Beach Bums

Practically every vacation chance we get we travel to Florida to the beach and spend about a week. Ahhh, that sounds perfect right about now. Well, we actually live about 30 minutes from the beach here in Texas, not quite as beautiful as the white sandy beaches in Florida, but just as fun for our family! Saturday morning my husband and I decided to pack up the girls, toys, food, and a few fishing poles and headed to the beach. At the particular beach we went to vehicles are allowed to drive on the beach, so we drove for miles until we found a spot that looked like "good fishing waters" according to my husband. How he knows that is beyond me because water is water and in my opinion the fish will swim wherever they can. Anyway, we went in the late afternoon, and it was absolutely perfect. The sun was going down, it wasn't hot, and less crowded. The girls immediately jumped out of the truck and ran to the water with their toys and "surf boards." (that's what they call their boogie boards).






Lilah really did good on her own even with all her hair in her eyes.

Trinity was so funny, she saw her sisters in the water with their boards so she decided to try herself.

She loved it so much she probably stayed in that same spot for about half an hour. She would laugh and giggle every time a small wave would splash her. My husband decided that he was going to swim out to the second sand bar to throw his rod...I was so scared when I looked up to see him like this...

I'm not quite sure if it was successful, but he did make it back in without the help of the coast guard! The girls then decided they were going to watch one of his fishing poles, so they pulled their chairs up and sat next to it and waited.

No action...so it was time to play.

Trinity is totally laughing in this picture although it looks like she is terrified. I promise she wasn't! She kicked her feet every time a wave came through. Lilah did a little collecting, and this is what she found...

The starfish we kept, but the clams got thrown back into the water to avoid future stink in the house!

One of the girl's favorite things to do at the beach is to feed the seagulls. I don't like this at all because hundreds of them fly over and fight over one cheeto. So I told Celeste to walk over to a group of seagulls a few yards away to throw them a piece of bread....

After the bread was devoured by a bird the birds thought she had more so they started flying towards her, and she turned around and booked it back...I have never seen her run so fast! I even caught a picture with her in mid air!

She safely made it back...I'm not sure if she will do that again. We had such a great time and after about 3 hours the girls were exhausted and slept on the way home!

Favorite Things Friday

Homemade Peach Pie

Yuuuummmmm! I love this recipe. It is a family recipe, and it is soooo gooood. Ok its very easy, quick, and simple. Promise all of you will love it. This recipe is also found in our church cookbook which I use all the time!

This particular recipe calls for store bought frozen pie crusts thawed and rolled out which works, but I like to make mine homemade! So if you are short on time the store bought crusts work well. The first recipe is for the crust.

Water Whip Pastry:

3/4 cup & 2 T of Crisco

1 T of milk

1 tsp of salt

1/4 cup of boiling water

2 1/4 cup of flour

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until dough like. Separate dough in to two equal parts. Roll out each half using flour so dough won't stick on rolling pin and surface. After dough is rolled out place dough in a pie plate (tall fluted plates work best). Set aside.

Peach Pie Filling:

1 (29-oz.) can of peaches

1 (15.25 oz.) can of peaches

1 3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 stick of margarine, cut in pats

1 1/2 tsp. of sugar

1/2 tsp. of cinnamon

Drain peaches and put in a medium to large bowl. Add 1 3/4 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Mash peaches with potato masher until sugar, flour and cinnamon are mixed in well.

Pour into uncooked pie shell. Place second rolled out dough over the top of filling and pinch the edges of the two crusts together until sealed well. Cut several slits in top crust with a sharp knife being careful not to cut down into the bottom crust. Top with pats of margarine, and sprinkle with the 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar and the 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. Crust should be golden brown. Place foil on bottom rack while baking to catch juice that may spill over.

Enjoy!

Swimming Lessons Update!

Well it has been 6 weeks since the girls started swimming lessons. They have come a long way in just these few short weeks. Lilah has gone from needing floaties in the pool to being floatie free!!


She has learned free style, diving, swimming under water, and diving for these rocks at the bottom of the pool...

I'm probably the most proud of her learning the backstroke and swimming it all by herself!

I started to record her swimming, but my battery died in the middle, so maybe in a few more weeks I'll record her again! I think next year she will be ready for swim team! Job well done and we still have about a month left of lessons!

Celeste has really improved A LOT since day one of lessons. She would barely put her head in the water and blow bubbles. Celeste would want to stop her lessons half way through because she didn't want to swim anymore. Now, she is doing great.

Her favorite part is still the goggles! Celeste has learned to kick big splashes with the kick board by herself!

I think she looks so cute in this picture with her tongue out. It looks like she is really concentrating on what she is doing. She has also learned to swim a little ways without floaties! Celeste learned how to float on her back, and again...I just love the way she looks in this picture!

After working hard during her lesson she gets to jump in a few times, and she always smiles while jumping.

Good job Celeste you are doing great!

Some of you might be asking, "Where is baby sister during all this swimming?" Well this is what she does during this long hour...first she splashes her feet in the water until mama gets to hot and wants to go inside.

Next, she tries to play with a dog that has absolutely NO interest in her. She gave the dog a lot of toys but Blue just looked the other way.

And finally, Trinity's favorite part of swimming lessons are the lollipops she gets for doing absolutely nothing!

We sill have a month left of swimming lessons, and I am curious to see how much more they will improve in swimming, diving, and for the little one, lollipop eating. I hope all of you are having a great summer and are trying to stay cool in this 100 degree weather.

Wordless Wednesday

Starbucks Baby