Happy 4th Birthday Lily!!

Happy 4th Birthday Lily!

You are definitely not a baby anymore.

(Even though I may still call you my baby girl sometimes.)

You certainly think you are the boss of the house.

(Mainly because Daddy calls you his princess most of the time.)

You are sweet, and funny, and loving.

You love your brothers, and try so hard to keep up with them.

You get very mad when you can't.

You love all things girly and if you could get a new pair of shoes every day, that would be just fine with you.

I love watching you grow into the person you will become.

(Even though it makes me sad that you are getting older.)

We LOVE you!!

#21: Catch Fireflies

We were at my parent's house last night, and the kids were playing outside with their cousins, when they saw fireflies! Their Aunt Mary came in and found glass jars for them (and for her own children) and helped them catch fireflies. Thanks Mary for helping us cross another thing off of our Summer List!!

Scout Camp

Zach and Jeff headed to Scout Camp last Thursday morning.
Zach was SO excited this year!!
He got to spend two nights and three days there.
They pitched their own tents, and they even cooked one of their own meals!
(The rest were provided by the camp in their dining hall.)
He was also excited that his dad was going with him too. =)

There were so many activities for them to do.
He got to shoot a BB gun on his first day:




Out of 10 shots, he got 9 on the paper, and 7 of those were on the target!!
Good job Zach!!

On Thursday night, they were all stuck in the dining hall because of bad storms until almost midnight.

(Then they had to trudge out to their tents for bed...I'm glad I'M not a boy scout!) ;0)

Zach was so tired from all of the activities that day that he just fell asleep on an upside down bench:

I am so glad for cell phones.

I was able to keep in touch with Jeff so I knew how they were doing in those storms. =)
The next two days were full of more activities!

Wood whittling:

Bike riding:

Paddle boating:

A flag ceremony:

And archery:

They also had so many more activities. Jeff said their days were pretty packed!

This is Zach's scout troop with their den leader:

Each troop was in a mini camp throughout the camp with 2 or 3 other troops.

Zach's troop was in Camp Crow with these other boys:

Zach had so much fun that when he got home (all hot and tired) one of the first things he said to me was, "I want to go back!!" Jeff had fun too, he liked being able to spend time with Zach and do things they both enjoy together. And even though they were both thankful for air conditioning and soft beds, they were glad they went. =)

#5: Run Through the Sprinkler!

We could have checked this off of our list as soon as we wrote it.
They had run through the sprinkler several times before we even started thinking about our list.
But, they wanted to do everything they had already done before the list was written, again.
When the list was written though, we had already set up our pool.
So, they haven't been that interested in running through the sprinkler.
I am sure we could have technically used last week's trip to the spray park as "running through the sprinkler", but we didn't want to "cheat".
So, today we got out the sprinkler and they ran through it:

About 5 times.

Then they asked to get in the pool.....

but at least we can check it off now. ;0)

Spray Park!

Since Zach (and Jeff) are at Boy Scout Camp, Riley, Lily, & I decided we needed to do something fun too, so we headed over to a spray park we haven't been to before.
We asked their cousins Taby, Alyssa, and Johnny to come too!
The kids saw this & ran toward it.
I knew Riley would love it, but I wasn't too sure Lily would.
She's not a fan of sprinklers, but she LOVED it!!!
She even stood under the pails that dumped water on you!
All of the kids (except Alyssa, who decided she wasn't too fond of it) had a lot of fun!!!

We will definitely be going back to this park!

Window Art

The other day we painted sun catchers:

It's a fun way to brighten up our windows.

Only, don't put them on the side of your sliding glass door that doesn't open, and then open that sliding glass door. Because if you do, the door might knock some of the sun catchers down, and some might fall into the track for the door and get stuck and then you might have to take off the door and get them out because you might not be able to close the door otherwise.

Not that, that happened to me, I'm just saying it might happen.....

While I was at Walmart getting the sun catchers, I saw these:

I thought these would be fun for the kids to do also.

They had fun drawing all over the windows!!

Lily made fish and flowers:

(Sorry these are kind of hard to see.)

Zach made a maze, then erased it all and made a person and an airplane that he labeled:

Riley drew his name and then made "Riley Flowers":

These were actually pretty cheap, about $4.00 for the box of markers.

They were really easy to wipe off the glass (even after they had been there for awhile).

The only draw back, is that they stained the kids' hands and I think that had they gotten on their clothes, they probably would have stained those too, even though the box said washable.

I am sure we will be using these a lot this summer!

# 2 Walk to the Park

We finally got the chance to walk to the park.
This shouldn't be something that is hard to get done.
Actually in the Fall & Spring, Lily & I walk to the park all the time.
But in the Summer, it is harder.
First of all, our park is not shaded, so it gets hot, super fast.
Secondly, since it is hot, I usually have whiny kids on the walk BACK home, after we walked to the park & played at the park. (today was no different.) ;0)
So, I like to either drive to our park or to another, shaded park.

But, one of the things the kids really wanted to do, was actually WALK to the park.
So we did. =)
When we got to the park, the kids had fun playing & playing!

Then we walked all the way around the park (there is a walking path) and then headed home.

They were so hot & tired when we got back, that they headed straight for the pool.

We will definitely go to more parks this summer & we will probably walk/ride our bikes to the park by our house again, but it's nice to get this first time checked off our Summer Fun List.