Can't get enough

I can't get enough of this squishy, smiley baby.

Six months old!
Weight: 17 lbs. 6 oz.
Height: almost 27 inches

Family Olympics

Some fantastic friends of ours, the Ortons, hosted a family Olympics before the Summer Olympics officially got underway. What a fun idea. We picked a country to represent and showed up ready to go for the gold. We decided on Brazil as our country.

Olympic theme: Daaaa daaaaa daa daa daa daa daa daa da da da dadadadada dadadadadaaaaaaaaaaa.

Here we are in our Brazilian flag colors, ready to compete.

We started with the opening ceremony and parade of nations. How fun! We waved our flags proudly.

 It's obvious that I'm usually a dud when it comes to remembering to bring a camera, so we were happy that Erin was nice enough to take so many and share them.
This was Tessa during the gymnastics portion of the games:

 She's just not afraid to be showcased.

 You can see the hurdles from the previous game in the background. I loved seeing how each kid decided to tackle those. Tessa chose an X jump over each one, but we saw over, under, around, and through from the different young "athletes". We also took part in target shooting (with a squirt gun and paper cups), the long jump, and javelin tossing. Tossing? Throwing? What do you do with a javelin?

 This is my favorite move:

 Such agility. Such grace.

We had to take off early for something, so Erin got Tessa a medal and took her picture by the flames. Tessa insisted that she won the gold medal for being the best "gymnasticker". That easily became my favorite word of the day.
We knew very few people there at the party, but I love that we didn't need to. When you get a bunch of nice families together, it's hard to go wrong. Erin and Christian had Olympic themed/styled foods to munch when we took a break, and really provided a lovely morning on a hot day to get us excited for the upcoming games.

Summer Fun

For his birthday Cole asked for a water blaster. He was so excited to get one. Dollar Tree rocks.

One early evening, two water blasters, one bucket of water, and two excited kids makes for a nice quiet dinner preparation for mom.

 Tessa and Cole both participated in Vacation Bible School at the end of July at the same local Episcopalian church that Tessa did VBS at last year. VBS was actually one of the incentives for Cole to potty train back in May, and he had it down super quickly, excited to know that he qualified to go with Tessa this year. (He did not like getting left behind last year.) The staff, along with the teen volunteers, are so genuinely sweet over there. Although we are happy with our own church, it's really nice to have that sense of community, trust, and support with another nearby church. They do such a wonderful job with their VBS ministry. Tessa came home talking about trusting God and talking about Bible stories, and Cole, though he started to struggle with going toward the end of the week, came home happy every day telling me about the games and crafts ...and snacks.
Here they are posing with Paigey Lou in their VBS shirts after the first day:

Cole's 3rd Birthday!

My Bubby turned three!

I leave the creative (i.e. time consuming) meals up to Jake, but I figured it wouldn't kill me to go out on a limb and make blue pancakes for the kid's birthday. Plus, we remembered to get out the birthday plate! Woot!

 One of Cole's birthday wishes that he had been talking about FOREVER was that he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's. Well, we're all about making wishes come true (when they're easy), so it was family night at Chuck's to celebrate three awesome years with Brother. When I say he was so excited to  get there that he about dug out his own eye, I'm not exaggerating.
No flash:

 Flash:

 Surely there's an in betweener flash?

I react to this place much like you see Paige above. Sensory Overload. But the kids had a blast playing games and earning tickets for cheap prizes. And that made it fun. I personally enjoy the character songs that are familiar enough knock offs of popular songs tweaked a bit so Chuck E.'s doesn't get sued and then plugged in with lyrics about pizza and other foods you can get there.

I will forever sing "I wanna barbeque aaaaall night..." to the tune of Michael Jackson's "Rock With You" whenever I attend a BBQ. Count on it. 

If you are epileptic, don't watch the next video...

 Chuck E. Cheese delivered in just the way it promised. Cole talked about it for days on end afterward.
We headed home to put Paige to bed and then open presents and have cake.

I made these pool noodle "light sabers" from super fat noodles, not remembering that thinner/cheaper ones were at the dollar store which would have worked better. Now, though, I wouldn't give up the gargantuan sabers because they have provided us with some serious maniacal fun and pack quite a wallop.

 I am really good at providing the bare minimum. I was even that kind of student --do just enough to get the desired grade and no more, thank you. I don't go above and beyond often. And so it is with this cake. I have absolute admiration for those who have the talent and patience to put together edible works of art, but I have accepted the fact that I have neither. Thank heavens my children don't require much of me. Tessa wanted a pink cake for her last birthday -no problem! And Cole wanted a blue ice cream cake for his. After mulling it over, I came up with possibly the easiest route for this possible. And he was happy.
The basic layer was ice cream sandwiches cut to fit where necessary, a tub of Cool Whip with blue food coloring whipped in spread on top, then crushed Whoppers sprinkled, and finally a bunch of neon lizards from the dollar store he said he wanted on his cake. We freeze the whole thing together, and Ta Da! Mediocrity at its finest....and tastiest.

This little boy is so much fun. He can be as exasperating as any other kid his age (for us, but I think it's entertaining for other people when they see the joy he finds in pushing boundaries). However, the fact that he is exerting his desire for independence is awesome. His silly and teasing sense of humor cracks us up. His sensitive nature toward people's feelings (when he's paying attention) is heart warming. His laugh and his random conversations with either us or his toys makes us want to bottle him up and not let him age one more day. 

Try as I might, I don't think I'll ever appreciate the dinner messes.

But we love this kid fiercely. And he knows it.

Cuddlebugs

Many mornings before I can fully get moving for the day, we all end up hanging out on my bed, pretending like we can have a nice cuddle. Then it turns into kids flopping all over the place and arguing about who gets to be where, etc., until I can take it no more, and we move on to breakfast.

But, oh, they're cute.

Rainbow Connection

One rainy (ish) evening in July, as we were getting the older two kids ready for bed, a huge rainbow made an appearance. So, I called to everyone to get outside so we could see the massive full arch across the sky. It's sad that the camera didn't catch the colors because it was so lovely.

Jake had Tessa give a news story for his video camera, but, alas, blogger is not in the mood to humor me by uploading it. She reported how a rainbow is made and sang a song about the colors. She's so camera shy...

Here. Have some videos.

June 2012

July 2012: Dollar Tree Hula Hoop

Paige's first "solid" meal:

"Pirates" or "Captain's Servants"

I think I will need to pull out these last two videos when Cole is a teenager so I can tease him profusely about swordplay in a Tiana gown.