My sister and her family spent just over a week with our crew and left yesterday afternoon. We absolutely loved our time with them and felt like we had our own mini summer camp running all week long with six kids to wrangle! We filled our days with a lot of the good stuff like time outside, time in water (the pool, the lake and our water bounce house), park playtime and berry picking.
The heat wave that’s been hitting us hard gave us a brief reprieve for two days last week and we took full advantage of temperatures below 85 degrees and made our way to Lineberger’s Maple Springs Farm in Dallas, North Carolina to pick blueberries and blackberries.
Of course the minute our boys spotted a bunch of baby toads hopping around a pond located on the property, their attention shifted from the berries to the tiny amphibians.
With so many little hands to help pick berries, you would think we would’ve walked away with a huge haul but half the fun the kids had at the farm involved running around, climbing fig trees, searching for bullfrogs and petting the friendliest cat that practically sprinted toward us in search of lots of petting.
We ended up with just enough berries to make a blackberry and blueberry crisp, served with vanilla ice cream of course!
I hope to share the recipe with you guys on the blog soon because it’s been my go-to during berry season the past few years and it’s E-A-S-Y.
When the hot weather returned, we flip-flopped between time at the pool and time in the lake. Ryan has fully mastered our lake floating set up and anchors a giant lily pad to the bottom of the lake and outfits it with our inflatable slide and giant watermelon float. It’s the perfect setup for hours of lake fun and the kids and adults alike love it!
Another thing we’ve been loving this summer? Kayaking! We bought another adult kayak so now two adults can go out with little kids on their backs of their kayaks and the big kids can paddle all over the lake in their kid kayaks, too. We’ve thoroughly explored the little islands around the lake and were thrilled to see three goslings emerge from one of the islands after the boys discovered a goose nest on the island earlier this summer.
And Pepper loves any chance she can get to get out on the water! Her little body wiggles at warp-speed every time she sees us grab her little life jacket because she knows lake fun is about to do down!
We were blessed with two more visitors who arrived on Saturday morning — my mom and dad!
My parents are staying with us through Wednesday and then leaving for a short trip to Virginia before heading back our way on Saturday for the weekend. We’re happy to be their pit-stop and are thrilled for extra time with Mae and Pop! On that note, it’s time for me to press publish on the blog post and soak up some time with my parents for the next few days. Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today and I hope you guys had a wonderful Fourth of July and are enjoying the best summer!!!
