Cottages, coffee, and our most favorite summertime thing

You know what is better than last night?  This night!  Our most favorite summertime thing to do as a family is sit on our deck around our fire pit, making s'mores and talking and being silly.  That is what we did for the first time of the season tonight, and it was wonderful.   All kinds of wonderful! 

Ever since the middles have gotten jobs and girlfriends and cars, we don't see nearly as much of them as we used to, and it's got this mama all wigged out sometimes.  To be honest, I don't like it.  Oh, I am proud of them and everything and I know this is part of their growing up and out from under our wings, but I'm not used to it.  I'm much happier when they are all here.  Home.  With us.  Not gone.  You get the picture. 

Well, today for most of the day we were all together (minus the two olders of course, and they are always missed).  But today, everyone who currently resides at our home was actually here at the same time and it was a little slice of heaven on earth.  It started with sleeping in, which is always a great way to start a Saturday.  Vince and I headed to town around 9:30 to do our usual Saturday morning ritual of breakfast, shopping, and coffee....iced mochas to be exact from the best coffee place in town -  Mugby Junction.  Hallo!  We had planned to get our flowers & herbs purchased and planted, but that will have to wait until tomorrow because when we got home, we got involved in projects around the house which filled up the rest of our afternoon...Vince worked on the kids' bikes and got the lawnmower running for Kyle to do the first mow of the season.  He also prepared some firewood and cleaned the grill while I swept the garage and assembled our pots and deck boxes for our planting adventure, and made a new header for my blog.  Nick went golfing with friends and then took a nap, Vinny did his own thing (as usual), Kyle got busy throwing stuff into the basketball hoop while jumping on his mini-tramp, and Hope had some friends over.  And then, possibly most exciting of all, we found the perfect non-victorian destination for our anniversary weekend!!  Thanks to my friend and fellow blogger Heather, we will be going here:  Hawks View Cottages and Lodges.  And I only have one thing to say about all this...

OH HEAVENLY DAY!! 

I'm just a tad bit excited about it.

Tomorrow will be just as wonderful...church, a trip to Pork & Plants for the best flowers in the area (I'll post pics of our creations) and another day with the middles and the youngers all home with us at the same time.  Yay!