friday fun

our school free fun continues. we hosted a playdate with the neighbors on Friday. there were several "i'm bored,"'s to be heard, so I let them break out a game. I am stingy with the games as they require constant supervision to keep pieces from getting lost. i'm not the only weird mom like that, right?

3 crazy trampoline bouncers.

while I hung out in the basement with them, I posted a need for a bedrail since the little witch had fallen out of bed (again) the night before and had split her lip. poor girl gave herself a fat lip! I felt so bad because she'd woken up crying, but I just put her back to bed with a drink of water. I was half asleep and didn't even notice. #momoftheyear

haha.

thankfully we have awesome neighbors and now miss d. has some pretty pink bedrails to keep her safely in her big girl bed. I am happy to report we're on night 3 of safe big girl bed sleeping.

as soon as one bunch left, Maggie came over for more fun. they played and went to the park, then helped me make cookies.

i'm a slave driver, can't you tell? lexi said as they walked away addie said "Maggie, I posed like this. how did you pose?" love these cute girls.

I got a picture of this precious big boy. can't wait to meet baby Ollie in September!

that evening we headed out to st. marys city for the first river concert of the season. we got there around 5:30 and got set up in the shade under a tree. we've never gotten there that early, it was awesome! we were trying to coax Frankie into a family picture by starting with a silly shot.

we finally resorted to a timeout threat which made for a great pic. i'm not sure what's bringing on the picture striking from her, but i'm not loving it.

we got there early to set out in search of the homestead of Nathaniel Pope, my common ancestor with George Washington. he lived in st. marys city from 1658-1679.

I think this might be the place, but there was no marker and though we even tried going to a house to ask if she'd heard of it, and even though she'd lived there her whole life, she said she thought this was it, but wasn't sure. i'm gonna keep trying to figure it out, but until then, we're gonna call this good.

this was matt's attempt at getting us mid-air.

he's a total amateur.
this is how you get a mid-air shot.

or like this:

we walked all around looking for any sign.

such a beautiful bit of land! we couldn't help but think of what those settlers must have thought as they came here from rainy England. I think they must have been quite pleased.

we're big into the silly shots lately.

gorgousness!

more of what we think was pope's freehold.

when we got back over to the concert area the girls had fun rolling down the hill. all except for our scaredy-cat. she's such an old lady, I swear.

we brought bbq drumsticks, corn on the cob, watermelon, and the girls chocolate chip cookies. it was a perfect summer dinner on a perfect almost summer evening.

"cheese."

little reader girl brought her books.

we invited lots of friends, but none could join us. it ended up being ok though, we had a really good time together. :)

we sat next to a group of older couples. they had a pretty sweet picnic set-up, and Frankie had pointed out their awesome fruit bowl. they offered her a few pieces of fruit and she loved the fruit sticks that had little seashells attached to the end.

about an hour later they called her over and gave her the whole bowl, cute seashell sticks and all. middle sister was in heaven!

she took it to the friends she'd made and she was the most popular girl in st. marys city!

then we crossed another summer bucket list item off and caught some fireflies. she'd been running around trying to catch one, when one of our new friends told her to catch one for him. she did, and took it over to him, and he tried to give her $5! she didn't actually take it, but we made us some good friends and they promised another treat for the girls next week. (that's mr. money smiling behind her)

it was such a fun night.

the girls would play and then come back for water, or a quick book break.

another nice lady saw the girls catching fireflies, and donated her cup.

Delaney did some dancing with our seashell sticks.

she's such a nerd. :)

because we'd gotten there so early, we parked close-by and were able to get out quickly.

it was one of the easiest trips home ever.

it was a good start to a fun season of river concerts!