Sunburn, bug bites, and blisters

Ahhh, yes, the days of summer. We had an awesome 4-day holiday weekend over 4th of July. It was O family Christmas and this year's gathering did not disappoint. Sadly, I have hardly any pictures (can someone share, please?). Some weekend highlights:

My little cousins are now the 'big kids" for my kids. So fun to see!

• Royals game on the 4th - we won! And got to see a grand slam! (By "see" I mean it happened. We were in line at little K and heard the crowd roar.) Ellie Kate got drenched by the fountains and all enjoyed cooling off with her wet hugs.
• Ice cream and neighborhood fireworks with the kids. P slept sounds. E & W were in awe. EK even created a new fireworks dance to show her appreciation of an especially good spark.
• Swimming at GoGo and Grampy's. Will can touch all the way across the pool - yay! Kids discovered the joys of water guns - thanks, Gramps.
• Yard games and beer go hand in hand - delightful summer afternoon.
• No O Christmas is complete without a $5 game/gift. Thanks to Patty for hauling boxes and wrapping paper all the way from OK!
• The mini golf tournament (on the course set up in the back yard) was a hit. When I realized the worst we could do was double bogey, my score instantly improved. Will made $4.55 as the beer cart kid and earned his first blister from playing golf. Gotta get him a glove.
• Learned new games, spent time with my awesome cousins, watched my kids play and play and play until they passed out on the way home. 

Can't wait til next year - a wedding and a 90th birthday celebration are on tap. Already looking forward to it.

chilling out after we got home

Cousins

My kids are so blessed to have such fun cousins on both sides of the family. As I was looking through my Easter photos, I was reminded of this. Prior to giving Justin a black eye (unintentionally, of course), John was so good with the little kids. He noticed the giant pile of eggs in EK's basket and the not so giant pile in Will's. He called Will into another room where he had hidden all the eggs from his own basket for Will to find. What a great kid! Of course, now that he's driving and almost in high school, he would probably be mortified if he knew I was posting all this. Great to see that kids don't lose their sweetness as they grow up, though. Good job, Sar (AKA Summer Fun-killer)!

Christmas in July

We have our extended family Christmas in the summer now because we have better success in getting everyone together at the same time. This year, everyone came to our neck of the woods which was fun.
The weekend started (on our 10th wedding anniversary) with some family whiffle ball.

Grandma with the great-grandkids

Grandma with the grandkids - all grown up! Last one starts college this year!

Grandma and the "kids"

Immediate family (minus a few missing folks)

Not sure who was having more fun - Patrick or Aunt Janet

Family volleyball game

and cards, of course

Patrick snoozing with GoGo

It was a great weekend with some of my very favorite people in the world. Counting down til the cousins trip to Vegas -- how long til Cari turns 21???

Summer fun

We've had lots of fun times with family and friends lately. Maybe that's why I'm behind on blogging. But, it's been well worth it. We've gotten to see lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins in the last few weeks.

We did our annual summer b-day gathering. There are so many family birthdays we just let anyone who wanted a candle in their cupcake have one!

Liz & Cayla put on a  fabulous dance performance. Of course, EK couldn't wait to join in the fun!

We've had lots of time for sibling bonding this summer :)

All 3 kids were out of school the last week of July. So, I loaded them up in the 100+ degree heat and headed to Deanna Rose Farmstead one morning. Despite Will being terrified of animals and a traumatic run-in with some geese, both of the older kids raved about how much fun it was. Go figure.

Will wouldn't get anywhere near the buffalo. (Notice two fences between him and us.)

And this is what Patrick did the whole time.

Such a big boy!

Patrick now has two bottom teeth and has been doing a great job sitting up by himself. He loves playing with toys and is growing so fast. I can't believe he'll be 6 months old next week!

4th of July

Look at this! I'm posting about a holiday in the month it actually occurred -- amazing!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun 4th of July in Topeka. (I must admit that Wednesday is my least favorite day for this holiday to fall on since we worked the day before and day after.) Anyway, we started the morning visiting our friends from Texas. We don't get to see them nearly enough!

You try getting 5 kids to look at the camera and smile.

W loved this silly bandana. He got it the day before at school and wore it all day.

so sweet!

There's a lot of cheese in this picture! But I love seeing these two dad with their growing families :)

Then we went swimming and had lunch with J's family. The older kids (and by kids, I mean adults, too) did fireworks that night. EK was scared of the noise and Patrick was asleep so I missed the show, but Will sure enjoyed himself!

Grandpa & Will during the afternoon fireworks

Cousins

Patrick & Aubrey

Will's coordination has gotten much better so he & Nathan had a great time playing the Wii.

Mother's Day & Father's Day

It's taken me so long to do a Mother's Day post, I just decided to combine Mother's & Father's Days. We spent a wonderful, relaxing Mother's Day at home. The kids were so excited to bring me breakfast in bed (read: they loved getting stuff from the bakery and having a picnic on my bedroom floor). It was really cute :)
Below are the cards the kids made me at school. Totally priceless...and hilarious - I don't know who the mother they talk about is! It is certainly not me who likes to cook and clean!

A note on "she looks at the computer": as best I can tell, she's thinking of when we look at pictures on the computer. I am really never on the computer when she's awake otherwise!

I am so thankful that their teachers are creative and take time to do this with every child. It's awesome!

This past weekend we celebrated Father's Day with some much-needed family time at home. The kids' cards for Justin are below.