What are we up to?

We had a nice visit from Mark and Abbey this past weekend and it was really fun. 
Friday night we let Aunt Shelly babysit and she allowed this to happen.

But it went better than the last time I tried it last year (and everyone got hurt). A good time was had by all.

The girls all went to gymnastics on Saturday which was super cute. Adam went to the doctor for a double ear infection which was not as cute.

 

We went swimming and Abbey and Layla both learned to jump in the pool. A little peer pressure and competition and it was go time for these girls.

  

 Look - Adam can do it.

 You giant babies.

 Hannah can do it.

 There she goes.

 And again and again and again.

 Next year we loose the wingies kids.

 Layla was previously scared of putting her face in the water, so this was huge.

It was such a lovely time and I am really looking forward to Mark and Beth Parson moving to St. Louis in the coming years. I know it's going to happen, just a matter of when.

Adam visited his pre-school room today for the first time. He is going to be just fine when he starts in 3 weeks. He loved the toys and was itching to go play outside. Layla is ready to head back to school too. She visited her class and talked their ears off for 30 minutes.

The girls are scheduled to go with Grandma and Papa to Branson next week which they have been looking forward to all summer. Matt will be in MN all week, Adam and I will be hanging out doing something fun every day.

Fourth of July Fun!

Tons of fun was had over the fourth of July. We had our neighborhood parade, a long day of swimming and fireworks. Adam was so excited to see the firetruck, but when we finally got to get in, he was suddenly shy. The girls stayed to watch fireworks with Matt while Adam and I came home. Layla hated the loud fireworks and went inside to watch TV with Grandma. Poor girl. Next year we are planning to attend a big show, so hopefully she is less scared. My pictures are out of order, but I'm feeling a little lazy so here are a few of our favorite shots.

Smoke Bombs are fun.

The girls and their Grandma.

Sparkler fun.

Poppers.

Adam's favorite pool game.

Layla putting her face in the water. She's getting closer to being ready to swim.

Blue cupcakes.

 

Big guy in a firetruck.

Layla waved that tiny flag the whole way.

Parade time.

Sweet sisters.

Swimming in the dark.

Not a ton of pictures, but lets catch up...

Sometime last week Layla told me that she wished she had pink hair. She actually said "She would be happy forever if she had pink hair." So I explained that, if she really wanted, she could have pink hair. This turned into a million questions and me explaining hair dye. Well last Friday was the day I dyed the kids hair. They all picked a color from our multi-color Splat pack and we picked a section of hair to try it out on (per the instructions on the box). Everyone was pumped to get the color applied.

Everyone was less than pumped to rinse that color out of their hair after the 10 minutes was up. You would have thought I was physically hurting Layla when I made her STAND IN THE TUB AND BEND OVER SO I CAN RINSE YOUR HEAD. So anyway, we all got our sections of color, but no one has requested any additional hair dying. Too bad - it looks super cute. After a few hair washings and lots of swimming, it has faded, but still there on Layla. I want to dyer her whole head purple. It just fits.

In other news, Adam is doing awesome in his big car bed. He goes to sleep great and just calls us or kicks the wall in the morning when it is time to get up. Of course today we had a bouncy party to go to, but I think Adam has an ear infection and just fell asleep. Saturday afternoon on a holiday weekend - figures.

The kids have been doing all kinds of fun things with Kristine this summer. They are out and about almost every day and they are loving it. They have been to the Magic house, taken a few trips to the Transportation Museum, parks, creeks, play dates, swimming, hiking, picnicing, you name it. Everytime I feel that pang of guilt when I hear about them doing something fun, it all goes away when they are so excited to tell me about it later.
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The girls are doing gymnastics this session and that is going really well. Hannah can finally do a good cartwheel and is so proud of herself. Layla is hanging tough with the 5 and 6 year olds in the class. We don't stay during the 70 minute class, so one of us gets 1 whole hour to go shopping alone. We also have been going to Lifetime Fitness a few times a week. The kids love the play area and Matt and I get to work out. We have been swimming a few times also in the evenings. We plan to spend the whole afternoon there tomorrow after we stain the deck.

Matt and Hannah had an all day date yesterday at the Six Flags water park. Hannah loved every minute of the 6 hours they were there. She always gets ripped off because the littler kids can't stay anywhere long, so this day was all about her. They went down the biggest, no tube, straight down water slide about 15 times. Much bigger kids chicken out, but not Hannah. She loved all of it. And she deserves to have some one on one time when her little siblings are not ruining everything for her.

We are looking forward to a big 4th of July party. We'll see if we all can make it this year.