Located in an artsy building, this piano is painted with chalkboard paint and available for decorating.

We all signed our names and left little notes.

This one is my favorite so far. It’s decorated in a “blues” theme, with lyrics and blues history and other decorations. The back (why didn’t I get a picture of that?!) is covered with white tiles decorated by lots of different people to show what “the blues” meant to them.

I like how they have a song written inside the cover. Clearly a lot of thought was put into it. It’s a very well done piano!

Into the ocean!

Lex LOVES the waves!

Think the goggles did any good in the waves?

Quintessential summertime picture! We need to get to the ocean more often.

Sail boats make me happy.

Happy girl.

Into the waves… face first!

They LOVED the sand this year too.

I like the look of turning the camera flash on at the beach. I’ll have to experiment with that some other day.

They really loved the sand! Eve said they were making themselves into cement people. :)

Chameleon kids. They could disappear in the sand!

I like this picture. Sometimes she looks so grown up, sometimes she seems like such a little girl still. Maybe it’s the hat.

Speaking of little girls! This sweet baby is growing up.

Buddies.

Molly eventually got into the sandy fun as well.

She’s living the good life!

I love this picture!

They make me smile. :)

Eve has so many different expressions!

The tide went out and suddenly we had a whole lot of beach to play on! Molly made a sidewalk to help us find our way from the blankets to the sand village we built.

Lex worked hard on building a sand castle.

Kate worked hard on filling the bucket and learning to walk on sand.

Lex and Kate, hard at work.

This pale boy ended up very red by the end of the day! It occurred to me, too late, that the spray sunscreen we used for his first coat was getting low and must not have had enough sunscreen coming out with the spray. Eve and I got a touch red, but we used lotion for both applications. Lex wanted spray for his first coat and I think that was the problem. Luckily he’s feeling much better today!

I drew a hopscotch board in the sand. The kids were surprised and excited. Molly is very good at hopscotch.

Lex is quite good as well.

I had a lovely picture in my brain with “Friends” and the date scrawled in the sand and four smiling children in a row. Lex loved the idea and got right to work making the word. His block letter weren’t quite what I had in mind, but cute anyway. Then I took a hundred pictures (plus or minus a few) and couldn’t get a single one with four kids looking in the same direction, never mind smiling! So here we are. Friends. :)

Look, Julie and I were there too! :)

After we did things my way Lex explained that he drew the boxes so each kid could sit in one around the word. Oh, ok. They all arranged themselves and I snapped a picture. Cute.

Then Lex said Molly and Kate were supposed to turn around so everyone was facing the same way. This was his vision all along and I have to say it’s the best group picture I got! Smart boy! Smiling kids. Happy friends!

Lovely ladies off to the races. I love this picture because of the bright colors they both chose to wear. I think it’s so pretty.

Can you see the speedway? Waaaayyy back there, behind trailer row? This was our walk in (after we’d already walked through our parking lot and across the street).

Waiting to get through security. (The red mark on his chin is where he burned it on a cookie sheet the other day, eagerly leaning in to smell the blueberry muffins fresh from the oven.)

Can’t take a picture of Lex without Eve wanting one of her too. Then they both wanted to see the pictures to see what they looked like with the headphones one. :)

First things first, lunch!

The binoculars were a big hit. I don’t think either kid can focus them well, but they both had fun trying.

They both need glasses on here! They look like sports casters though. :)

It was so loud we resorted to writing notes to communicate. I started on the back of a receipt, but fortunately Mema was better prepared and pulled out a little notebook. This also helped us keep Eve busy for quite awhile with drawings and games.

A few other people joined us as well.

I liked watching the pit crews at work!

Eve found a creative place to store her ear muffs when not in use.

About half way through the races Eve was ready to head home. Lex was having a great time though, keeping track of the laps, rooting for his car, and trash talking (or writing, as it was too loud to talk!) with Mema. So we got some ice cream and played little games and kept Eve as entertained as possible until the end of the race.

Still smiling 301 laps later!