Just Another Week in Paradise!

Dear Friends and Family,

It's hard to complain about anything when the weather is perfect and you live on an island! Although...I forgot to mention in my last post that our hermit crab, Shelby, took his place in paradise sooner than we had hoped. The few days that Shelby was with us, the kids would eagerly run into the house to say, "Hello!" to Shelby and see how he was doing. When Claire returned from school one day (looking to greet Shelby), I told her that Shelby had passed. We held a burial and funeral service for him. I talked about how much we loved and cared about Shelby, Claire cried, and Will fake cried. The kids decorated his grave in our front garden.

R.I.P. Shelby

The kids and I are making new friends on the Island which is always fun. The neighborhood block party was this weekend and it was great to visit with neighbor friends, meet new neighbors, and watch all the kids play! The biggest attraction for Will was the bounce house. He was inside it the majority of the day just bouncing away.  Jessica and Christian even came and brought their newly groomed doggies!

A bunch of the Island kids! In the anchor dress next to Claire is Frances, and behind Frances is Logan. The two are siblings and two of Claire's newest best friends. 

Jessica and Christian introduce their Westies to an Island Westie.  

Will with one of his best buddies, Abby!

Sam and Will on top and Abby and another neighbor boy on bottom. They formed the Gecko club.

Lots of smiles among our Island group of friends.

 We were smiling really big after a delicious feast of pulled pork, beans, coleslaw, and lots of delicious contributed side dishes. The Island association also provided a few kegs and wine for the party. And another Islander contributed his DJ skills to the event. A fun time was had by all!

When it was time for clean-up, Mike Billings informed us that he caught over a bushel of crab and he could use help eating it the next morning!  We all cheered at that news and went to bed looking forward to a delicious Sunday brunch.

The guys talk during the Ravens/Jaguars game. I took this picture because it was so sweet how baby Kate was just lounging on her Dad. She was completely content to just snuggle!

Mike and Chris worked on preparing the crab for lunch...and yes, that's Mike grabbing them with his bare hand! We were all shocked to see him do this, but he said the crabs were still too sleepy from being on ice to pinch.

This sight quickly drew the attention of most of the kids!

 

Crab lessons with Dr. Mike!

That's a lot of crab!

Seasoned and ready to steam!

What a feast!

 After lunch, the temperature had really climbed and we all decided to hit the beach!

Fishing poles and minnow net ready!

A dead crab captures the kids' attention for a moment.

Claire and Frances are two surfer girls!

Will and his squirt gun - that looks like a sneaky smile...

Snack time!

What a perfect end to a glorious weekend!

Monday was my Grandmother's 93rd birthday! She is an inspiration, and I love her so much! I have so many fond memories of playing at her house when I was growing up. Recently when we visited her in July, we met at her house for lunch. The kids finished eating and she offered them a bowl of ice cream. They were so excited about getting an extra treat (they had just had candy at the July Fourth parade) that they devoured it within seconds. Grandma saw their quickly emptied bowls and said, "Oh my! Would you like another scoop?"  The mom in me wanted to say, "Oh no! That's plenty!" But then I remembered how much I loved being spoiled by my grandmother, and so I didn't interfere when the kids enthusiastically answered, "Yes!" I thought, my kids should feel equally spoiled when they come here and cherish those memories as well.

Sara and I both wanted to make Grandma something special, so we settled on a lap quilt. We started the project together and then I used my newly cleaned sewing machines to finish the project. I was very nervous about the quilting and attaching the binding. I almost felt forlorn as I had trouble keeping my stitches straight or failing to catch the binding in a few places. When I went to bed, I almost felt like I had botched the whole job! But when I woke up the next morning and looked at it with fresh (less critical) eyes, I was happier with the work. I sent a picture to my mom, sister, and mother-in-love and all of them replied with very encouraging messages. Then when the package arrived at my grandmother's, she called and told me that the quilt was amazing and that she couldn't even see where I stitched it together! God bless her! That's exactly what I needed to hear!

A beautiful quilt for my beautiful Grandmother, and the beautiful memories Sara and I have of her.

I'll close with a picture of my Will doing one of his new favorite past-times: mazes!  I bought him two maze books for kids 3-5 years-old and 4-6. He completed the books in a matter of minutes. So I went online and printed mazes for kids 6-8. After about 2 minutes, Will said, "Mom, I'm done." He then showed me a completed maze. I printed him about 20 more and he finished all of them in an afternoon. So I printed some 8-10 year-old mazes and those finally stumped him! 

These are the 6-8 year-old mazes!

The 8-10 mazes were skinnier and the solution was much trickier (even for me)!

I hope everyone is having an amazing week!

Love,

Bethie