there's nothing like the view from the cheap seats...

speaking of summer traditions, another new one for us is monday night softball games at rotary field.  our nicky bobby is playing on a team, "the country boys," which i've informally renamed "the D.I.L.Bs." he plays with some of the prettiest men in the county and even if they lose the season and a little bit of their pride in the process, at least they`ll have their looks (and their beautiful, supportive lady figures) to fall back on 

i think nick has the cutest butt out of the bunch, although i may be a bit biased and this is definitely my favorite look for him!  he thinks he's just so cool with his sweatpants rolled up like that. what really gets me; however, is his prized lowe's kobalt hat... mmmmm hmmmm!  i hope you sense my partial sarcasm here, though i wouldn't be surprised if i ended up pregnant by the season's end.  there really is something sexy about it all, beer guts included.

my other favorite part of ball games (you know, aside from drooling over nick) is the cute little mob of moms i see each week.  we just set around on our cute assortment of quilts and talk mom talk, regulate on our children stealing each other's snacks and toys, and occasionally look over to ooh and ahh at our men doing big things.  we have yet to successfully keep up with the score throughout an entire game.

i`ll leave you with a  few other sweet/funny captures from this past monday in case you are nauseous over all the little sentiments i made about my husband:

p.s- it just occurred to me that those of you that don't really know us might think my husband's name is actually "nicky bobby."  sleep easy, keep me on your reading list... it's just plain ole nick. i`m just a jerk that gives awful nicknames as a sign of adoration.

a new summer tradition

if one thing's for sure, it's that i thrive on tradition and familiarity. there is comfort in the joys each season brings and in checking these things off my list. when my girls look back on their childhood, i want them to remember the events that made up the soundtrack to each season.  just a few on our summer playlist include: backyard camp-outs, fishing, homemade freezer popsicles, ball games, growing vegetables, and TIE-DYING!

i suppose i associate tie-dying as a summer activity because the first time i ever tie-dyed was at girl scout camp in first grade and the last time i tie-dyed was with my best girlfriends the summer before i headed off to college.  we made pillowcases so we'd be the last things on each other's minds before we laid our heads to rest (or maybe it was just cheaper to do pillowcases, haha, the details escape me now). either way, these memories are etched in my brain, and that has got to count for something.

haley really enjoyed the whole process and became quite good at it, while cameron was just content to sit around and mix the bowls of dye for us.  and that's okay too.... maybe next year! we spent at least 3 hours in the summer heat banding and dipping and ringing out and speed-drying things on the hot black pavement.  we learned that blue and yellow make green, and that wal-mart needs to restock their red dye to this can double as an educational project too.

our big project was a tie-dyed a-frame tent for our little friend Ryder who has his 2nd birthday party this Sunday.  i think the results are every little hippie boys dream. for the girls, we made shirts to wear to daddy's ball game that night, capes, blankets, and even a pretty dress out of one of my old tank tops. i`ll be sure to share our results with yall later.

by the end of it all, each bowl of water seemed to have turned a murky greenish-blueish-grey color and my cuticles were rubbed raw from rubber-banding so many different things.    i think my fingernails are stained a permanent shade of green, but my heart.... it must be tie-dyed.  i had myself a ball!