Kell White vs. Harrison Blue--Hook 'em!

Yay! It's that time!!! Kevin's football games are here and he has been working SO hard. He will be starting again this year as center. He loved it last season and really wanted to do it again. Apparently at practice he does really well on his snaps and game day is the chance to see what you're made of. Rob unfortunately got word that he would have to miss the first two, maybe three games. A trip to Australia could not be avoided. :( As his second year as a coach he was not happy about it but knew the boys worked hard and cheered them on from the other end of my phone. He stopped by and helped the kids warm up then had to jet...hahaha

Wishing the boys luck

I loved this shot :D

taking the field for offense

Great play, resulted in a TD for Kell. They won the game 22-12!

Some more pictures from the day:

I loved this, think the poor boy was hot? Astro turf is about 10-20 degrees hotter, ick.

What a cute cheerleader ;)

My rotten little monkey urchins :)

Good Shepherd Bake off 2011

So here we are again, two months later (woops, it's September-make that 3) before I got a chance to blog about the Summer happenings in The Homerhouse. I blame Facebook. I upload pictures all the time to FB and then I don't blog because I have a ton of repeat offenders that follow the blog and then also follow me on FB. I don't Tweet, I tried, I don't like birds, so Twitter is out for me. FB serves it's purpose but I digress.

Part of the reason I constantly find myself in this position is because we are ALWAYS in motion, even when we relax we are on the go. THAT is why I want to blog-before I know it I will be blogging about Jared going off to College. ick.

One of our commitments is the Church Youth committee and Fall Fair. I usually do what I can to help with these two events. When I found out there was going to be a BAKE off I just put the idea out of my mind. You know me and the kitchen...not a great relationship. So when Kevin decided he wanted to enter I had to revisit the idea. We were filling out the form and noticed that there were age divisions. If you remember Kevin took home a prize from the 1st annual Chili Cook Off. Now he was really excited to be going up against "someone his own size". There was also a division for Ryan (groan) so of course she wanted to make an entry as well. *Sigh* ok, well then I may as well enter too. So we had Ryan in the 4-9 age group with her Famous Chocolaty Chocolate Cake (from a box mind you ;)) and Kevin with his Wild-Berry Pie. He. Would. Not. Settle. It had to be pie and it had to be wild-berry with no strawberries. I went with Great Grammy Frink's coffee cake, using Key Lime filling in honor of summer. :)

There were two prizes per age division, Name and Taste. Kevin won for name last time and he wasn't fooled-he wanted to win for taste. Ryan didn't care, she just wanted to enter. I saw the task as a daunting afternoon in the kitchen-an place wholly uncomfortable to me.

Ryan was up first. To make the effort of keeping to the 4-9 age limit, though my kitchen knowledge ranks between 7-8 years of age, I let Ryan do MOST of it on her own. I pulled the cakes out of the oven and Kevin helped with the mixer but other than that, she did it all on her own. Oh yeah, right, the egg shell pieces-Kevin helped her pick those out. Lucky I told her to use a bowl first in case such an occasion should arise. See, I know some stuff in the kitchen. ;)

Mixing

Pouring

Flipping ~that was tricky ;)

Decorating--Super yummy if you like chocolate cake. The entry name?
"WWJD?...Eat my Cake!"

We got the kitchen cleaned up and then it was Kevin's Turn. If you notice the thermometer in the above picture it was 100 degrees outside, too hot to even go to the pool. Maybe a day in the kitchen with my kiddos wasn't so bad after all.

When we had gone shopping the kids had to pick out all the items on their own. Kevin wanted berries and he picked raspberry, blueberry and black berry. He found a recipe and made the pie *almost* on his own. I did have to step in and show my wicked pie top making skills that Grandma Lou taught me. The recipe called for a covered pie crust but he "wanted it to look like a picnic pie". He also changed to top from white sugar glaze to a brown sugar/ butter caramelize. Whatever dude, it's your pie.

What do you get when you cross a geek and the kitchen? A kid, happy in all his hairs, that it's "Pi" day.... Oh yeah, I heard that 8 million times.

weaving the top

Germ-a-phobe-me makes sure there is no tasting in the kitchen, but I did let him lick the topping bowl. Who can resist brown sugar and butter?

TA~DA, and the entry name?
"Water in to Wild Berry Pie"

Mine was nothing to blog about therefore there are no pictures. Maybe because the house evacuates when I put my apron on. Oh well, quiet time.

