Paddle on the Lake

Our neighborhood has been trying some new activities recently! One they started this month was called "Paddle on the Lake." Our neighborhood has a lake in the center of it and it's mostly used by people with lakefront property. There is a lake park where others can go in, so to increase lake usage they hosted this event. People on the lake could sign up to host a "spot" - almost like a progressive dinner. Everyone else could put in (at their house, the lake park, or someone else's house) and paddle around. Each stop had a snack and/or drink. Eleanor and a friend went out on a paddleboard. They thought they would make a stop or two but ended up staying out on the lake for 2.5 hours! And it was COLD! 

I helped out at a friends' dock for awhile and then we headed out in their John boat. 

It was such a fun event!

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend was a much needed break for this crew! I think it's the first time they've had two weeks of school before a break (usually only one). The kids had Friday and Monday off and were very ready for it. 

Chris headed off Thursday to his annual Fantasy Football draft weekend. His team won their "Ryder Cup" tournament by one stroke, they ate food, drafted players, and hung out.

Meanwhile at home the kids and I had a quiet Friday (I had to work). Friday evening Eleanor headed out to a friend's birthday sleepover. Early the next morning, Jane and I took off to Richmond for a soccer tournament. Luckily our neighbors hung out with Ben and Rosie for the morning.

The soccer tournament went well - they tied their first game 1-1 (sadly we had an own goal), and won their second game 7-0 (Jane had a goal). They were seeded second in their bracket but sadly lost the semi-finals game so came in third overall - though Jane had an incredible PK!

Saturday night we headed to Busch Gardens where Ben rode Apollo's Chariot for the first time. He has gone from no roller coasters to all of them this summer!

Last 9am outdoor church of the summer:

Sunday afternoon we headed to the pool. I made the kids take the annual by the side of the pool picture:

That evening we had our neighborhood picnic:

The next morning we headed to Virginia Beach for the day to shut summer down officially:

Off to Planet Pizza for dinner where Rosie took her picture again with her "friend Brad."

Photo shoot on the beach:

Then off to Kohr Bros:

Playing on the beach at dusk before heading home:

Happy Labor Day!

Fourth of July! 250th

This was a very special 4th of July for our country! Since we live basically in the nation's birthplace, people from ALL OVER came to Williamsburg to celebrate. That meant lots of crowds. We decided early on not to leave our neighborhood for the day so that we could really enjoy it without worrying about traffic and crowds. As special as all the celebrations were, our kids weren't super excited about being shoulder to shoulder with 70,000 strangers. We had never stayed in our neighborhood for the evening though so it was a new experience for us - and maybe the start of a new tradition!

We did a morning work out with friends:

Then it was off to the neighborhood bike parade! This is a very sweet tradition where the kids ride their bikes around the lake with a firetruck leading the way. Neighbors who aren't biking all come out and line the streets to watch!

Cousins came and biked in the parade with us!

From there we decided to head down to the marina.

It was SO hot though and then a thunderstorm rolled in.

We went to our neighborhood picnic at the pool after a break at home while it rained.

And then when the picnic ended, a group was heading down to the marina so we wandered down there. We had decided not to do any big fireworks shows this year due to the traffic, but we were pleasantly surprised that our neighbors shot off a few so we didn't miss out!

Happy 4th of July!