While Mom's at the Doctor...

...Daddy and the kiddos play! I had a doctor's appointment today and asked James if he could come home early from work to watch the kids...he did much better--he took the whole day off and took everyone to the amusement park. They had a great day and I had the whole day to myself!

Our Summer Fun Week!

I started to get sad that summer is half over and we haven't done all the fun things I've wanted to do with the kiddos before school starts. So this week, we planned something fun every day!

MONDAY--we went to a beach park by our house. It wasn't exactly as "beach-y" as I'd hoped and it started to rain after a while, but we had a fun picnic and played in the sand.

TUESDAY- We went into the city and went to two museums. There was a butterfly exhibit at the first one that Paige LOVED! They got to dress up in clothes from other cultures.

Nemo!

We rode the carosel!

Ashley thought the carosel was a little too babyish until she saw the spinning teacups! We headed over to another museum where they got to do some hands-on experiments.

And fly an airplne.

WEDNESDAY--We played with some friends and went to the pool. I forgot the camera!

THURSDAY--We drove out to a farm and picked blackberries, got a bunch of yummy, fresh produce, milk, and eggs, and played in their sand pile.

When we got home, we made blackberry crumble, which James and I liked more than the kids, but they had fun making it!

Nothing better than a boy, some trucks, and some dirt! FRIDAY--We went to the pool again and had our Friday night pizza night, of course!

It was a fun week--I'm not sure what we'll do next week, though!

Concert

One of our friends is in the Marine Corps Band and we got to go to one of his concerts last week! The girls had a blast playing, dancing and running around with their friends. Outdoor concerts are the way to go!

This doesn't even come close to capturing the energy of these 4 girls attempting to do the Can Can!

Pretty Girls and a Fishie Face

Ashley dressed up like the American Girl doll, Lanie, so I took her pic dressed in the outfit with curly hair. Paige wanted her picture taken too, of course, so here she is :)

Michael also wanted his picture taken that morning, but he wasn't so interested in looking pretty....

Spikey Mikey

Sometimes Michael loves to have spiky hair! Luckily, we don't own any hair gel , so it only lasts about 5 minutes...

Fourth of July 2010

We had a fun 4th of July! We started the day off watching our neighborhood parade, then got free sno-cones and cotton candy and played in some bounce houses before heading off to church. When we got home, I somehow convinced Paige to take a nap when Michael did and Ashley and I prepared a bunch of bbq food and made some red and blue lollipops. (We tried to make them red and blue to be patriotic, but they just goo-ed together to make purple!) When Michael and Paige woke up, we had our bbq and then invited some of the neighbors over to watch James light off a bunch of firework fountains and eat popsicles. After that, James put Michael to bed while I took the girls to find some "big fireworks in the sky." It was a little disappointing because we got there too late to park in the park where they were lighting them off, but we found a nice church parking lot and watched fireworks from there. It was a busy day!

Picking up candy during the parade!
Too bad I cut the flag off!

Livin' on the edge--walking in the road! Watching the fountains with our neighbors:

Ashley's 7th Birthday!

Ashley turned seven on June 20th! She's growing up so fast!

Here are 7 things about her on her 7th birthday:
1. She's really outgoing at home, but quiet and shy at school.
2. She's a great reader and can read almost anything, but still loves to snuggle next to me and have me read books to her. (We've read 5 of the Ramona books in the last few weeks)
3. Her favorite color is light blue. She really wanted a new blue bike, but they were all "boyish blue," not "pretty, girlish blue," so she chose a pink one with blue accents.
4. Her favorite subject in school is science. The best science "experiment" her teacher did was give them root beer floats and taught about solid, liquid, and gas. Awesome!
5. She is really good at taking care of younger kids and she understands that sometimes they get their way just because they are younger and don't understand. She is Michael's "mama bear." If someone hurts him or teases him while she's around, they'd better watch out!
6. She's pretty tough. If she cries, you know something is really, really wrong!
7. She loves being outside--riding bikes, swimming, and exploring around the backyard.

Opening presents--Paige got matching "big sister/little sister" necklaces for them.
An alarm clock!

Her new bike!

GrandMama and GrandDaddy sent new outfits for everyone. Here's Michael in his new outfit: Everone all dressed up!

She got to choose between having all the girls in her class over for a party or taking her best friend with her to the amusement park. She chose taking her friend, so we had a little party with her best friend and her cousins on the actual birthday. It was really fun!

We got the slip-n-slide out and they played a little in between dinner and cake.

THE bike.