4th of July

Our Fourth of July was full of flags, food, family, friends and fun!

The boys got together with a few friends and decorated their bikes for the kiddie parade. They had a blast and were officially the big boys who helped the little dudes!

 Parker, Easton, Emmitt and Jasper

They rode together a majority of the parade. Jasper got side tracked by Grandma on the side of the road but the older 3 made it the whole parade. Lots of fun!

 The Girls. We worked our good sides, our not so good sides and in and out of birth order. We are just lucky we got a great shot of all 5 of us. It doesn't happen often!

 The Lepper Family came North for the 4th. They have a new family member, Cooper a black Goldendoodle. He and Bella hit it off good!

 Pete was a great big cousin during the kid races. I stood on one side waiting with the boys to start their race and Pete waited for them on the other end. He was so encouraging and rewarding at the end that it was priceless to see!

 Uncle Chris found this awesome hat for our little penguin man. He wore it the rest of the day! Even penguins like to slide on the slip-n-slide right?! Of course they do.

 Our new lounger chairs were a big hit! Multiple people kicked back and relaxed in them. Emma is famous for falling asleep just about anywhere. She managed to sneak a snooze in after lunch in a garage full of people visiting.

 We all enjoyed the refreshing water at some point! Even the puppies hopped in the cool water. Baby Drew managed to drink quite a bit of it too!

 Cousins from both sides of the family played together outside. Trampoline-n-Water balloon fights were a huge hit. If they don't break on the first try, they don't hit the ground, so it's just as much fun throwing them all over again.

 Great friends, Janet and Paula.

 Sisters Peg and Linda

 Auntie Tammy and Emma Rae

 Becks and Momma

 Jessalynn and Drew-man

 Debs and Becks

 Uncle Jimmy was "innocently" sprayed with a water gun and was off the deck faster than I've ever seen him move. He went right for the hose and got even with all the kids!

 They each have come up with a self cooling system.

 Uncle Bart stayed all the way through the fire works. He even got extra snuggles from the boys and made sure to bond with Emmitt over their mutual love of penguins.

And he rides...

 Last night my baby conquered the two wheeler. He has tried before with not a lot of confidence. Last night he had it all and boy did he fly! I helped him on the ride to the outdoor hockey rink just down the road and he had a few good stretches where he could do it. By the time we got to the rink it didn't take long for him to make a full loop. We then had to practice breaking! He kept sticking his feet out and dragging his heals, on the verge of out of control, to stop.

By the time we headed back home, he was biking and has his big brother there to remind him about intersections and looking both ways. Parker tells him, "it's okay buddy, you'll learn the rules soon." Parker has been a great big brother to look up to. He is always encouraging and reminding Emmitt that he had to learn when he was little.

I think you can say he is a bit happy about his new found freedom! He was so proud of himself. I love how willing he was to try. He takes a bit more persuading that his brother did.

I think he has the least conventional way of starting, but it works and he doesn't need a push...enjoy the show.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend: Started with fishing and ended with a surprise visit from my Aunt Bernadette and Uncle Myron. They don't make it way up north very often and when they do, it's extra special. Bernadette and Parker share the same birth date. His first Christmas she gave him an ornament and wrote their birthdays on the back. He remembers it every year when we pull it out of the box to hang on the tree. We made sure we captured her visit. Emmitt being the little lover he is, made sure to get in a pic too! I made sure to remind the boys that my Aunt Bernadette is Grandma Audrey's sister! They thought that was pretty cool!

We decided to take the kids fishing. We lasted about an hour. Between the wind, the puppy and the children, the whole combination wasn't great. It wasn't awful, but we decided we don't want to run out and buy a boat anytime soon. Someday.

The coolest part (other than the ice cream cone on the way home) was the snake that was hanging out by our minnow bucket. We tossed it a minnow and managed to capture the meal on video.

(please ignore the stick poking, blaming of the wrong child, etc...)

I solved the Clue Mystery!

It was Mr. Emmitt, in the bedroom, with the scissors!

First he lied and told Grandma that "Tina did it!" Tina is our "hair lady" and has been since the boys were in for their first haircut at one years of age. Then when I come home I notice the chunk of hair missing and his answer is, "I don't know what you guys are talking about." At this point I start asking him where his scissors are, "In my room." Okay, where is the hair? "Behind my little table." So I pull out the table and there lies the chunk of hair. Little does he know that he has just confessed about cutting his own hair. I convince him to pose for a few pictures so I can remember this moment. The moment that I thought would never come. I have been judging parents for years on this one. First, why do your kids have access to scissors and Second, where are you when they are cutting off their hair?! Well, it was bound to happen, but I am not going to take the blame on this one. Grandma was in charge this day. She is dying to know where she was when he did it and I am not sure she is taking full responsibility and of course Emmitt won't say. Anytime you ask him about it now he gets mad at you...but at least I know he'll never do it again.