Summer Whereabouts...

Hello friends!
It's been pretty quiet here on my blog for a few weeks now. Summer is in full swing and we've already been on a huge family vacation and completed a week of summer camp. Life has been very busy, but full of great times and exciting adventures.

The second week of summer break, Brian's parents took the whole family on a cruise to the Bahamas! It was a retirement gift to themselves and I sure am glad we were the lucky recipients!

I haven't been on a family cruise since I was about 16, so this was a totally new experience for our family. The kids had an absolute blast hanging out with their cousins and hitting up the endless ice cream machine.

Okay, maybe I enjoyed the ice cream too. :)

Cousin Alex, Payton, Cousin Zachary, Parker & Brian

The cruise was the perfect mix of entertainment and relaxation. The cruise director, Tom, was very friendly and more than happy to come say "hi" during the cocktail  hours. The kids loved the shows every night and by the end of the cruise we were allowing them to go to the arcade by themselves as long as they came back to check in after 30 minutes or so.

Snapping a pic with the Cruise Director one night before dinner.

Brian with his parents

The first day we were at sea all day, so we hung out by the pool and got to know our way around the ship. The second day we docked in Nassau and got off to explore the Atlantis hotel. It was quite amazing and definitely is now on our family bucket list of a place we'd like to stay!

Exploring the Atlantis aquarium

Looking at the resort's new aqua park, which opened the weekend after we were there.

Crossing the giant rope bridge (which overlooked a pool of hammerhead sharks!)

The second day, we docked at Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay. The kids had such an absolute blast playing at the aqua park there!

The water was so clear - it was a tropical paradise!

Seriously, you can't get much more beautiful than this!

Back on the ship that evening, we enjoyed our last formal dinner. Our waiter out did himself and served Parker an enormous cookie sundae. He was in heaven!

We all disembarked the next day feeling so grateful for such a wonderful family vacation. I highly recommend a cruise if you are planning a vacation with your extended family. It provided such easy entertainment and wonderful mealtimes together without anyone having to cook or clean or shop for anything. Just pure relaxation!

It was a bit rough readjusting to "normal life" when we got home. But Payton did a fantastic art camp that week and Parker did a little mini camp at My Gym, so they were both happy to have some planned activities mixed in with plenty of free time.

Payton's art camp was so wonderful, I wish she offered more camps this summer. He created several really unique beautiful pieces that we will be displaying in our home.

They learned out to make a silhouette of themselves, and then melted crayons to make the "water" effect. I LOVE this piece! 

He also recreated Van Gogh's Starry Night. Another beautiful piece.

How cute is his teacher? She was so fabulous with the kids.

Last weekend, my parents took the kids to their house, so Brian and I had some much-needed alone time. It was so nice to go out to dinner and not worry about babysitters, etc. 

Dinner Friday night at Catch 23

Saturday morning we drove out to the beach and ate breakfast on the beach. It was a gorgeous morning with a nice breeze and barely anyone was there because it was so early.

Saturday afternoon we headed out to St. Petersburg for lunch at Locale Market with our neighbors. Wow - this place blew my mind! I could seriously spend HOURS just roaming around that store looking at all of the fabulous local goodies they sell.

We ended up ordering the conch fritters, warm olives and two different flat bread pizzas. It was all incredibly delicious.

After lunch, we went out on our neighbor's sailboat. It was the most perfect day for sailing. Warm, with a good breeze... heaven!

Me and my friend, Bahama.

Brian steering the boat for a few minutes.

We even stopped the boat at one point and all jumped off the back into the water for a swim. It was so refreshing and fun! Then we headed to a local restaurant on the water for dinner and a 70's beach party. We had such fun watching all the people in their 70's costumes. It was neat to just pull the boat right up to the restaurant and walk on up!

Meanwhile, at my parent's house, Parker somehow lost a tooth over the weekend! We're still not completely sure how it happened, but he says, "I just bit down really hard and it fell out!" 

I know he shouldn't be loosing teeth at 4 years old, and certainly not his bottom right incisor. So needless to say, we have an appointment with the dentist later this week. :)

So, in a nutshell, that's what the Heckmans have been up to the past few weeks. Now you know why I have been completely absent from the blog. As usual, my summer blog posts will continue to be few and far between since I rarely have any "free time" while the kids are home. 

But if I come across a great recipe or a fun craft, I'll be sure to post it. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a fun and safe summer. Have a wonderful 4th of July this weekend!

End of School...Welcome Summer!

Another school year has come to a close, and I cannot believe Parker is going into his last year of preschool and Payton is headed into his last year of elementary school. It really is crazy to me.

But before I focus on what's to come, I am happy to look back on the last few days of school.

Parker had the most adorable end-of-year program. The theme was "construction" and how we are all still under construction with God's help. It was so cute watching them sing "The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock."

"And the rain came tublin' down..."

Parker with two of his good buddies.

We also had a fun end-of-the year class party. It was beach-themed, so my craft station was making "Beach in a cup" using blue jello, graham cracker crumbs, whipped cream and gummy bears. It turned out really cute.

