The Essence of Summertime

There are many things that speak "summertime" to me, but let's list a few that top my list: Bare feet, sunscreen, eating veggies straight out of the garden, snow cones, kids in swimsuits, the smell of freshly cut grass, huge slices of watermelon, picnics (anything eaten outside can qualify as a picnic in my book), strawberries, and sun-kissed faces. I really could keep going - I do love summertime. Anyhow! This post embraces a good number of the things on my summertime-list. On the first day of July, while my mom was babysitting Audrey (my niece), they both came down and we all spent the day together! That day was the epitome of laid back summertime fun, as far as I'm concerned.

First we started out by throwing swimsuits on each of the kids and greasing them up with sunscreen. Then it was out to the backyard to play, splash, and eat peas right out of the garden. The peas were sweet and delicious and the kids loved picking their own and eating them!

Audrey loved the swing.

Here's a clip of Noah twisting up Audrey's swing and lettin' it go!


And Audrey doing the same thing for Noah - I think she's as delighted with doing that as Noah is with being in the swing :)


And the boys loved the water...Audrey - not so much (the water was really cold). Here's Noah after sliding down his little "waterslide".

Our little no-fear Lincoln loves the water too, and went down the slide every different way he could think of.

I couldn't help but include a couple of water clips. During this one Noah is singing "I'm On My Way" (by the Proclaimers). He doesn't really understand most of the words, so he just makes up what it sounds like to him, but they're the same made up words every time (oh, come on - you can't tell me that you've never done that before). I love his little singing voice. And then Lincoln who is trying to mimic Noah's singing, get's distracted because he thinks that he sees a "bug!" in the pool. He's quite disturbed with swallowing a bit of water (which doesn't normally bother him) since he's concerned about having possibly swallowed a bug.


"Ta-da!!!" sums up this clip:


Lunchtime!

Including oversized slices of watermelon.


Ya' want some?

I just love that sweet face, and I think the "watermelon stain" on their faces are the best too!

Audrey was much more dainty with her eating...she wanted smaller pieces of watermelon, quietly enjoyed eating a yogurt, and I don't think she got up from the kids' table until she was finished. What a nice mannered little lady.

My boys, on the other hand, think it's great to devour a slice (or two) of watermelon as big as their face!


I just liked the way Noah said the word "watermelon" in this quick 6-second clip.


Brothers. Summertime.


Take a bite, Mom!

This is just a short 5-second long clip that shoes Lincoln's "oh!" face. He heard the garbage truck coming and did that quick "oh"(with a dramatized round mouth) which I have to document...


This is just another 5-second long clip (him still anticipating the good ol' garbage truck), but I'm including it for the cute, quick giggle of his at the end...


My mom with the kids. We took them on a walk up to my favorite snow cone shack!

Lincoln looked a little bit surprised when we handed him his very own snow cone and told him to have at it - no sharing required. We got him pina colada, Noah requested watermelon, and Audrey wanted peach. Cream included with each of them of course. Yum!

Look at Audrey's cute little pleased face.

That's a "thanks, Mom" face...I could just about smooch it off!

As a side-note, Audrey fits (age-wise) right between Noah & Lincoln. She is 9 months younger than Noah and 1 year older than Lincoln. It was a lot of fun to let the three of them play together all day. Here is Audrey getting down to business with her snow cone...


Noah & Audrey being silly with their tongues.

You may have to click on this one and look at it larger to see Lincoln's face - it is covered with drips of snow cone "juice". Every time he'd take a breather, his straw would flip out of his mouth and spray the syrupy juice all over his face. He hardly seemed to notice. Aaahh - the sweet refreshment of a summertime snow cone.
What embodies summertime for you?