4th of July fun!

Thanks to the Sommervilles for rescuing us from another year of "no plans for the 4th". They were having a block party this year and invited us to join in on {their} fun! Although I did feel a little like I was invading the party (it was mostly their neighborhood and a few others), it was great to be around people enjoying the fun and festivities of the holiday!

And, I had a good time coming up with red, white, and blue food to bring...


Before we headed to the festivities, I tortured the kids (and hubby) with a photo shoot. But I'm glad I did because I love the pictures!

Patriotic toes...

...and fingers!
My friend Sarah (the hostess) and her girls Jilian & Grace

My niece Hailey...it was her 3rd birthday on the 4th of July!

The street was blocked off, so the kids could hang out and play without the worry of cars. We brought their bikes and scooters and they had a blast as they don't normally get to play in the street!
What's a better way to cool off then with a "firecracker" popsicle?!


Let the fireworks begin!

Daddy & son...I love these two!

Some of the fireworks were a little too loud!

We stayed out REALLY LATE and it was WAY PAST the kids' bed time when we left, but it was all worth it! How many times a year do we get to do this?!

Happy 4th of July!!

{thanks to Kelli at Random Thoughts of a Supermom!
for this awesome idea for these Red, White, & Krispy Treats}

catching you up to speed

I'm so behind.

There's no beating around the bush on that one.

We have had some fun times over this last month, so I thought it would be fun to share some collages all in one post (thanks to my friend, Leanna, who shared with me awhile back how to make the collages using Picasa from Google). It's kind of like killing 5 birds with 1 stone. Although I would never actually do that... (Click on each collage if you would like to view it larger.)

So, if you've been wondering what we have been up to, here you go...

Summer Birthdays!!

~Kenneth Caldwell turned 3 years old celebrating with a firefighter themed party!
~Cousin Riley turned 4 years old & Cousin Parker turned 2 years old celebrating with a carnival themed party!
~Allie Edinger turned 3 years old celebrating at the Wilsonville Murase Plaza splashing around with water.
~Cousin Hailey turned 1 year old on the 4th of July and the cousins were all able to be together when they came down from Washington for a visit.
~Jilian Sommerville turned 2 years old with a fun Elmo party!
~Ryan celebrated his 29th birthday on July 22.
~And coming up on Sunday we'll be celebrating Cousin Hunter's 2nd birthday with a farm animal party!

Tis the season of birthdays!!

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Water Fountain Fun!

My sister and family came down for a visit over the 4th of July, and it was also cousin Hailey's birthday. We decided to hit the water park and let the kids beat the heat on Friday, the 3rd. Later that night, we celebrated Hailey's birthday with pizza and cupcakes.

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4th of July

Like I had mentioned in an earlier post a couple of weeks ago, our 4th of July was a little low key this year. In the afternoon after our pool time extravaganza and dinner at Buster's Barbecue, we let the kids play with "pop-its". Then later in the evening, after PJs, we pulled out the sparklers and let the kids have a little fun...in the light. Then 8:00 rolled around and the kids headed to bed. Yes, that is it. That was our 4th of July. Maybe next year we'll attempt letting the kids stay up until 8:30. I know. I walk on the wild side sometimes. If nothing else, I will at least dress my kids in patriotic gear. I was so jealous seeing pictures of little ones in red, white, and blue. Not sure why I was such a scrooge this year.

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Robin Hood Festival Parade

Just last weekend, we met up with our good friends, the Newtons, and watched our town's annual parade. Mikayla and her best friend, Ellie, enjoyed the parade and picking up candy while Austin and baby Claire (4 months old) were content in the arms of their daddy and mommy. Austin did like yelling "truck!" with almost every passing vehicle and after the parade the girls got their faces painted with matching butterflies.

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Ryan's Birthday

Last Sunday we celebrated Ryan's birthday a little early with family by meeting up at his favorite dinner spot...Buster's Barbecue. On his actual birthday (Wednesday), we surprised Ryan at work with cupcakes we made for him and his work buddies. Later that evening we headed to Red Robin for a free burger and then afterwords sang him happy birthday, ate more cupcakes, and gave him his presents.

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So, there you go! Fun times in a nut shell. There are lots of other things that have been keeping us busy like park play dates, backyard water fun, playing in the yard, and anything we can do to enjoy the awesome weather we're having! I've been pretty much succeeding at avoiding any form of responsibility. I guess you could say I'm kind of in the rebellious phase of keeping everything organized and running smoothly. (Which, I suppose some of my friends are laughing at me right now because you know I would actually never be able to do this for an extended period of time.)

Today, we met up with Ryan and his work at lunch time for their annual company picnic. The kids each got to take a whack at a pinata. I was this close to taking the stick myself and enjoying a little stress relief of my own. But I refrained after I realized I have nothing to be that stressed about!



Seriously, I think I'm in love with these carefree, summer days. That's probably why you haven't really been seeing much craftiness or creativity coming from me. But, just you wait, I know it's in there somewhere and it will start exploding soon!

In the meantime, leave me a comment letting me know what crafty creations you've been up to! I think I need a little inspiration. I bet there are some good ones I'm missing out on in my lack of making my rounds in blog land!

fun times on the 4th of July

To celebrate the 4th of July we headed out to Happy Valley, OR to enjoy a little fun at the Family Festival they were hosting. We hadn't made any plans until the day before when we decided to search out where we might go to have a little 4th of July fun. We invited Ryan's parents to come join us, and Mikayla and Austin really enjoyed having their "Boppa" & "Bobba" around. Mikayla enjoyed many "firsts" at the festival... jumping in a bounce house, riding a pony, getting a "tatoo", playing mini golf, going down a blow up slide, and more! They had music playing throughout the park and she even enjoyed some dancing. Poor Austin kind of got the short end of the stick with being stuck in the backpack on daddy's back for most of the time, but I really don't think he cared. He loves to watch people, so this was perfect for him. He even took a little snooze while we were out playing.

After the kids took a bath and we put Austin down, we headed outside so Mikayla could do some "fireworks" (aka "sparklers"). She was a little unsure about the whole concept, but always wanted to do another one when the flame disappeared. We didn't stay up to watch any fireworks displays, but will have to add that to next year's 4th of July activities.