We sure are going to miss his sweet teachers. I somehow only got a photo of Miss Sheridan, but he's had Miss Corley for two years now, so next year will seem strange without her.

On Payton's last day of school, they handed out all of the awards. We were so very proud of him for receiving an award for straight A's as well as Accelerated Reading. We will miss his sweet teacher, Miss Vega, as well.

I can't believe how old they all look. Yes, I'm sure they are ready for 5th grade... but are we???

The last day of school, the boys woke up to a decorated breakfast table complete with a box full of their favorite sugar cereals (a big treat in our house!).

And after school that day, my neighbor and I greeted the kids with water balloons. A tradition we started several years ago and I'm so glad we were able to continue it this year as well.

Here's a couple of pics from their 1st and last days of school this year. Honestly, I don't think they changed that much... but they've both grown at least an inch!

In non-school related news, we had a wonderful diner party last week with some very good friends who were in town visiting their family. The McCullohs' used to live in our neighborhood, and now they live in VA. We miss them dearly! But it was so good to get together with them and our other good friends, the Laccabue's for lots of good food and fellowship.

I love setting the table for dinner parties!

 

I was even able to get together with April the next day and meet her sweet daughter. I can't believe it's taken a year for me to meet her. She's the most adorable little girl!

Now that school is out and things have settled down, we're really enjoying the relaxing pace of things. We've done many puzzles, played many board games, created crafts, and Payton is even learning how to cook! So far Summer... we like your style!

Ordinary Days

This is the last week of school and I'm heading into summer break with equal amounts of excitement and fear. For real.

I am thrilled that I don't have lunches to pack and kids to get out the door by 7:30 a.m.

I am super excited for some very fun vacations we have planned this summer.

And I am relieved to not have daily weekly homework battles and tear over the hated IXL Math program (those of you who know what this is, feel my pain).

However... I am also fearing the fights that will inevitably ensue over:
1. Kids being bored
2. The boys being together a LOT more
3. Computer privileges
4. TV privileges
5. Kids being bored... oh wait, did I already mention that one?

I know it's silly to worry about these things. Hey, maybe they won't happen.

Ha.. ha.. who am I kidding? I know they will argue and fight and irritate each other at some point. But maybe it won't be for a month or so when the novelty of "Summer" has worn off a bit.

For now, I'm trying to focus on the excitement of laid back mornings with second cups of coffee, spending time with extended family that we don't get to see very often, the freedom of open afternoons and the spontaneity that comes along with that, late night swimming, s'mores and bonfires, and the beauty of experiencing summer break through the eyes of two amazing kids.

In the meantime, here's what some ordinary days have looked like around here lately...

We made our annual "Summer Bucket List" with the boys. We all look forward to making this every year. I love hearing what ideas they come up with, and it gets us all excited about the upcoming summertime.

I bought this antique rocking chair at a consignment shop a couple months ago. I absolutely love the width of the arm rests and the depth of the seat. BUT... it needed a lot of love. These were the beautiful cushions that it came with. Yellow floral anyone?

Then I took off the pillow cover to measure fabric to have it recovered and this was what was underneath!

I gave the new fabric and the cushions to my seamstress and she said there was yet another layer of fabric under this one! Incredible. Someone really loved this chair enough to recover it three times. And now, I can say I've recovered it for a 5th time. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Here's a close-up of the fabric.

Brian (and the seamstress) thinks I'm crazy for choosing white fabric, but I love it. It's so clean and crisp, and it's such a great contrast to the dark wood chair. I haven't recovered the footstool that came with it yet. I know I don't want to do the footstool in white, so I need to find a good coordinating fabric that will hide dirt a little better.

I'm also happy to report that these orchids that I bought several months ago and still thriving! I'm shocked. I have such a black thumb. The first bloom just fell off this week, so I'm claiming it as a huge success in plant longevity in the Heckman household.

We've been grilling and eating outside every Sunday evening lately. It's such a nice break for me from cooking.

Brian loads up every inch of the grill with chicken, salmon and veggies. We all eat whatever we want that night and then save the rest for healthy lunches throughout the week. I hope it continues all summer!

Twinkle lights & candles make eating al fresco a bit more romantic.

We're also getting into "fort season." 

This is the time of the year when thunderstorms hit almost every afternoon and the kids ask me to make them a fort since they're stuck inside. I've actually gotten pretty good at it, and my system makes the evening clean up quite easy. My tip? Use extra large binder clips!

I've also totally got "Cruise Brain." I think about our upcoming cruise all the time. I day dream about it. And then I keep buying cover-ups. It's like it's a disorder or something. I just bought this beauty today:

But for $15, who can blame me? I mean come on... the pom pom ruffled edge - adorable.

In just two short weeks I'll be sailing away...

Back to reality.

Alright, off to get Parker's clothes ready for his end-of-the-year performance tomorrow. Then Payton has his big "Market Day" project on Thursday followed by an hour-long guitar make-up lesson... and then... what did I say about being excited about summer break?!? I can't wait!!