Friday, August 2, 2013

Beating the Heat

Beach themed cupcakes! Here, Court and Luca are making graham cracker sand by smashing the crackers with tin cans. They enjoyed this immensely.
Right before he ate the crab's eye...
Crabs, sand, sparkling blue water, beach umbrellas and GIANT OCTOPI and SHARKS!
Sometimes you just don't have time to change into swimwear before running through the sprinkler.
Our new favorite thing is putting yogurt squirters in the freezer for an ice-cream-like treat.
While Luca water Dances...
...Court gets ready to toss a bucket full of water on Daddy...
...but he's laughing so hard, he almost spills the entire bucket before...
...finally- success!

Ready for another morning at Vacation Bible School - King of the Jungle (Luca's cheeks are full of marshmallows.)

Luca singing with her rain stick
The whole family- heading to the program at the end of the week. (Joe only donned the leopard print for the picture, at the store Luca was insistent that we buy him one too.)
Luca, Isaiah and Miya were on hand to help lead the congregation in song Sunday morning. Luca was not shy about going on stage as long as Joe and I agreed not to watch her (and if she asks, we were taking this picture of Isaiah.) she can be a little self-conscious but sang every word! But wait, I don't know that because I didn't watch her. Wink.

Sometimes, the best way to beat the heat is to remove layers and sit still.

The 4th of July

We started our 4th with a craft- a finger/foot painted tablecloth. I think the kids had as much fun watching the wash water change from white to pink to purple as they did painting. Luca decided that to get really perfect hand prints, there must be jumping involved.
 
I love our neighborhood for so many reasons, and this row of flags is one of them. Starting on Monday of the week, every house on our side of the street was flying the Stars and Stripes.
 
Pulling out the face paint for extra fun, Bean Girl got ready for the festivities in her "American outfit". (Court's face paint sweated off almost immediately but you can see faint remnants of his patriotic stripes in some of the pictures.)
 No holiday celebration would be complete without cupcake decorating with Noah, and this time Naomi got in on the action too. A lot of candy was eaten during this process...
 All American Meal: burgers, dogs and sweet corn on the grill, deviled eggs, watermelon... Mmmmmmm
 Let the show begin! Luca and Court are so excited they're levitating.
 The 'light it and run' instruction from last year stuck.
 This is Luca guarding her box of artillery shells.
 
 A trip onto the roof to check out what the neighborhood is up to.
How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!  ~Thomas Jefferson

We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.  ~Robert J. McCracken

 We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights.  ~Felix Frankfurter

 All we have of freedom, all we use or know - 
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
 ~Rudyard Kipling
 
And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood

Friday, July 26, 2013

Super Slip-n-Slide

Some of our best friends plan the water entertainment for their small town's summer festival. And, being that we are some of their best friends we agreed to help them test out the slip-n-slide. Wink. Truly one of the best nights of our summer. Matt and Melissa built this from scratch- what a ride!

Besties
The Daddies had to race...
The Mommies did too...
Cheeto break!
Matt also brought over his motorcycle, Court thought he had died and gone to heaven. I rode it around a bit too and when I came back to the water area, Court looked at me with awe and said "Mommy wyo-wok (motorcycle)". I think I gained about 300 cool points in his mind.
Thank you friends for an incredibly fun night!