Full Moon Saturday Night--It's the Sturgeon Moon

There's supposed to be good fishing under this August full moon and big fish in August always make me think of my three big fish who get bigger every summer. As Eldest stated in the beginning of the summer, " A kid grows a lot in summer due to all the sunshine and rest he gets unlike winter time--just like a plant."

I didn't take as many photos of the boys playing in the Atlantic Ocean this July as I usually do.  But Hubs and I did have some good chats while we watched them.  A couple of summers ago we were at the beach, Hubs and I in our chairs, and we watched as some girls stopped asked them what time it was and they told the girls they had no idea, and turned away and kept doing their thing.  The girls lingered for a bit.  Too funny--the boys had no clue.

This summer the boys are ages 15, 13 and 10 (almost 11).  We were at the beach right next to a summer surf camp.  There were no waves but they did have a huge blow up raft on which kids would climb up and jump off.  There was a day in which two young teen girls kept swimming closer and closer to the boys....who are still clueless.  Or maybe we parents on the beach are cramping their style.  Or maybe the 15 year old son has to first talk to a girl via Facebook or texting....unlike my day when a friend and I would see boys on the beach and we'd actually start up a conversation and hang out AND at age 13 get THEIR phone number and actually CALL THEM on the phone after saying hi to a parent. 

So a few weeks back after seeing the boys eyeball this fun-looking raft I said, "All you have to do is swim over and ask if you can climb up the raft too and I am 100% positive they would say, "Sure!"  Eldest told me not to "worry about his game".

Back up in land-locked Atlanta, when summer vacay was about over, the boys started talking about going to Six Flags again.  For the past five years it has been a tradition to go the last day of summer.  Well, this was because the boys would earn free tickets through a school reading program, and last year Six Flags reduced the entrance fee as well.  And all their friends would join and somehow I'd end up bringing lunch and drinks for 9 boys.  HOWEVER, after last year I decided my Six Flags attendance days were done and if the older two wanted to get dropped off and picked up that was OK.  Then I checked out the price.  $54.99 -- so even with the $15 off when you bring in a Coke can, $40.00 is too much.  So Eldest announced this (on Facebook of course) and no one wanted to do that.

I came up with a plan that I've been coveting: make a super sized Slip-N-Slide in our yard and have a cook-out.  I went to Home Depot and bought a double roll of plastic sheeting--it was 10 ft x 25 ft each (I wanted a slide about 50 feet long), and a box of 4 inch nails.  It was about $20 for both these items. I had to first get the green light clearance from Hubs who is not into anything that resembles yard destruction.  I think he chewed off his nails last Saturday during this event.  He watched from the window as the boys and I picked up any pine cones or sticks from the area, unrolled the plastic and made a hem on the edges and hammered in the nails about every three feet.

Here is the Slip-N-Slide action:

And yes, it did ruin the grass and create a major mud hole, but it was fun.  One boy went home to get the blow-up float out of his pool and four of them rode that and it was the Backyard Flume Ride instead of the Log Ride at Six Flags.

Hope you enjoy this Saturday's Full Moon and that it involves staying cool, playing in the water, catching fish or eating fish (we're making fish and vegetable foil packets on the grill)!

More deets on the making of the slide: 

The backyard is on a slant which made it more fun and easy for the pool float.  The first plastic sheet was placed about one foot over the second one with several nails on each side at that point.  The backyard hose was long enough to reach the top of the slip 'n slide and was left on.  Squirt baby shampoo at the top now and then (we used the whole bottle after an hour) to help and no tears in eyes.  There was one injury with a 15 yr old boy who cut his palm slightly on a root toward bottom of slide.  Grass at bottom turned to mud so I added a couple of those vinyl picnic table cloths at bottom.