Weekend of Water Fun

Some friends of ours have a lake cottage that has been in their family for 3 or 4 generations. (It was either our friend's grandfather or great-grandfather who built it.) They invited us to spend Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend there with them. We've been there with them before, and we jumped at the chance to go again!

Saturday was pretty cool, but some of the older kids were brave enough to do some tubing.





Meanwhile, some of the younger kids were just thrilled to ride along in the speedboat.

(Oldest Son was trying to warm up after tubing.)


When not tubing the kids spent much of the time in and out of the paddleboat, canoe, and docked pontoon boat. The cottage's lake frontage is wonderful for kids because you can walk out 100 ft, and the water is still only about 5 ft deep ... very shallow. However, we did have the kids wear life preservers when playing around by the shore, on the pier, and in the boats.

The Oldest and Oldest Son taking some of the younger kids for a canoe ride


Attack of the water gun soldiers!




The weather was warmer on Sunday, and all of the kids except for the Youngest took turns riding on the "hot dog." We adults and the kids who weren't riding the hot dog enjoyed cruising on the pontoon boat as it pulled the hot dog behind.




(This one is my entry into Paper Mama's "Excitement" photo challenge.)





Some of the kids even got to spend some time fishing off the pier and some of the docked boats.







What an awesome, fun weekend!

Turning the Camera Around

As the photographer, I'm usually behind the camera rather than in front of it. However, this week, Paper Mama challenged photographers to turn the camera on themselves and take a self portrait.

Here I am!



Be sure to visit Paper Mama to catch a glimpse of the other participating photographers. You might not see them again for a while!

"Orange" You Glad It's Summer?

Paper Mama's photo challenge for the week is "Orange." Color-themed challenges seem to be popular lately!

Here's a photo I took of Younger Daughter wearing her orange shirt one evening when we went on for a walk by some fields and woods near our house.

Brothers on Life's Road

Paper Mama's photo challenge this week is "Buddies."

This pic I took of Oldest Son and Middle Child hiking when we were in Glacier immediately came to mind.

I Blinked

Paper Mama's challenge: Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid... or puppy... or kitty). Find your ABSOLUTE FAVORITE photo to date. I just want to see the photo you love so much you want to hang it all around your home, your friends home, ... all over your blog! Let's see it!

Oh, my goodness! She obviously doesn't know how many hundreds of pics I've taken of my kiddos in the past 11 years! I have lots and lots of favorites, but in looking through them for this challenge, I kept coming back to this one I took of our Oldest and Oldest Son.



It was taken back in 2000 when Oldest Son was only a couple of weeks old and "BIG" sister was only 17 mo older. I just love how wrinkled and new Oldest Son is and how that toddler roundness is still evident in Oldest's face.

... And then I blinked and opened my eyes to find this ...





Ten years never passed so quickly.

Be sure to stop by Paper Mama to see others' absolute favorite pictures.

Kick

Paper Mama's photo challenge: Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid... or puppy... or kitty). Let's see some movement for this challenge! Take any sort of action shot.

Oldest Son and Middle Child kicking a ball back and forth in our driveway


For more action shots, visit Paper Mama.

Expressions of a 3 Year Old

The challenge: Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid... or puppy... or kitty). Wearing yellow, next to something yellow, being mellow (get it? mellow yellow... :D ) just anything yellow. Be creative!

One afternoon at the end of May, the Youngest and I were outside waiting for the big kids to come home from school on the bus. In the meantime, I asked him to show me different expressions, and I snapped pictures of his interpretations.

This is "surprised."

(He was sitting in our toy car with the yellow top. This is the pic I'm submitting for the "Yellow" challenge.)

I asked him to show me "scared", but he did "scary" instead. :)


This is supposed to be "mad." Definitely wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley! *wink*


And then when I just asked him to smile, I got this adorable shot.


For more cheery yellow pictures, check out this week's photo challenge at Paper Mama.

Paper Mama: Talented

The challenge: Take or find a photo of your talented baby (or kid... or puppy... or kitty). Learning to walk? Doing a cartwheel? Let's see it! An action photo would be fun!

Our oldest learning to knit ... Hubby's mother was teaching her how last week.



This first project ended up as a shawl for one of her dolls.

To see more images of talented children, visit Paper Mama.

Paper Mama: Sleepy

This weeks challenge: Sleepy.

Since this is a mama blog all the challenges will be based around your children. Now, I'm not too picky on what you call your children. As far as I'm concerned my cats and dog are my kids too!

The challenge: Take or find a photo that has your little one(s) being sleepy or sleeping.

My husband took this picture of the boys sleeping in the youngest's bed one morning. We did put them to bed in their own separate beds the night before!



We're currently in the process of remodeling our home to finish our basement (adding a bedroom) and make bigger bedrooms upstairs. Maybe we should rethink this if the boys are all going to sleep in the same bed anyway!

For more "Sleepy" pictures, visit Paper Mama.

Paper Mama: In the Sun

On one of the first hot days this year, the kids wanted to play in the sprinkler. The 4 older kids and 2 of our neighbor girls had a blast getting really wet. However, our youngest did more watching than participating, but he still had a fun time.



See more "In the Sun" pictures at Paper Mama's Photo Challenge.