Fourth of July

We had a fantastic Fourth of July.  I unfortunately came down with strep throat on Thursday, so most of the long weekend was spent lying  down in bed feeling like I was about to die.  Melodramatic you may say, but it is exactly how it felt.  Chadd had to take on all parental responsibilities as I was down and out and I must say that he did a fantastic job.  On Sunday, I was feeling a tad better and we were able to go on a bike ride with the kids and later on play in the sprinklers a bit.  We were told about a gathering at our neighbor's house, so I sent Chadd and the kids down to have a good time.  I spent two hours resting and then I was ready to join in the festivities. 

When I was making my way down there, I saw all of the kids busy at play.  Some were on the swing set, some were chasing one another, and most of the girls were chalking on the sidewalk.  Keira, Madi and Avery were busy with their artwork, but not too busy to scramble together for a picture.

Before the fireworks started, we got all of the kiddo's together to say "Happy Fourth of July!"  This was as good as it gets when you attempt to get 11 little people to look at you and yell something out.  They were all so excited for the show to begin.

The men assumed their positions as "fire works experts" and we had the kids sitting in a row on chairs ready to watch the show.  It was pretty comical watching these grown men behave more like kids at points than the actual kids did! 

All of the kids buddied up with eachother on the chairs.  This is Bennett's favorite guy Tysen.  He loves him and is always talking about him.  I showed Ty this picture and we laughed at how white Bennett looks next to him. 

By 10:30, the kids and adults were exhausted and we all went home.  We had a fabulous time celebrating our nations Independence day.  We hope that you enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Independence Day Parade

Today was the Fourth of July Kiddie Parade in our new neighborhood.  The kids were very excited to decorate their bikes with red, white and blue streamers, Balloon's and Bandana's.  Our neighbor girls Paige and Madelyn also came over to decorate and ride with us in the parade.

One of our neighbors, Nate, is a Fire Fighter for Carver and he brought his firetruck along to lead the parade.  He was blaring the horn and the sirens to let everyone know  that the parade was coming through! 

Bennett was struggling a little bit to pedal up a slight hill, but when he saw Nate coming down the road in his big red fire truck, he picked up the pace and rode his little heart out to the end of the parade to go see Nate and the Fire Truck.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the parade, the kids all got freezies and had time to play at the park and in the fire truck.  The kids had a wonderful time in their first neighborhood parade.  We look forward to all of the wonderful activites that the neighborhoods hosts.  Happy Fourth of July Weekend to all of you, enjoy the festivites!

Indian Lake

This past weekend, we were fortunate enough to be invited up to our friends cabin at Indian Lake.  I did not grow up on a lake, nor did my husband.  When opportunities like this come up, we are all over it.  The kids had a blast playing in the water on this big blue tube.  Bria was inclined to pull the others on it just like the big boys Owen and Alec.  Bennett wanted to jump on it over and over again.  Avery is a little dolphin who loved to pull it, swim in front of it and jump on it.  Who knew that a tube floating in the water could be so much fun?

Avery has been wanting to try water skiing since our neighbor friend Madi talked about water skiing.  Madi is 5 years old and she can bare foot water ski!!!  Andy and Nicole have "trainer" ski's which are basically tethered together and the rope attaches to the ski's rather then having the beginner be pulled and have to hold with their arms.  The ski's basically teach a beginner how to balance in the water.  She was excited to go. 

After getting attached to everything, she started to look a bit skeptical about this whole idea.

The boat took off and she was up....and then she was down.  She basically face planted and by the time that we spun around on the boat to try again, she was in Chadd's arms saying that she was DONE!  I was very surprised as she is pretty persistent when it comes to new activities, but I suppose a nose full of water really doesn't make a person want to jump right on that again!

Bria had been watching all of the action from the sidelines with daddy.  She was a bit skeptical of all boat related things.  Nicole decided that she would take Bria on the tube since we were not going to get her out there any other way.

Obviously that went well!

She loved it so much that she  wanted to go alone.  When asked if she was doing okay, she kept saying "Faster! Faster!"  It made us all giggle. 

Bennett enjoyed his time on the tube.  He seemed neither excited nor scared...he just went along for the ride.  At one point it looked like he was going to try to jump out of the tube while being pulled...silly boy!

After tubing was over, Avery said that she will "maybe" try skiing again if I went skiing.  So, I went.  Then we watched Nicole ski(on one ski) and Andy start on one ski and master the slalom course twice.  At last, we were heading back towards the dock and I asked if she was going to try again and she smiled at me and said, "Nope!"  Hopefully we will get her back on ski's again soon. 

We had such a great day out at the lake.  Thanks again to the Villas crew for allowing us to experience cabin life!