Painting

Jake's got a new obsession.

Painting army guys.

And then telling me about each of them.

He's got a whole slew of these guys that he plays with daily. Now they are new and improved.

Mor-da-cycle! !

Sam's got a little thing for motorcycles. Just a teeny, tiny bit of excitement over them. Nothing really, just excitedly yelling "MOR-DA-CYCLE!!" every single time one passes by. (He also enjoys pointing out all the garbage cans he sees and if Ryan is in the car, he'll yell out "Taco BELL!" just for Ry. Funny to us because neither of us have ever taken him to a Taco Bell.) So of course, when Ryan and I saw this little motorcycle, we could not resist it.

Sam was too excited dancing around and helping us put it together. He ran and found his helmet and took it out for a test drive.

Today, as I was going through all the little videos I took of him, Sam especially loved this little snippet. He cracked us all up because he was answering all of my questions on the video. Much louder and more excited then this little camera shy version here.

This little motorcycle was the best $20 spent on him. I only wish that we would of gotten it sooner.

I Spy......Wait! How did it get to the middle of July?

Let's just pretend that time didn't fly by shall we? Ok, glad we are on the page. Sooooo....

Happy 4th of July!!

The 4th was the best weather we have ever had. If only it could always be like that. Not too hot and overcast made parade watching just right. We were lucky enough to be invited to sit up at the house of the sweetest couple in the ward. Right on the main road, lots of shade and good food and friends.

Mia got to be in the parade this year. I got our whole section to cheer loudly for her so when she saw us, she got really excited and waved to us all like a movie star. She was cute and did well.

Sam took a while to get used to the idea of the parade but quickly warmed up when his little friend kept him in constant supply of taffy. She caught them. opened them up and feed them to him just as fast she could. Aww, cute little loves.

Even though the weather was mild, that didn't stop Jake from getting soaked from head to toe during the water fight part. The water fight is the highlight of Jake's year.

After the parade and the picnic, we had the in laws over for another BBQ, fireworks and fun. I didn't take one picture because I was too busy enjoying myself. It was fun!

I Spy....

I spy with my little eye.....

a mama and daddy duck that came to visit us in our yard.

Mia wanted to get close.

Sammy stayed back saying "Dook! Mama duck! Daddy duck." over and over. Guess reading those duck magazines to him at night pay off.

Hmmm.....

Well I guess this is one reason why I shouldn't have Jake vacuum the floor while a friend is there. It turned into a 20 minute attempt to get a vacuum mark on their foreheads.

I can still hear their laughs and yells while they were doing it. Awww boys, you just can't help but laugh at them.

Dance, dance, dance!

Mia was cute at her concert as usual. This time, I opted to take pictures at the dress rehearsal letting myself enjoy her dance without a camera in my face during the actual performance. She loves to dance and especially love to dance on stage. I am happy to oblige but some certain members of the family aren't too thrilled about the recitals. I'll give you a hint, it does not include Mia, me or Sammy. :)

She did great of course. She rocked her jazz square and star jumps. They really learned a lot of new dance moves for this dance and they all did well!

"Wait till you see how cute we end our dance Mom! You will love it!" she told me for weeks. Yes Mia, you are cute.

Children's Mueseum

A few weeks back in the midst of all the rain we got, Jessica and I decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum for a day of fun. It was a hit of course.

Sammy loved the balls beehive. Are you surprised? He spent the majority of his time putting one ball in after another in the tube that sucked it up. His windblown hair was too cute!

It's always fun for Jess and I to watch our boys together. Just a few months apart, it's interesting to me to watch their personalities.

The ball beehive was the very first thing in the museum. It took a bit of time to get him out to try other things.

Mia and Megan were inseparable from the start.

Jake enjoyed it all in typical Jake fashion. This building area was fun.

Climbing the wall was a sense of accomplishment for Jake and just plain fun for Mia. I used to climb quite a bit a long time ago. Haven't been such my college days. Would love to take the kids sometime and get them comfortable with it.

The helicopter was especially cool. I do believe that Jake and Ali planned a rescue mission.The off to the water fountain to get soaked. Never mind that it was only in the 70's at best. Kids didn't care until they were all soaked from head to toe and started to shake from the cold.

All in all, I think it was a successful outing. We all went home wishing we had more time to play.