Fish Fry

Ricky and his dad brought back a ton of fish from their fishing excursion in Mississippi.  Yes, I spelled that out loud as I typed it.  Go ahead.  Do it!  M I S S I S S I P P I.   Alrighty then…  So, we had 80 fish fillets to fry up.  So what do you do?  Invite the family to come and eat it! 

We have promised our friends the Gortners some fried fish all summer, so I hope that it was worth the wait!  We had a great time and ate a ton of fried food.  Fried fish, fried taters, fried hush puppies!  Oh my!  A little banana pudding to top it off and you’ve eaten enough calories for the week!  You’ll see Lily working on her chin ups in one picture.  No, I don’t have her do them at home.  I started P90X last week and this is my bar.  She just had to show everyone how good she was at it =)

Here are two of the four bowls of fillets ready to get battered and fried.  Unfortunately, the bowls have got a stench that won’t go away now.  I almost passed out when Becky stuck it on my head to take a whiff and the bleach after that didn’t help!  Fish stink!  Don’t put them in plastic.  That’s my tip of the day.

Ricky and his dad getting the fryers ready in my garage.  You might be a redneck if…

The men doing their manly deep frying thing.

Tyler, Riley, Anna, and Lily hanging out waiting for the goods!

Tyler, Mike, Ganny, Nana, and Hannah!  Bring on the good stuff!

All the fried stuff.  Fried fish, fried taters, and fried hush puppies!  The fruit was just to help us feel better about all the grease =)

Lily showing off her skills on my pull up bar! 

The best part…

PS  After I posted this it got me thinking about the fish fry we had last summer when we got home from Taiwan.  Click here to read about our fish fry from July 20th of last year.  My, how things have changed in a year!

I Love Summer!

I love summer!  I love the warmth of sunshine on my face.  Sitting on our deck and watching the kids play.  Hearing their screams when they hear the ice cream man.  Watching the ice cream melt down their chins as they try and eat it before it melts.  Grilling out.  Eating watermelon.  Catching fireflies.  Kings Island.  Swimming. Late summer nights.  Sun kissed faces.  All of it!  I love it all!  Here are some pictures from our first taste of summer this year.  There will be plenty more to come…

Lily is quite the little fish.  She loves the water and has been a swimmer since she was 2.  However, this year, she can really have fun.  She can finally touch!  She is so excited.

Swimming with her cousins.

Riley hanging out on the noodle.

Getting the courage to let go.  He can swim and finally touch in the shallow end!  Woo hoo!   Mommy gets to sit on the edge this year and just dip my feet in.  Love it!

Swimming to Justin

Getting braver

Super Riley!!  Jumping in and swimming to the steps.

He loves goggles. 

Snack time with Luke!

End of the soccer season party with Lana.

Yummy ice cream from the cone.

Everyone on the team got a medal.  Coach told her she was small but mighty.  She would face any girl, no matter the size.  Then one of her teammates said, “And she was always falling down!”  HA  So funny and so true.  I think she fell at least 10 tens in the last game.  Coach said, “But she always got right back up!”  Too cute!

Here is movie night in our cul de sac.  Our neighbors have a movie screen they attach to their house and they put on a kids movie every Friday night at dusk.  It is so much fun and the kids love it!

Finally, here is a picture of Ricky and I from date night.  It doesn’t happen often enough, but it was so nice to have a nice evening out with him.  We had a really good time!

A Really Cool Video

The kids and I decided to get butterflies this year at the house and they have been amazing.  They started out as tiny little larvae the length of my little fingernail.  They at least quadrupled in size before they hung in a j shape from the lid.  Each one fromed a chrysilas which was amazing to watch.  It took them about a week to hatch into painted lady butterflies.  We had all 10 hatch!  I was fortunate enough to catch one of the butterflies hatching on video.  This one had fallen so it was a little more difficult for him to emerge.  So cool to watch!  The best part is the first about three and a half minutes of listening to Riley.  You are going to think, “Does he ever stop talking?!?”  Trust me, I think that every day =)

done

Here is part 2.  I had to flip him over because he was stuck upside down.

done

Summertime

Ricky has been fishing every day with his Dad this week.  We are so blessed that we came home right in the middle of his vacation. They had so much fun and caught a ton of keepers.   So my question to them was “Where’s the Fish?” 

The Dog Days of Summer

Let me introduce you to Maddy, our almost 10 year old weimarainer.  She was our first baby, even though she is gray and furry.  She stayed with my sister while we were in Taiwan, and I like to think that she missed us.  Don’t you love the smile in this picture?