Water Fun

It was a hot one on Saturday. Oh, what am I saying--it's hot every day now! So we decided to bring out the hose and water balloons and cool down. Well, the water balloons we'd purchased were these puny pathetic little things that only held a little water and did not break! I pretty much bruised Emma's back trying to get them to break! :) So we played with the hose instead. A fun night...

Doing Limbo under the stream of water from the hose









Love this little devilish grin...

Busy

What I've been doing this week....(sick kids who crash on the couch at odd times)

I was so late posting pictures of the Fourth and Ben's birthday, which was this week. I meant to post sooner, but strep throat has afflicted our girls! Yes, I said strep throat--in July. Who would've thunk? Needless to say, the past three days have been spent holding Rachel and trying to keep the girls hydrated, cool, and happy (they both have such high fevers!).

Cherry Pie

Ben's actual birthday was Tuesday and he requested cherry pie. This was my first fruit pie ever and I was a little nervous. But it turned out great! The crust was tender and flaky and the filling was delish! We even picked the cherries ourselves from a neighbor's yard. So this pie was about as homemade as you can get! Yum!

Surprise! Happy birthday Ben!

I threw a surprise birthday party for Ben on Monday. It was so much fun! My brother, Cameron, is a DJ and he provided the music for the party. He also arranged for us to use sumo suits for FREE for a few hours (the connections you can make when you're a DJ). We had a fun evening and I'm glad I could surprise Ben. Happy birthday honey! Love ya!

We had a great turn-out--just about everyone came!

Cute Luke danced to the music and enjoyed all the craziness

DJ Cameron and Ben.

My Aunt Lisa did the chicken dance with the kids

Emma and Lauren dancing to the Chicken Dance

My grandma and father-in-law watching the dancing

Cameron made Ben get out there and dance, which I was so happy about because I LOVE dancing (I'm not saying I'm good or anything). He played some fun dancing songs and I was so proud of Ben for shaking his stuff!

Little Rachel and Kaitlyn getting in on the dancing too--it took Rachel a bit to warm up. I loved watching the little kids dancing--so cute!

Sweet Rachel taking a break

Bill and Ben with their boys--love this picture!

My cousin Rachel and her boyfriend were the first to sumo. They were great.

Cameron and I face-off.

This is Cameron just about to fly on me. Sumo-fighting is seriously so much fun! Yes, the suits were very hot in the 90 degree weather and they stunk a bit, but it's a blast! Next time Cameron is so going down....


It was a fun night and thank you to everyone who pitched in with the food and brought gifts. And a big THANK YOU to my good friend Sarah for being my photographer for the evening. She got some great candid shots!

The Fourth

We kept it simple for the Fourth of July this year. Having a baby that naps twice a day (and is crawling) makes it hard to do too many activities. We hung out at home for the day, grilled our dinner that night, played out in the backyard until 8:00 p.m. (when Luke went to sleep), then we headed across the street to hang with our buddies, the Familias, and mooch off their fireworks (and enjoy the many other neighborhood displays of fireworks going on at the same time!). The girls watched a movie on the laptop outside, ate s'mores, played and waited for the sun to go down and the fireworks to begin. It was a really fun night! I love living in America and the Fourth is a wonderful reminder of the liberty we have. We are incredibly blessed.

Band Party

I watched a few of the neighbor kids today before playgroup. Kelty wanted to try out Ben's guitar and so Emma came up with the idea to "have our own band!" And so they did. They had a ball. Here are some pics of the "band party."

Tien was the lead singer--what a rock star.

Lance wowed us with his breakdance moves.

There was a little flirting going on.

The girls danced away.

Rachel kept the beat.

Emma and Kelty performing a duet

The little ones tickling the ivories (notice Tien is still singing in the microphone)

A guitar duet


We had a fun time. Luke was sitting on the floor in the midst of all the action and even boogied a bit. So cute. We have such fun, cute kids in our neighborhood.

Lagoon Day!

My employer, A Plus Benefits, paid for us to go to Lagoon last Friday. They also provided an awesome lunch buffet! We had a great time and stayed until 8:30pm--way past our kids' bed time. Everyone was exhausted but happy by the end of the day. We all had a bit of a "Lagoon hangover" the next day.

Rachel was a little freaked out by some of the rides, but she loved the cars.

We all shared a funnel cake--Brooke's favorite--but Emma would have eaten it all by herself had we let her.


Luke took the nap we all needed by around 4pm.

The bumper cars were the girls' favorite ride by far. You could hear them giggling the entire time. As soon as the ride was over, they got right back in line to go again.

This picture was taken right before we went home. Everyone was still smiling and still in one piece--a successful day by any measure!

Thanks to A Plus Benefits for a great day!