At church we had a lovely pasta meal followed by the competition. Ryan was crestfallen when the 4-9 name winner was called out. Kevin didn't care when the tween name was called out and I didn't really get creative with my name, Sublime-Key Lime. Yeah, I figured it would be a name like Adam's Apple Pie or Taste of Eden, something like that so I just went with the obvious. (BTW, Adam's Apple Pie was the winning name. HA!)
Then I got nervous, the winner for the 4-9?!?! RYAN, yahoo, the kid can cook-the curse is broken. She was over. the . moon. Everyone told her how wonderful it was. Kevin was grumbling under his breath that it came from a box. ;) After that victory I got REALLY nervous, I wanted Kevin to win, this boy LOVES to cook. He had this all planned out and the pie was so decadent. No fooling, I was hoping people wouldn't eat it so we would have some to take home-it was THAT good. But no worries, he won. Oh, yeah-the boy got the award. Know what it was? a bunt pan. Super cool for an aspiring chef but only my child would look at the pastor and say, "I wish I would have won a crock pot". Oh, help.

It ended up being a GREAT day, it was a ton of fun and I had made memories and yummies with two of the urchins. A day to remember and their efforts were rewarded. As for me? I lost out to a carrot cake. Whatever, more leftovers for me ;)

Bells are Ringing, Children Singing...

Yup, it's that time again. Bells are Ringing, Children Singing...something-dum dum, back to school again. Oh, wait~~ here it is, I found the lyrics-thanks google :)


"School bells ring and children sing, It's back to Robert Hall again. Mother knows for better clothes, It's back to Robert Hall again..."

So goes the jingle that my dad would sing every Fall. I got to where I dreaded hearing it. Apparently so did my parents since that's what used to come on the radio (hehehe) ahem, the television before school would start back in Milwaukee.

Alas, it comes around every 365 days and so I post a picture of my little urchins at the mailbox. This is the last one with Kevin. Apparently in Middle School, you can't do this. Maybe next year Jared will let me since it's a two for one and he won't be out there alone. Too bad, Kevin won't care so I'll make like I'm just going to get him in the shot and then swoop in for the perfect picture. Yeah right!

Another year of The Big Bus swallowing up my little ones. :(

Moving Time :D

Thirteen years my brother Rick has lived in Michigan. Thirteen years I have been waiting for him to move back! :D This summer while we were in Florida we got word that Rick's house had sold. Yippiee! The trip home from Florida was on a Saturday, then right back in the car on Sunday to Whitehall. Ryan joined Rick, Mom and I in this adventure. We spent the week packing and organizing plus making some stops at our favorite local places. We got to eat at our favorite restaurants, shop at our favorite store and spent some time driving around. One thing we found on our trek was a Dairy Treat and they sold Dole Whips. I think I am secretly glad we didn't know about this until the end, I would have weighed 800 lbs after that week had I known. :) It was bittersweet leaving Michillinda and the amusement park on the corner, but I am looking forward to having Rick closer for holidays, for special days and for well, just plain old any days. He's still traveling as much as he has been, but now he can fly into Atlanta instead of Grand Rapids. Welcome Home Uncle Ricky!! :)

Ft. Myers Beach 2011

Be still my soul. I love the beach. I love being at the beach with my family and my "beach" family. I love July. I love Summer.

This year we had another wonderful vacation to Beach Club I. For the first time Rob and I were owners as well and that took some of the stress off of having 8 people in one unit for 4 weeks. You know that saying about fish and relatives...? Well, we had plenty of fish this year and thanks to a second unit the relative part didn't come into play. ;)

One of our first stops is to see Rob's Aunt and Uncle and his 98 year old Grandma. This is a highlight of our trip and mom usually comes along to see everyone. This year Rob's folks were down at the same time so we had a mini family reunion the first week of our vacation. We did make our way back down before the end of July.

Ryan, Kevin, Jared and Great Grammy

Kevy Bu and Uncle Ricky

My beach bunny

The rotten little Monkey urchins ;)

Lots of shells this year due to the beach expansion project.

My attempt at artsy

Kevin saving the critters

Another attempt

Rob and the love of his life~~hehehe

The Times Square clock (more awesome artfulness)

My Guy :D
s
My favorite Artsy shot of the Summer

Time to leave, one of our last nights on the beach for 2011.

