For me, tie dye is Always In!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I couldn't care less about what is fashionably "in" or not, because I don't care. I like what I like, and I like what looks good. And I've always loved tie dye. We promised the kids to do a tie dye project last fall, so here we go...

brother Charles filling the dye bottles with water

sister Becky helping the kids get their t-shirts rubber banded and tied into the patterns they chose

Dylan and Chris making their colors on their shirts. all the kids picked their designs and color combinations, they did a great job

we also made one for little cousins Chase and Aiden, who couldn't be here. for all the other cousins who couldn't make it, there will be other days (see their shirts on the clothesline, further on down the page here)

we found that to wrap the t-shirts in plastic so they can sit overnight, it's easier to put them in a separate gallon-sized baggie and zip it closed, putting each person's name on the outside

here are some more, before we moved them to the next table

Tyler asking for assistance on how to put the colors in all the way

and here we go...for the final products!
Dylan and Scott with their artwork. Chris' wasn't dry yet

Tristian with his name across his

Tyler and Scott proudly displaying their shirts

Tyler and Scott washing out the excess dye

here they are, the ones for Chase and Aiden, hanging on Grandma's clothesline
I like all the patterns, but I think the spiral is my favorite

ahhh...now it's dry! and we even have a little one for the 18-month old toddler, Milton, next door

looked a little like we had a tie-dye booth ready for the street vendor sales

Dylan, Nate and Dylan all sporting their almost-dry shirts

the nice thing about projects like these is that there's always something to do, so everyone is not on top of everyone else. some played pass football/catch

Keith worked on replacing the bike tubes

Charles took turns helping grill burgers and hotdogs
Alyssa holding the baby...who actually does know how to walk but prefers to be held

Marc helped get the riding lawn mower running again

after all the shirt tie-dying was done on Sat (it's a 2-day process) and put in bags to sit overnight, we took all the kids rollerskating, and then went to their usual stop at I-HOP afterwards. since it's summertime, the roller rink was rather empty, which was really nice for all our kids. they had lots of room to run around, and even got to dance to some of the songs by DJ Becky and also play dodgeball after that.

Chris' first time ever on skates, before the wheels were tightened up...

are those the "splits" I see starting?

now we're cookin'! getting the hang of how to skate, and now even easier once he figured out h is leg movements and then with the wheels slightly loosened up
however many times you can go around the gym in 2 hours is how many times Chris made his rounds

everyone else was playing dodge ball as the night came to a close, except for our little guy (far back corner), he was not done skating! when we asked him his favorite part about the weekend, he said, "learning how to skate"

everyone was tired and ready for bed, including little Miss Maya, who, btw, never sleeps on a bed with anyone else

waiting by the cornfield

'tis the season for fresh produce! yum!!!
and, oh my, these are the BEST cherry tomatoes I've ever had!

I'm not sure how or when, but someone keeps hitting buttons on my camera, and then I find out the settings are off when the pics come back blurry...
but it's always nice to visit and stay here.
and we even got to mix up some snickerdoodle cookie dough before we left
unfortunately, Chris forgot to sing the song:
"Bake them cookies, Grandma!"
(I forget which recent cartoon/animated movie it's from...but it's funny! everyone thought Grandma was in the kitchen baking cookies, but if you peeked in, you'd see her hip-hop dancing all around)

and, alas, we brought our bathing suits and towels just in case, but we ran out of time to stop off at the beach on the way home.
next time!
it was a great weekend!