Summer of Fun, Week Four.

Summer.  Please slow down.

Please.

Highlights from the week include:

Monday:  Story time at the library.  Also crafts.  And book check-out.  This week, the kids chose as many as "Jack and Annie" books (The Magic Tree House) as they could.  Love those guys.

Tuesday:  A trip to the movies to see Yogi Bear.  Hadley continues to say, "Hey, Boo Boo...let's go steal a pic-a-nic basket" in her best Yogi Bear voice.  Harris liked it, and is continuing to warm up to movies, but did cry just a little bit at the end when he thought the frog turtle was in danger.

Wednesday:  We drove up to Cleveland to visit Babyland General for the morning.  I LOVE that place.  Harris, Hadley, and Auntie do as well.  This year, they added new ceramic Cabbage Patch heads to the lawn.  Because that is awesome and not at all scary.  :)

As always, we started our visit with a seat in the Cabbage Chair.  Red (not his real name) and Rose were lucky enough to make the trip with Harry and Babe this year.  One of the kids' favorite parts of Babyland is signing in and getting visitors' stickers for their babies.  It's the little things, isn't it?!?!?!

Our first stop was the nursery.  We held babies, hugged babies, kissed babies, and took some time to laugh at all of the funny-looking ones.

Emmy even got a little special loving from the "teacher."

Upon exiting the nursery, we entered the Cabbage Patch.  I like this room the best...it's huge, it's the home of the birthing patch, and there are babies EVERYWHERE!  We even moved a few of them around so Rose and Red could "take a ride" on the moving cabbage leaves.

We stayed long enough to witness three births.  The kids loved watching as the babies were "born," but especially enjoyed watching them get their check-up through the nursery window.  There were two girls and one boy born during our visit and Auntie got to help name the little baby boy!  She gave him the first name, "Harris."  Someone else in the crowed picked the middle name, "Joseph."  It was very exciting.

After the baby's check-up, the doctor brought "Harris Joseph" out so the kids could hold him.  As I write this out, I realize how weird it is.  But believe me, it's also tons of fun!

Harris selected a small, stuffed penguin ("Waddles") as his souvenir and Hadley chose a new Cabbage Patch ("Lovie Myrtle") as hers.  We finished the morning with lunch at Wendy's on the way home.

We also had to say goodbye to Tyler and Paige on Wednesday afternoon.  That was not as much fun.  The kids are looking forward to Christmas and their next visit home.

Thursday:  We spent Thursday morning at the fountains (and Mellow Mushroom) with the Boozers and the Lockharts.  A good time was had by all.  And, out of seven non-infant children, we only had two drink spills at lunch.  I'd call that a win. :)



Friday:  On Friday, we cashed in our Groupon (this might be one of the best deals yet!) and headed to Catch Air.  I was prepared for huge crowds (and daycares), but there were probably 15-20 kids there total the entire morning.  The kids had a blast.  I got a little bored...next time I'll bring a book!

And that's how we spent week four.  Ben recently asked me if I was ready to go back to work.  My answer:  "NO!"  I'm sure I say this every summer, but I mean it each time.  We are having a BLAST...and I have no desire to see it come to an end.  Not yet, anyway.

Summer of Fun forever!!!!!!

 

Father's Day.

What fun we had celebrating one of the most fantastic fathers on the planet last weekend!

The kids LOVE to celebrate and enjoy getting involved in anything that involves a surprise.  They had such fun filling out their "Why I Love My Dad" books from Chick-fil-A and creating a very special card for Ben to open.

Unfortunately, the three river birch trees that we picked out for Ben's gift didn't quite get ordered on time (my bad!), so Harris drew the three trees inside the card so that Ben would know exactly what he was getting.  That little boy is so thoughtful.

The big kids also had the great idea to make breakfast for Ben.  I think they helped for about two minutes.  Babe poured the milk in the pancake mix and Harris stuck an Eggo Waffle in the toaster because "that's what Daddy eats for breakfast."

Whatever.

We spent the rest of the day worshiping, indulging in the Fernando's Sunday buffet with Tyler, Paige, Auntie, and DB, napping, and enjoying dinner with the whole family at Granti's house.

