My Lovelies

I love how these pictures capture my children's personalities!

Happy Birthday to the Grandmas!

Since both my Mom's and Grandma's birthdays are in June, we got together out at Erin and Kyle's place.  We swam and had dinner, opened presents, and ate yummy cake.  Sounds like a good birthday to me!

 Kari loved being a doggie in the pool.

 Auntie Erin and Emily had a great time diving for rings and searching for (and finding) Erin's earring that fell out in the pool!  Emily even collected a little reward money for her eagle eyes.

Christian also wanted in on the diving action--
"Mr. Fairness" was very concerned about getting some reward money of his own.

Ju-Ju is Miss Cool.

Kyle and Great-Gma, kickin' it poolside.  

Pretty cake

 Blowin' out the candles!

Cubby and Harvey, playing with Kyle's "toy"
(Not sure if I can qualify the Lego Death Star as a "toy" though...)

Erin and Emily playing with Erin's "toy"--Lego Parisian cafe--so cute!

The birthday girls and their (great) grand kids.

Happy Birthday to two wonderful and super special Grandmas!

Wet and Wild Birthday Party

 Want a no-fail recipe for a great boy's birthday party?  Give everyone water blaster squirt guns!  I think despite any particular "theme" we may have had in the past, it always evolves into a water fight.  So, this year, we figured why fight it?  We'll just have a water themed birthday party.  It was perfect and for days afterwards Christian would tell me that he had the "most fun birthday party ever."  A couple of friends even said the same thing!  Aw :-).

Always fun to open gifts!

Christian and his buddies can be quite the hams for pictures!

Brooklynn, Emily, and her bestie, Ella

Cuties, Ju-Ju and Gma

Our sweet little Kari-belle

Our big party game came in the form of a relay race through some noodles and then testing their aim by throwing nerf sponge balls through our back-drop.  Simple, but effective.  The kids all loved it.

Our good friends, "Miss Emily" and "Miss Caitlin" even stopped by to wish Christian a happy birthday!
Such sweet sisters!

Jeff brought over a HUGE water  gun.  Christian loved it!
 But, it did take a LONG time to refill and the kids ended up soaking Jeff with their little, but effective, blasters.

Time for a BIG water fight!!

Everyone got in on the action--Uncle Kyle, Auntie Erin, Jeff, and Daddy all got completely soaked.  It was primo fun.

Juliana opted out of the fight with a view from Gpa Harvey's shoulders.

I kept it fairly simple this year and did an orange nerf cake.  Simple, but de-licious.

And, they capped off the evening with everyone piled on the trampoline!

It was a great evening--kids and water guns go hand-in-hand!  We were so pleased that Christian had such a great birthday party!

Splash Pad

 We ventured to a splash pad one morning.  Normally, the kids aren't huge fans of splash pads (the water is cold versus the warm water of a pool!).  However, they actually had a fun time getting a little wet (and playing at the park nearby).  The mushrooms were their favorite :-).

Library Fun

 Our local library puts on quite a few fun summer programs and activities.  I've tried to get the kids to one most weeks...although we usually come home with around 50 books so it can get a little heavy to go :-).

One Friday they did a parachute story time.   The big kids were busy picking out books, so it was just the little girls participating.

Juliana wasn't a huge fan (which really surprised me b/c she's usually up for anything), but there were a lot of kids so it may have been a bit overwhelming.  However, Kari LOVED it.  Just look at her cute little face in the next few pictures!  Such joy!

Kari also ran into a little friend from preschool, Emma.
The girls hugged and were so excited to see one another!

 Another day there was a stamping activity following story time.  It was something everyone enjoyed.

Christian was very methodical about his stamping.  So cute to watch him work :-).

There are quite a few other programs and fun demonstrations that are put on--although some of the ones geared toward the older kiddos are in the afternoon during nap time so we haven't been able to make it yet.  But, there's still time and plenty of fun activities planned!  We are very fortunate to have such a great library nearby!