When it's not raining

Between the Fourth and this past weekend's in-home art party, we have managed to fit in a few activities (and pictures).


We attending a really fun birthday party for one of Sydney's school friends.  I forgot my camera (gasp) so please excuse the blurred phone pics.


She was so proud of herself for riding the horse and not being scared.  

Fletcher on the other hand, wasn't really feeling so tough.

 This was more Fletcher's speed... a big ole pile of sand/dirt.

 Waving to her fans from the little train.

This is Fletcher's new cheesy face.  If you ask him to smile or say cheese for the camera, this is what he does.  I guess it's better than Sydney...

 ...when she's not turning away completely, she now wants to make a silly face.  Which basically means sticking her tongue out.  Wonder where she learned that!

Rainy days and Mondays

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... let's face it - any rainy day gets me down.  After a fun filled but dry dry dry summer last year with virtually NO rain, the past few weeks of daily thunderstorms have been a real downer.  We've been struggling the past few weekends to find activities for the kids.  I guess I never realized just how dependent we are on the great outdoors for our active life until our backyard began looking like this....

Out of desperation and fear of another long weekend stuck inside (and a little inspiration from dear friends), I paid a visit to Michael's.  And on Sunday - we got our art on!

 The kids LOVED it!!!  

  So serious!

Uh oh.  But say it with me... WASHable paint!!!  And it really is.  Comes right up!

But then it got a little too crazy and we had to wrap things up.

 Even clean-up was fun!

Despite all my whining about the weather, Sunday actually turned out to be a near perfect day.  After our morning Picasso project and midday napping while it thundered ominously outside... the skies miraculously cleared and we were able to go outside for a fun and long-overdue pool afternoon!

The Fourth and Fireworks!

I'm way behind.  Way behind.  And I really want to be blogging about a fun project from this weekend but I haven't even blogged about the Fourth yet.  Who cares what order I blog in though, right?  Well, I do.  Sigh.  I drive myself crazy sometimes.  I cannot bring myself to blog out of order.  So here you are - our wonderful Fourth in pictures.


Despite my lack of enthusiasm now (I blame all the recent rain - I was not meant to live in a gloomy, wet climate), it really was a great day/week.


The kids kicked off celebrations at school with a little Fourth of July parade.  They managed to schedule it right between two big bursts of rain.  Perfect timing!

The Fourth happens to also fall between some very important birthdays in our family... our nephew Charley was born on the 3rd and Pat's Dad celebrates his birthday on the 4th!  So we made a cake!  Ok, so neither of the birthday boys were actually here to eat it (details) so I guess it really was a cake to share with friends at a bbq.  But who cares.  Cake!  I have no pics of the cake but Syd helped with every step - even the clean-up!  Which then required it's own sort of clean-up.

 Again between (er, maybe during) rain showers, we stepped outside for a quick family photo!

 Stuck indoors at our neighbors house didn't hold the little ones back from celebrating.  The girls had so much fun playing dress up!  They even had a handsome prince!

 Fletcher making his move on the littlest princess!

 The rain stopped long enough to finally get outside for the evening.

And left puddles with Fletcher's name written ALL over them!!!

 It isn't a party until someone loses their clothes.  And Fletcher's always the life of the party!

 And there was also the dirt.  Needless to say, Fletcher left this particular party with only a diaper - and a big huge smile!

Then there were fireworks.  Both on our street and in our house as one particular child chose to use this fun get-to-stay-up-late holiday to throw one epic tantrum.  

The Desert!

A few weeks ago we took a grand trip to the desert!  No, actually, it was to the beach.  But Sydney kept exclaiming that she was at the desert.  So we indulged her.

It's so nice having family so close to the beach.  It's like two trips in one!  Visit the grandparents plus the beach - and extra bonus this time was Pat's aunt from Missouri and his sister's whole family were there too!  

Hurry up guys!

Miss Priss had little interest in the waves so she stuck to the sand.

 

Not only did we hit the beach, but Mamie and Papa have a dock and a boat behind their house.  This was Fletcher's first boating adventure.  I knew we were in trouble when, before we even left the dock, he began saying "All done, all done!"  The choppiness of the bay was a little unsettling but when we got back into the calm waters, he loosened up and tolerated the trip.  He might have even enjoyed a few moments.

 Our favorite boat captain, Papa!

There was a pretty big swamp fire not far from us and the constant stream of helicopters above, produced a lot of photos like this...

Mamie and Papa also have an awesome backyard.  Fletcher turned into a nudist most afternoons there.

We did spend some time indoors.  All that fun in the sun made us ravenous!

Fletcher bonded with his Great Aunt Shirley.

 He especially loved her cane.

 Which quickly became his weapon of choice.  Oh dear!

Sydney got her first make-up lesson.  

And braids!

Overheard conversation between Sarah (my niece and Syd's stylist) and Tracy (my sis-in-law and Sarah's mom)...

Tracy: Sarah, do you think it's a good idea to let Sydney play with that make-up? 

Sarah: But she's really good at it, mom.

But then Fletcher wanted in so we had to shut that operation down.

Even a little rain outside couldn't squash their fun - or creativity.

And Willie is always a central part of our lives during these visits.  It absolutely made Sydney's day when he crawled onto her lap one morning.

I cannot end this post without boasting about how amazingly good the kids were in the car.  It's a long ride.  9 1/2 hours.  That's long.  Even for an adult.  Much less two little kids.  And this was our first road trip with Sydney post-potty-training!  Despite my worry, we never - not once - had to stop for that little girl's bladder.  Good thing for her, her daddy makes frequent stops and she was always grateful to stretch her legs and check out another new bathroom.  What's the fascination?  Really?  Anyway, super, duper trip!  Tangled and The Lion King on endless repeat didn't hurt either.