Summer is FINALLY here!

Life is so crazy sometimes for us. I am going to admit it here and in writing. I am worn out! This past school year has been crazy busy for me as a teacher, mother, wife and business owner. I am ready for summer time!

I've been dreaming of gardens and pools... lakes and campgrounds... sweet tea and lazy summer afternoons.

Technically summer started a couple weeks ago for my crew, but given the demands of a busy lifestyle I don't really feel like we started until yesterday. That was the very first day I slept in. 9:00 AM to be exact. Now, don't hate me. I fully made up for it this morning at 5:30. Anyway....

I've been so excited about a project I am determined to do. One of my favorite things is crafting! I never have time it seems to actually do what I enjoy. I'm making a purposeful effort this summer to do at least 30 days of Creativity. I do adore Pinterest and have a ton of pins I want to try! Here is my link  if you want to follow http://pinterest.com/jenn4jesus/boards/

So lets get started on reviewing these ideas and see how well they actually worked, shall we?

First up on my list was the Glow in the dark ring toss.
 http://mommadidit.blogspot.com/2012/07/light-up-night.html is the original source for this idea. Fireworks were banned and the forest was on fire so this mom got creative!

Knowing that we had a week long camping trip coming up to Roaring Rivers State Park, I decided to run to the Dollar Tree and stock up on a few tubes of these bracelets just in case we had time. I got 15 bracelets in each package.

I'm so glad we did. The occasion of Amy's 22nd birthday was an excellent excuse to get some family competition on! We teamed up into pairs (3 teams total) and drove a couple of long tent stakes into the ground. We wrapped the stakes with a glow in the dark bracelet so we could see them.

The darker it got... the more your eyes played tricks on you and the harder the game became! Seriously, we had planned to call the winner at 22 (in honor of Amy's age) points. However, the birthday girl and I took the game, 2 hours later with a leading score of 5. Yes, thats right! F-I-V-E and both hubs and I have played Frisbee golf for about 20 years. VERY challenging. I would suggest that you use a necklace or actually connect 3 bracelets instead of 2 together if you want this game to move along quicker than ours did. Another thing to note, here in the Midwest the days are getting longer. You might have to start this game earlier than planned if you are at a campground that has a quiet time. It was 11:30 PM before we realized just exactly HOW LOUD our laughing had become.

Here are some fun images from our camping trip.

The darker it got outside the more these glowed. If you plan on taking night time pictures of your family fun, be sure to turn off the flash first.

Birthday girl showing off!

I rate this game at an 8 for family friendly and lots of laughs.

 One of the FEW mornings that the girls actually got up at 5 to go fishing... Amy and Abby are pictured here with their ultra light poles.

 And Miss Hali... before she became frustrated with fishing and decided swimming was a better option.

 Aaron having fun with his first catch

 The birthday girl caught a lunker! Way to go Amy!

 Hali showing off her beautiful rainbow trout

For a young lady who has never been trout fishing, Amy sure had a great time

In this picture Abby was just saying "I'm not helping clean these"

  Some more hamming it up from the princess

 Pretending he caught all of those fish!

 Here we are measuring out Kyle's Lunker. It qualifies!

 Sometimes Boys just have to be boys no matter how old they are

 This was one of my 3 Lunkers that I was actually able to reel in without breaking my line. She made a fine filet!

 On the last morning before having to head back super early, Kyle and I caught a fine mess to add to those from the day before. The trout limit in possession is 8 trout per person and you must have the tags with you. We ate our fish the first two days for dinner then brought the rest home to smoke.

One of our most favorite places to camp as a family and as a couple is Roaring River State Park. Its nestled in the Ozark Mountains, in the Mark Twain National Forest. Fish are released daily from the hatchery depending on the amount of tags sold the night before. It's a very family friendly and fun campground for the kids.