Parties and Puppies, OH MY!

Happy Birthday Marin!

The Big 2!

"Cheese!" Posing with her presents.....all kinds of fun new toys to play with........
C-man and Miss-O sneak in behind for the opening of the presents while Aunt Angie reads Marin her card. "they'll never notice a thing!"

It was a Clifford Birthday with a Clifford Cake made by Aunt Angie.......very cool!

Birthday girl eating her birthday cake and ice-cream out of a dog dish! Love it!

This is great to eat like a dog.......but do dogs really use forks??????

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Birthday Party #2, our neighbor Sarah's 7th Splashin' Birthday!

Here's C-man taking a whack at the pinata!

good pals!

Miss-O thinks highly of Sarah!

Then we traveled up north to visit my brother's family and their puppies.
Turned out that he and his neighbors cut down some trees and there was a neighborly picnic that we got invited to........thanks guys, food was great!

The kids got to play with their cousins; Jake and Emma.
They also enjoyed playing with the pups and watching them romp around.

When it got darker they got out the nets and caught lightning bugs...too fun!

"I pick you!" says one puppy to C-man.....

Emma loves the puppies and rocks them and puts them in her stroller for rides.....

July's full week.......

Tuesday: What a hot, hot day..........

Impromptu water fight before Mommy leaves for work. Everyone was a winner.....well, everyone was soaked!

Wednesday:First Preschool Day
Wednesday: Miss-O goes to her first "Good-Time Gang" Preschool session. This is without Mommy, she was sad and cried for the first 5 minutes, but changed her mind and really liked learning about ice-cream; painting with shaving cream, eating ice-cream treat, doing Ring around the Rosie, and playing in the big room with the balls. She is getting used to her new Teacher......boy will she be confused when we go back to Mommy n Me' Preschool this fall......


After a trip to the library, and a picnic lunch, we headed to the water park to celebrate Marin's "Real" birthday........Happy #2 Marin!

Tea party in the wading pool, too fun!

Do we have to go? [use puppy dog eyes]

Just need some soap and shampoo and I'm set for my shower tonight!


Friday: was a rainy day, so we checked out a new place called "Incredible Pizza Place"

Big buffet lunch, lots of games, go-karts, mini-golf, bumper cars, play area for younger kids with "Melissa & Doug" toys, and different rooms to eat in like the gymnasium, 60's Diner, Drive in movie, and Family room........pretty Incredible!!!!

C-man was an incredible winner of tickets!

Miss-O drove the car incredibly well!

Marin was having an incredible time!

Party Time!

What: BBQ July 4th Dinner

Where: G&G Roberts

When are Preston, Nessa, Marin, Gabe, and Luke coming?
"I love, Olives!"
Someone said that if all food was in the shape of an olive and can be eaten off of fingers, we would have well fed children! Anyone want to start it?

Gabe lovin' his Olives!

Too chilly for swimming, but that doesn't stop us....we'll play with Grama Shell's fun toys!

The big boys (and good pals) played with legos upstairs away from the little ones.

Our little Sparklers!

Hitchin' a wagon ride to our parade destintion. Check out those clever pom-poms that our Mom made! She got the idea from Family Fun Magazine.
Look what they threw at me?!?!? Hello Sugar Buzz!

Awaiting the candy....and trying to keep warm. What a chilly July 4th!

"Smile and wave kids, Smile and wave"

"cute and cuddly, cute and cuddly!"

Fourth of July Memories......

It's been awhile since I reminisced so I thought a holiday a perfect time.

• as a child it seemed to be a tradition to go to the neighboring town with our neighbors and family friends. (Ruth and Jerome and their kids, the Lidners) I remember listening to the band play in the gazebo, then cringe at the sound of the booming fireworks but yet loved the display in the sky.
• we sat so close to the place where they fired off the fireworks that our blanket started on fire and a mom that was with us, her umbrella started on fire.
• as a very little one, I remember hanging out in the car with Mom and Jolyn as we watched the fireworks with not SO much noise.
• now after the fireworks, there seemed to be a long run tradition of coming back to our house, doing sparklers, eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds outside (in the dark no less) I remember catching fire flies during this time too. I always thought Julie and Renee were so cool they would do cart-wheels with sparklers.....they were also 5 years older than us!
• I remember this is the time that I discovered my Grandma Weinberg liked salt on her watermelon????
• some 4th of July's we spent out on the deck and watched the neighbor cities display their fireworks, we could watch at least 4 of them in the distance.
• somehow we grew old enough to take along camping and that seemed to be the next chapter of memories.....many camping trips to Decorah or Waukon.
• We would travel to watch fireworks....one time the women-folk traveled in the back of the truck (topper on) and I think a few of us almost peed our pants from laughing so hard......did it have to do with blonde jokes?
• I remember Mom taking pictures of the fireworks...back when cameras didn't have that capability......she still has them in her photo album!
• What about all the ooooohhs and aaaaahhhhs!?!
• We even traveled to MN one year to visit our former Pastor and watched fireworks in their back yard....
• Campfires and smore's were embellished with sparklers....and even cousin Gregg would get out the copper and we would watch the flames turn different colors as it burned.
• Getting a speeding ticket, while Paul was the passenger, it was our first time camping together....no wonder he doesn't let me drive anymore!
• many a hot night with the crickets chirping.........and fire-flies flickering.....
• Now that I have to work every other 4th of July, we try to camp on the off times and stick around for the city celebration during my work times....
• I remember when C-man was one month old and we went to our first party.....he in his cute plaid teeny-tiny outfit........then that night back in the apartment was the noisiest night and a rough one for me...I think he slept through it all.
• Now we watch the parade in the morning (great time to get our fix for the year!) then usually dinner at someones house...sometimes we've had an intimate BBQ lunch at our house.
• Last year, we found out that our neighbors really know how to party it up, Karaoke and ALL!
• My new memories now are watching the kids enjoy the parade.....watch the fireworks (if I'm not working) C-man gets excited about the WHOLE day. Parade, carnival, CANDY, going to G&G Roberts, and sparklers, snappers, & Fireworks.
• I'll never forget when I was pregnant with baby O and he and I, decked out in our Jammies, walked a block west and found a spot. He named all of the fireworks..."that was a slim-jim one!" "that's a super star!" "those are shooting stars" "those are swirly-whirly bug ones!" It was a great play-by-play!
• If I am working, I like to take a little time and sit at the end of the hallway on the third floor and watch the cityscape of lights exploding from east to west, as if they were participating in their own symphony!

I guess I have exhausted all of my 4th of July memories.....what I really and truly should be thankful is the freedom that I have to experience all of these wonderful memories. How grateful we are to be in America, land of liberty.

Happy Independence Day!

My Lil' Princess

The Wedding our little Princess was in........

Here's Miss-O and Zachary walking down the aisle.....escorted by moi...both were in tears minutes before going down...so we pulled out all cards and let them go as they were....She holding on to her new kangaroo and him soaking wet from the fountains outside....(the pastor ran and got him while he was crying and saying he was looking for his mommy and fell in the fountains.......his mommy was sitting in the front pew????)
Here's Miss-O posing with all the girls.

Posing wth Kim and being very bashful.

This was probably the first picture ever taken and she was all smiles....truly happy to be a princess in this picture!

Here's Miss-O and Zachary posing with their cheesy-cheeses! (yes, he has a mohawk and yes it is colored green.....one of the wedding colors.)

Here she just knows she's adorable!

Here I'm fanning off O and singing to her while she struggles through her tiredness and the heat.

Big Brother with his little princess!

Cheesin' it up with Mommy.......