Summer is Whizzing By

I am pretty astounded that we are already into the second week of July.  I always have so many summer plans and now it seems like I may not be able to cram everything in - Again, LOL. 

Here is my latest photo album! 

I had my annual Mimi Camp for my grandkids the last week of June. Our theme was "Not My First Rodeo" since I had done a Cowboy Camp before half of these kids were born. 

Decorated the house, including the powder room and the dining room. 

It was hotter than an oven the first day so I planned on lots of water and ice treats. 

Water pistol fights

Our local splash pad

Grub

Tie Dying

These were the water pistol refill tubs

We started Day 2 showing off our shirts

Added two teen aged cousins and went to the movies in the AC. 

Had our last minute slot for a formal camp photo shoot. 

But Day 3 was the big day. I found a farm about an hour away that has a special event on Wednesday where you can feed animals, ride a pony, a covered wagon and a feed barrel train, and more. It was everything I hoped for and the weather was tolerable. It was everyone's favorite part of camp. 

After spending 2 1/2 hours that morning, I found a great park for a picnic before heading home. 

And made some trail mix and hung out until time to leave. 

My youngest daughter hosted lunch after our town's Fourth of July parade and my children reminded me that all five of my children were in the same space at the same time.  I was allowed to take a photograph but not post their photos. 

And today was $5 movie day again so the youngest seven grandchildren, two mamas and I went to see the new minion movie, first enjoying a lunch of minion chicken nuggets, courtesy of Aldi and my stash of candy eyeballs. 

We haven't used our amusement park passes for a while because it is so HOT!! Hoping the humidity takes it's own vacation soon. 

Gramma Mimi Summer Camp 2024: Not My First Rodeo

She had them lay on the ground - and caught this with no direction. 

Sixteen years ago, when my oldest grandson was born several states away, I formulated a plan to spirit him away for a week each summer.  I would call it Gramma Camp and even found a onesie for him to wear when he came to visit at seven months old. 

I did not take into account that I was the parent of five children and once they start multiplying, that is a lot of grandchildren. I was fortunate to end up with ten. 

Pretty Scary Varmits! 

When they were young, and there were fewer of them, I worked full time for a agricultural supply company. I would pick a theme, plan for months and have a week of fun filled activities.  

Then I retired and provide full or part-time child care to seven of them. Someone did not think ahead.  They still love "cousin camp".  For the past two years I copped out to passes to a nearby amusement park and "planned" from there.  This year I decided I needed a theme. But the brain was dry. Then I remembered that several were not even born when I had the first few camps. I recycled my "Cowboy Camp" theme into my new "Not My First Rodeo. Theme". I would love to thrill you with a list of themed meals, crafts and activities from the past few days, but I am so tired that I can only do photos at this point. 

This was the gang before they were captured by the posse.
 

I was very blessed when my family photographer posted she had a cancellation for a session on the second morning of camp and would someone like to book a session? Me! Me!  The younger seven are still willing to let me dress them up and play dolls - so here we are. Aren't most grammas ready for a themed photo shoot for seven children with 8 hours notice? My three teen grandchildren joined us that afternoon - LOL - by choice. 

We made it at sunrise - and the photos are lovely!  Hopefully I will recover soon and can post and share about the water games, the outings, a darling farm I found, horse back riding, the buffalo we met, lunch from the chuck wagon.  Maybe I will recover soon, LOL.   

Yee Haw!  (she was ready for rain with this set up. And thank you to Children's Place for putting these shirts on sale. 

THE PORCH

Thank you all for the kind compliments on my front porch in my last post.  I thought I would share it's story since it is something we are pretty proud of around here. Be prepared for a long post with lots of memories and photos. 

We purchased our tiny box house in 1979 when we were nineteen and this is the front of the house in spring of 1980. I was so skinny back then that this is me seven months pregnant. We have a neighborhood facebook page and all the "new" people are aghast that there are no trees, bushes or much of anything on the street when they see this photo. It was pretty barren. 

I need to apologize for the poor quality of a lot of these camera photos. 

We ended up with five children in seven years and couldn't afford to leave our "starter" home.  Finally the time came when we had to decide if we were going to stay here forever and make it our dream home or move. And my dream home had a front porch.  

First, zoning required a full foundation under our new porch and new 500 sq foot family room.  My contractors (husband and sons) applied for a permit and stated digging. 

This is what greeted me every night when I got home from work.  People thought we were tearing the house down. 

And here is when I began to wonder if we had made a big, expensive mistake. 

Looking better. 

Obviously I could not wait to put furniture on this porch.  The odd perspective is off because I am taking pictures of pictures in a photo album. To the right is my old lilac bush. I had it dug out and replanted. And then there were ground bees underneath and we ended up killing it with chemicals. . . 

We had spaced the posts to accommodate the matching rails. The rails were discontinued by the time we were able to purchase them. We ended up having to have custom rails. Of course. 

Worth every penny. 

Today! It took a few years for the plants to take off. Everything is a perennial and comes back (except my hanging baskets.) 

Here is the side of the house as originally constructed.

The zoning inspector did not care to inspect the electric or anything, but had a fit that we had a cement block in front of the door temporarily. My husband quickly constructed what is still know as "Mom's Personal Deck". 

Here is that side of the house today. I know the lilacs look like they are begging for water (it rained this afternoon). And the trellis seems a little lonely since Mr Merry seems to have "trimmed" my roses to the ground. 

Two years ago we planted a row of Rose O Sharon volunteers to fill in a hedge to match what is closer to the road. 

And we have some hidden gardens. The striped seat at the end is my seat on the porch and this garden is just over the rail. 

By the front yard bicycle, the fairies have developed more property. 

My porch is the porch of my dreams. The porch I always wanted. We waited a long time, saved a long time and I was smart enough, back when I was a teenager, to marry someone who would and could build it for me. 

I always say that, if I win the lottery, I will build a porch on every house on my street! 

It seems like yesterday, but we built the porch (and addition) the year our youngest graduated from high school. Somehow that was twenty years ago. It seems like yesterday!