Julia Helps with Front Lawn

Julia learned how to drive Zeter and cut the front lawn. Key adjectives: focused, meticulous.

Cutting around the flagpole

 

Last week Julia learned and practiced on the flat part of the back lawn.

Julia turns 8

Julia picked a trip to Whitetail to celebrate her eighth birthday. She invited her friend Sadona to spend the night and managed to stay up until 10:35ish (her birth time).

-- insert picture of presents --

 

Julia, Ava, Santi, and Sadona use some new art tools

 

Rocco shared the same birthdate, so Sara made an awesome Peppa Pig / Minecraft piñata from a cardboard box.

Rocco takes the first swing, the piñata lasted 3-4 cycles through the line

We did some hiking the next day. Summer, Julia, Sadona on Ledgewood

 

Garden Carrots

Doug has never been a fan of wasting garden space on carrots ... but this year it worked out (well at least we harvested $0.99 of carrots).

Sampson better not eat too many of those carrots!

 

Ocean City, MD with the Kovaceviches

Chilly but awesome. We had a great time at the beach with the Kovaceviches.

Digging in the sand ... Julia demonstrates the dog-style technique

 

 

 

Looking for a surrey bike on the boardwalk

 

 

We planned to get 2 surrey bikes, but only 1 was available

 

The cool weather was ideal for tossing footballs and frisbees. RJ has a lot of 'top 10' plays diving for throws ... some of which could have been handled without diving ... 

 

While the boys tossed balls, Julia and Summer pretended to be dogs

 

 We played 4 rounds of mini-golf. What did you expect us to do ... we had an unlimited day pass.

Milo joined us for 4 rounds of golf

It's not bragging, Doug is just awesome

Sara and Julia on the submarine hole (indoors)

 

 

Craft projects filled the time. Protests were common.

 

 

 

While walking to dinner on our last night, we saw this sign.

Father's Day Card

 Julia's Father's Day Card ... 

Jan 2025 update: Pickup truck was sooooo much fun ... bummer.

Girl Scouts Bridging Ceremony

Julia participated in the Daisy to Brownie Bridging Ceremony. The troop leaders did a great job all year, and this event was no exception.

Granddad, Doug, Sara, and RJ were all there ... notice lots of pizza in the background!

Cookie top sellers (240 for Julia) got the stuffed koala bear that motivated Julia

Almost all St. Agnes first grade girls were there!

Julia officially goes from Daisy to Brownie

Annoying Woodpecker

For a couple weeks this woodpecker pecked the neighbor's gutters at 6 a.m. For some reason he decided to try our metal gutters today.

Allergy strikes

 RJ ate a tiny piece of cookie ... and started to react. Thinking quickly, Doug took a wash cloth that mopped the counter that was holding the cookies and gave it to RJ to wipe his face and neck ... doh!

Results of wiping a wash cloth on neck

Golazos Soccer 2022

Thanks to Coach Joel for another amazing season. The team moved up a division ... so instead of winning most games by 6-7 goals, The Golazos had a lot of ties, some losses, and some wins.

Team Photo after Last Game

 

RJ s the exhausted looking one next to Coach Joel. We came straight from hockey and forgot to pack water. The last game was a 3-1 win ... and RJ scored the first goal.

Event Filled Saturday

 RJ: movie with Mom, hockey game, soccer hame

Julia: birthday party, play with Mom

RJ and Sara before the Mother-Son Movie

 

Julia and Sara with one of the stars of Annie (Zack M.)