swing fun and Strawberry shortcake. Because it had stopped raining and we could go back to our regularly scheduled program, thank you. 

And Camden taught us how to operate as a superhero in the great outdoors. 

How to play Tball (with the bat backwards)

How to eat strawberry shortcake ON TOP of the table

How to play in the sandbox without getting your cape dirty

How to sneak more strawberry shortcake

How to run away from an angry big brother

 

The Things You Say. And Sharks.

So I just lost two of hours of my life to this movie:

I want to put this movie poster in Calens room. Because obviously!

And tragically it was SO bad that I'm still laughing about it. Kind of like if go into Walmart and see someone that forgot to wear pants. You're embarrassed that you were even a witness to it, but you'll be laughing for the next six years over it.
 
And speaking of half-reality (and sharks). Calen has started storytelling. I'm not sure where it comes from. But somewhere from his head spills out the cutest little outlandish tales. At least to me. Probably because he really hasn't shown much of an imagination until now. 

In the car yesterday:

"Hey Mom. Once, I turned into a rocket ship. And I was going super fast. And then I turned into a man flying a fighter jet and I was going even faster. And then Mom YOU were flying the other fighter jet. And I fell out of the fighter jet and you saved me from the sharks."

Sharks? What sharks? Were you secretly watching this awful movie? But either way, it was cute. 

Day At The Museum

Hey, you'd never know it, but there's something to do in Cape May County other than going to the beach/boardwalk/classic touristy nonsense. 

There's a flight museum!

Okay so by museum I mean a small little air hangar in the middle of the small little local airfield. It really only takes an hour or so to go through, but it's jam packed with a lot of pretty neat planes and helicopters from WWII and Vietnam era (and many used in the actual wars) and 90% of them were open for the kids to sit in the cockpits. 

For a lousy 18 bucks for all four of us to enter, I'd say it was a worthwhile afternoon. 

This actual plane was the MiG 28 in the filming of Top Gun

Get Wet

It rained. Again. Good God, can we get past the rain already? Doesn't God know that it's July on the Jersey Shore and we're supposed to be spending the days at the beach, and not stuck inside the house?

Well today enough was enough, we stuck our middle finger up at the sky and went outside to play anyways. 

Nevermind the fact that it rained almost 2 inches today alone, flash flooding occurred in some local areas (I drove to Walmart later tonight to find the road completely flooded with maybe 8-10 inches of standing water) and that while we were outside it rained harder than I had ever seen in my entire life. 

And I know rain, people. 

But that won't stop us from having a good time. The boys donned their rain gear (though it was raining so hard it didn't keep them even close to dry) and took off running up and down the sidewalk and in the parking lot. 

After maybe 45 minutes we were all completely and utterly soaked (even though I was just standing there, I had to change all my clothes and undergarments. It was raining THAT hard). 

But they at least got to release some of that cabin fever, even if it was running barefoot in the rain (after their boots were completely filled with water and they abandoned them).

And then they went inside and watched NASCAR in their underwear. 

Country boys, the both of them. 

 

Jersey Shore

One (..ONE) good thing about the Jersey Shore...It has the best boardwalks anywhere. 

The beach town nearest to us (Wildwood) has what has been rated as one of the top three piers (attached to the boardwalk) in the U.S, Morey's Pier. 

Morey's Pier is actually three piers right on the beach at the ocean. Huge carnival rides including full sized rollercoasters, AND two full sized beachfront water parks.

Ummm, awesome!

We've never gone even though it's so close. It's expensive, the kids were always too young, and it's expensive. 

However, the CG base sells UBER discounted tickets for one day a year to go to Morey's Pier for an all day event. Access to all piers and the water parks, plus a free catered lunch. A "Coast Guard Day at the Pier" kind of morale thing. The guys don't even have to take leave for it since it's a morale event. And since the kids are finally old enough to appreciate such adventures, we decided to do it this year. 

And it turned out to be quite possibly one of my favorite family events we've ever done. 

Especially the water park. The boys just loved the water park. There were two kiddie areas including one with a shipwreck that had two good sized water slides that the boys were just completely and utterly obsessed with. 

I enjoyed that place so much I might even pay full price one day. But if I can spend an entire day there and only spend $40 instead of $250 AND get a free lunch, then even better.

Flying pirate ship over the water park with the ocean as the backdrop

Acrobatics.

Camden's new thing is doing somersaults off his brother's bed into the bean bag chair. 

The kid is going to be an acrobat. 

 

The 4th of July

The 4th is one of my favorite holidays. I love the fireworks, the red white and blue, the barbecue, who doesn't love it? We make a big thing out of the 4th of July and this year was no different. 

We started the day off with some typical pool time with the neighbor kids and finished it off with some homemade Rocket Pops (strawberry daquiri mix, pina colada mix, blue gatorade. NON-alcoholic, don't judge!). 

Then we dressed up and got ready for our big 4th of July picnic that we host every year. I picked out the boys shirts and shorts, but they picked out the accessories. Including Cam's boots. 

 The barbecue was a big hit. The kids ran wild with other kids, there was tons of delicious unhealthy awesomeness, good company and a cornhole competition. Of course it wouldn't be a party without my kids being the center of attention, including Camden eating dog treats (and getting pissed when I took it away) and Calen continually losing his pants. 

...party hardy. 

I made "Roman Candles". Since personal fireworks are illegal in NJ, I had to make my own

 After the barbecue wound down, we packed up the car and drove a whopping ten blocks to the city beach, and put blankets and chairs down on the sand and waited until it got dark for the firework show. 

Beautiful Cape May at sunset, from the beach

Friends

And then of course, the fireworks show, shot off from a barge in the Atlantic. The big kids kept clapping at their favorite fireworks, and Camden was saying "WOW!!!! BOOM!!! WHOAAA" the whole time. it was terribly cute.

 I think the day was a grand success.
 

Patriotic Painting

It stopped raining for like, five minutes today. So we ran to the beach. It was actually a perfect time to go because the tide was slowly coming in, and there were calm tide pools the kids loved to play in.

Then after dinner, we decided to do a couple little 4th of July crafts. One I saw on Pinterest, and one I thought up (though I'm sure I'm not the first to do it). 

The first (the Pinterest project) was simple. Take blue and red poster paint, and squirt in overlapping circles on paper (I used paper plates because it's what we had). Then, take a Q-tip, start from the middle, and go outward in a curve in single lines. Pretty soon you have awesome looking fireworks. 

My fireworks

Calen's fireworks

Outdoor paint studio. Camden was already done painting at this point

For the next project we made flags. The boys (well I helped Cam) painted red stripes on paper, and then we painted their hands blue and put them in the upper corners of the flags. They turned out super cute. I might even put them in some sort of vintage frame next year. 

 

Break Radio Silence

Okay I know I haven't posted in like three days which must be some sort of Guinness World record. 

Hey, do you think that Guinness World record holders get a free lifetime of Guinness? Or like, one free pint? Maybe? 

Anyways. 

We've been stuck inside for like four days because of this ridiculous non-stop rain. I swear I live somewhere else, like Seattle or something. But the rain broke for half an hour today so we ran outside to get a quick water-play fix. 

Of course there wasn't time to set the pool up, so we settled on a water gun fight. 

After I told him to NOT shoot me because I had a camera...

 

He lost his pants mid fight. Not worth putting the gun down for, though.