There might have also been a little Rock Band action.

The Beatles version.

Thank you, Daddy, for being you. 

Happy Father's Day!

Pool Party!

After having such a blast at Harris and Quinn's pool party last year, Kim and I decided not to mess with a good thing and throw the exact same party this year.  It was AWESOME!

Because Quinn and Harry have grown up in church together, our families have so many of the same friends.  And because combining our finances allows us to have a little more spending power, we've been able to rent the pool from our local parks and recreation department the past two summers for some private fun!  We so enjoyed the two large water slides, lazy river and whirlpool, water play structure, and toddler area and were able to get great use out of it!  This is totally one of those parties where everybody wins:  kids, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles...it's always a blast!

Hadley attempted the big slide once with Ben.  She wasn't a fan.  She went wild with all the other activities, though.  Harris took advantage of EVERYTHING.  You name it, he was doing it.

Emmy simply got loved on by anyone wearing dry clothes. :)

When it came time for cake, we sang twice:  once for Harris and once for Quinn.

Our guests then got to choose between Harris' Transformers cake and Quinn's summertime cupcakes. 

Because Tyler was in town from Louisiana and our Athens family were all present and accounted for, we decided to snap some quick family pictures.

Siblings.

Cousins.

Grandkids (minus Big Quinn).

Great Grandkids.

Namesake.

The evening really did turn out nicely.  In order to maximize our time at the pool, we opened all the gifts at our respective houses.  Harris really got some great stuff!

I had to laugh when he opened this from the Boozers, though:

That boy was beside himself excited to get a "swim shirt!"  He ripped open the pacakge and exclaimed, "A swim shirt!  I've always wanted one of these!  Now I do not have to show my belly!"

Love that kid.

Happy Birthday again, big guy.

To Remember.

hare bear,

a list, in no particular order, of things i absolutely love about you right now:

-you've perfected the high-pitched, bubbly, baby-talk voice.  and you speak to emmy with it all the time.  and she LOVES it.  at the sound of your voice and the sight of your face, she's all smiles and, more often than not, laughs like crazy.
-babe, on the other hand, has become "annoring" and "boring" to you.  y'all get along most of the time and love to play "tickle monster," read books, watch "pocoyo" in the mornings, and snuggle as family, but you also get on each other's nerves throughout the day.
-you know tons of popular songs.  it cracks me up.  favorites now include, "somebody that i used to know," "god's not dead; he's surely alive," "dynamite," "the sun goes down, the stars come out," and "tonight, we are young...so let's set the world on fire..."  of course, i don't know the names of those songs, but those are some of the lyrics.  you, me, babe, and daddy sing at the top of our lungs when those songs come on the radio.  it's so much fun.
-you are smart.  you also like to point out when anything we say is not exactly right.  for example, i told hadley that she and emmy matched.  i said this because they were both wearing pink, ruffle-y skirts.  you quickly pointed out to all of us that they were, in fact, not matching because emmy's shirt said "princess" and babe's said "love."  you also reminded me, when i told you and babe that summer had begun the day after school got out, that summer did not actually start until june 21.  you're quite the little know-it-all.
-that being said, you can be very polite when you want to be.  you've got great manners when you remember to use them.
-you're a great reader.  you also have strong math skills and are looking forward to beginning public kindergarten in august.
-you are funny and are quite skilled with sarcasm.  you live with us. :)
-you're still a fan of "physical touch."  you LOVE snuggling, touching, playing with hair, and simply being close.  you've also developed a habit of constantly having your fingers in your mouth.  we're working on breaking that, but it's tough.
-you're into star wars, pokemon, stuffed animals, cars (hot wheels), the occasional train, and the history channel.  you LOVE to watch the history channel.
-you still like to whine.  you're completely capable of doing so many things on your own, but still need a little push every now and then to give new stuff a try.  you get frustrated easily, also, but you've come a long way with handling your emotions this year.
-you have started to enjoy the center of attention.  you talk with your hands, just like me.  your gestures crack us up!!!  you are so much fun be around and i am so thankful for the privelege of being your mom.

i love you, sweet boy.  all the way to heaven and back.