We had such a blast (even thought the first 2 weeks were pretty rainy) at the flea market, shopping, nightly beach walks and just having summer fun. We got to see my girlfriend Eva oodles and she got to stay with us some since we have the 2nd unit-not to mention all the shopping trips to Island Sol. A trip to Marco was not to happen this year, but maybe next...I don't think I have ever been there and I would love to see Eva's newest store there. We had a few chances to see my cousin Danny and his beautiful family. We also had one of the best years fishing that I can ever remember. Remind me, I need to get the pictures from Rick and Dad so I can do a separate post on all of our fishing adventures. :)

Time to start thinking about back to school... ick.

Pink Shell 2011 iPhone pics, raw and unedited

I take SO many pictures with my iPhone (Buddy). I don't always have my big camera with me but I want to catch life in the action. I may not get a chance to blog things for a while but when I do I at least have some sort of photo to go along with the narrative. Please excuse the quality, Buddy doesn't do well in certain lighting conditions. After a year and a half I just figured out how to get all my pictures off the phone and into a file without having to email them one by one, hence all the collage posts from May, June and July. At least you know what we have been up to, even with all the crazy random pictures thrown together. :) Also excuse the fact that most of these are on FB, I wanted to add more commentary. Enjoy our month at the beach. More pics to follow from the Nikon...

Kevin during low tide, critter hunting. He spent the evening "saving" the lightning whelks on the sandbars. Did you know that the Lightning Whelk is the only left handed shell?

The HomerHouse :)

Mister and Sister :D

Mom and Dad

My dad tried like crazy to get the kids to do this shot last year. This year they did it with out complaint but I didn't have the camera!

I love, love, love this picture. It sums up my daughter in totality, ya know, that "a pictures worth a 1,000 words" kind of thing. She is a water baby!

Eva's first trip shark fishing. We had a great day, thanks Rick! :)

Pinkie catching bait

I love this one, she is trying to save all the star fish. My kids get so irked when people (kids especially) mistreat and man handle the sea creatures.

Summer reading at it's best. Who wouldn't enjoy sitting on the porch, with a breeze and a great book? ahhhh......decadence!

Six Flags 2011

Each year the kids have the opportunity to read for free Six Flags tickets. Boy, do they know the way to Jared's heart! We let the kiddos pick a friend to take, especially since they have the same option to get free tickets too. It's a win-win. This year we had a sleep over afterward, it was chaos but so much fun to welcome summer.

Ryan & Gabby

1st stop? The BRAND NEW Dare Devil Dive, Jared has been waiting MONTHS for this to open, he was over the moon excited. Everyone went on except for Ryan, Evan and Mom...that's ok-someone needs to watch the stuff ;)

Lived up to expectations, which for him are pretty high :)

Thunder River: Rob, Anthony, Jared and Jordan

Thunder river part two: hehehe, guess who got wet? Kevin, Evan, Gabby & Ryan
No worries Kevin, we were all going to get soaked in a bit. A HUGE summer storm came out of nowhere so we ended up calling the day short by about an hour. There was so much hail, wind and rain I thought we would float away. We stopped at Waffle House for dinner and then back to the HomerHouse for sleeps, great visit-next year will be here soon I am sure.

Ready? Set? JUNE!

Ryan's class project, a pumpkin seed in a cup. She begged us to plant it! Wanna takes bets on if we will have a pumpkin for Halloween?

Got a chance to sneak up to the lake for some summer fun!

Jared got to go to Aerospace Camp at Southern Poly (Thanks Grammy & Pop Pop). He had a BLAST and wants to go again. If you look close you can see the golden eagle pin he won. Only a few were handed out all week. He won the boomerang contest :)

More swim team for Chargers

Ryan on the Blocks, she and Jared won MVS this year for their age groups.

Happy Father's Day! Jared got straight A's last year so you got a flier that entitled you to get Braves tickets for a great price. We took them up on their offer since that seems to be the new Father's Day tradition.

Dad and Kev with Ryan peeking out :)

Pinkie and Duff, first time swimming at GT, beautiful pool!!

Menchies, our new addiction, so scrumptious...mmmmm.....FroYo.....

Hey look at that! Our pumpkin got bigger. We had three flowers on it when we left for the beach, but no busy bees were around to pollinate. :( No pumpkin for us this year. I think she and daddy guy are going to plant an actual garden next summer, I am sure we will have tomatoes too :)