July 4th Celebrations

Ever since we moved into this neighborhood, everyone here kept asking if we had ever celebrated a July 4th here.  Well, the time has finally come to see what the fuss is all about :-)

With July 4th landing on a Tuesday this year, the celebrations started on Saturday.  But not without volunteers within the neighborhood/community - setting up tents and tables and chairs. So, obviously I dragged Bobby and the boys to help out. He he! 

The first thing on Sunday morning was the Fishing Derby.  And Charlie was all over this one!!  Even with it raining pretty hard that morning:

Supposedly it was canceled because of the rain but seems that there were still kids heading out to fish.  The committee definitely underestimated these neighborhood kids. LOL!!  Well, the judges did finally come by and show was back on!  

It was a 2-hr derby and after about an hour, I decided to go check on Charlie.  This kid was soaked from head to toe, wearing a rain-resistant jacket versus wearing an actual rain jacket.  Ha!  So I'm glad I brought him a t-shirt to change into as well.

So much rain lately:

Here's Bobby's take on it. Ha ha!

And here's Charlie - totally drenched:

But guess what, Charlie actually won for Biggest Catch! 

I don't have the photo of the fish though - it's on Charlie's phone. I'll have to eventually get it from him.

In the meantime, looks like all our golf umbrellas are finally coming in handy in this wet weather:

Here's my view for Sunday afternoon as well as Tuesday morning.  I'm helping out at the Merchandise table:

And so glad it's nice and dry on Sunday.  That's the beach area to the right - where all the umbrellas are set up:

Graham decided to join in on the Sand Castle building competition:

This kid didn't put any sunscreen on and so I'm glad I got to him when I did!  

I'm not so sure if this is a "castle" per se:

I'm just glad this girl didn't ruin his castle before it was actually judged.  She stood right in the middle of it. Ha!

And look, Graham came in 3rd!  

This was the best photo I could take because everyone was trying to get in some order, for the Tug-of-War.  And so all those sand castles that were previously built were all leveled over so no one trips in the sand.  

It's amazing how so many people participate in all the activities!

Tug-of-war was so much fun - kids vs adults, adults East/South vs North/West, kids vs Life guards.  And I was wondering why my arm and legs were hurting to much the next day.  LOL!! By the way, the kids won both their wars versus adults and vs life guards. How about that!

And then, the kayak race.  This is the starting point - under the bridge.  We have learned quickly that the ones on the bridge are dumping water on those in the kayak below:

And there's Graham to the left, off the side of the lake - with his water gun, squirting the kayakers.  That will be me next year, squirting the kids. He he!

And they are off!

And then, there's also the canoe race for the older kids and adults.  I almost joined up with another mom here on our canoe but she changed her mind at the end.  Next year!!

 What a day of events!  And everything is run by volunteers.  Amazing!

And here's us, Tuesday morning.  Happy July 4th everyone!

Thankfully the parade didn't start too early.  I would have still been asleep. LOL!  

Here they come!

So great to see the police involved:

And the fire department:

And the neighbors!  This crew was quite creative with the "Boston Tea Party":

Check out this cool car!

And this car even had a dog in the passenger seat - totally enjoying the ride:

Last but not least, to end the day, Graham was busy with playing Bingo:

He won a whole bunch of cards and picked out prizes for himself and also for Daddy, Charlie, and me.  Awww, Graham is so sweet!

Well, this was quite the July 4th for sure!  

We are missing our friends from last year, in California though.  Here are some photos from that day, which I didn't get a chance to post yet.  Here's the crew at Portuguese Bend Beach:

If only I had this much energy to run around on the sand:

Charlie (left) and Graham - with their fairly long hairs by then:

Always time for S'mores!!

All the kids did so well with this "rock garden".  And of course, Graham couldn't help himself but to make sure he handled one of those bigger rocks:

Lovely memories of our time back in CA!

Rock climbing ~ June 17, 2022

Here's another activity that I did not end up posting on the blog.  We finally had a chance to take the boys indoor rock climbing. I did it a long time ago with a friend, although this one is an automated belay system so that means you don't need someone holding you up on the other end of the rope.

All strapped in!

Glad Daddy is able to join us too :-)

Always a competition with these two!

Here's the video:

I actually had the toughest time getting down from the auto-belay.  There's just something about trusting that rope and letting go!

Climbing can be so exhausting :-)

This is quite the place!

I think we still have some credit left at this indoor rock climbing facility.  Hope to go back again later this summer!

Misc photos

Just some random photos of recent happenings.  

So, I think the baby birds have finally left their nest.  Probably best to get rid of this nest and clean up the wall since it's covered with poop. Yuck!

And I can finally take those Christmas lights off too because we now have some other better outdoor lighting.

And then, I discovered a bee going into a tiny hole right near the garage entrance. What?!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do here yet - perhaps spray some bug spray up in the hole and then, close it up with some wood filler??

And we finally fixed the drip in our rain shower!  It's been dripping since Fall of last year:

All I needed to do was to change this cartridge in this faucet.  But we did decide to call a plumber and they up-charged the part by like 30%!  

Well, if anything, the leak is finally gone and we can finally remove the bucket that's been under that rain showerhead.  But now, my rain barrel is leaking so we have the bucket outside for that leak. Ha!

I think we found a new spot for dim sum!  If anything, Charlie is happy with their red bean paste-filled sesame balls and Graham loves their egg tarts:

Mommy goes to use to loo and comes back to 3 boys on their phones. Ha!

We've had some amazing sunsets lately, although it's probably due to the smoke that's been coming in from Canada.  It was so bad the other day that swim practice was canceled!

We've been obviously letting Graham and Charlie eat too much sweets:

But then again, Bobby orders fried pickles and look at the huge amount of it that got served!!

The chili at this restaurant we tried out was pretty good.  Supposed to have won some awards:

And I still can't quite get used to liking these Chicago deep-dish style pizzas:

By the way, I bought the boys a couple of Hello Kitty noodle bowls with chopsticks as a surprise gift after their musical camp performance. And I told Graham that he can only eat his peach ring gummies if he can pick them up with his new chopsticks ;-)

Success!!

Another project to complete here - trying to put some UV film on the skylight.  Although, just noticed some paint crackling over in the corner. Doesn't that mean some leaking and/or moisture?! Urgh, something else to deal with!

Before:

After - although I was hoping we could still see through to the trees. But this will do for now. There's like 4 of these windows in the kitchen and 1 more in our bathroom!

The upper level/upstairs is feeling cooler already. Although perhaps I should check the insulation level in the attic before thinking about getting an attic fan installed. Or do both??!

I love how Graham has put away the recycling in the proper bin.  But it's sticking out so far, I can't close the kitchen cabinet. Can't win them all!

We finally got our little vacuum robot out of its box.  It only took about 1 year. LOL!

Last but not least, a couple of funny photos:

Graham and Charlie are constantly taking these funny photos with me, so now it's payback - but on Bobby though. It's no wonder the boys are constantly taking photos with filters. I couldn't stop laughing while taking this photo of Bobby:

Sorry, honey - laughing at your expense!  Never a dull moment :-D