Patriotic Cheerleaders and such

The kids came up with this game after they found the flags. It was very organized and very fair - everyone had a turn. Here it's Brenna's turn to race to the finish line while Andrew and Sydney cheered her on and waved their flags. It was so adorable! I tried to catch it on video, but it just wasn't the same as live action!

Sydney's turn

Jonathan mostly ate sidewalk chalk during the tricycle races.

Look at the excitement of these cheerleaders!

Our last morning, we tried to make sea creatures appear out of these little capsules that you floated in warm water. We found scalding hot water to be more effective, but the kids thought it was pretty cool.

waiting and waiting

Fishing out a foam creature with tongs.

Look at all our sea creatures!

Swim Time!

Jonathan loved the pool!

Sydney swimming

My only shot of Brenna - sliding on the frog slide.

As I've previously mentioned, Andrew has this weird fear of water and refused to put on his swim clothes. So he played around the pool for about half an hour, then his clothes got wet and I was able to coax him into his swim trunks!

Even Jonathan loved that creepy frog slide!

Just because we were on an Air Force Base.

Splash down!

Sydney found this puddle by the pool and couldn't resist it.

At last, Andrew braved his fear and took the plunge!

the boys

"This is the best swimming pool ever!"

On Friday, the weather was perfect. The children had all napped in the van (see previous post for photo proof.) And so we loaded up and went to this great pool on base. It had a slide, was only about a foot deep and the best part, a canopy so we didn't have to worry about burning our lily white skin! We had to bribe the kids to leave with gummy snacks in the car. We are not above bribery. Don't judge us! Now if we could just find a great pool like that around here!

Oklahoma and the Petersons - Look out! Here we come...

All four kiddos tried and succeeded in fitting in Boomer's kennel. We contemplated locking them in there.

These sweet kittens made my children about lose their minds. They just couldn't control themselves when the kittens were around. So the kittens went to visit some friends until their family came back from their vacation. I learned we are not quite ready for little animals at our house!

Sharing the Leapster!

Brenna and Sydney

Jonathan cooking up some trouble.

Jill and the very patient and tolerable Boomer

One of the best moments - driving around and ALL 4 children fell asleep. For about an hour! Heaven! We went through the drive thru at Braums and had one of the best cheeseburgers I've had in quite awhile. Then we enjoyed uninterrupted conversation and food!

Last week, I loaded up the boys and we headed to the hoppin' metropolis known as Altus. Well, at least it was hoppin' and LOUD at the Peterson's house with the addition of us! We played and played and screamed and ate and maybe fought a little, but overall a great time was had by all! Oh, and we didn't sleep. Not much anyway. The boys have this weird thing in their head that they can only sleep in their own bed or in bed with mommy. *sigh* When we got home, I went to bed early and slept 11 hours straight. Perhaps I was a little tired. But it was worth it to spend time with friends and talk face-to-face instead of on the phone.

Thank you so much for a great mini-vacation Jill, Sydney and Brenna! We miss you and can't wait to see you again!

Summer Fun

Nothing says summer like corn-on-the-cob, softball, and visiting cousins! Our summer is flying by, and we are enjoying every second of it. Well, every second that isn't over 100 degrees like last week!

Jonathan's first taste of corn-on-the-cob.

He loves it! Especially the butter and salt part, and really, who can blame him?!

Keith played softball again this summer on a church league with friends from Focus 20, our old Bible Study group. The boys loved going to the games and so we tried to make it to all of the 6:30 games to watch Daddy play "baseball."

Verlin, Violet, Annette, and Victoria came home to visit from California, in time to help with harvest. Violet, Sondra and I, plus all our kiddos got together to play one morning. Sadly, this is the only picture I caught of Andrew and Annette listening to a story on the old-fashioned record player.

And still more birthday

Andrew received a couple more birthday presents last week from Aunt Audra, Uncle Dave, Ben and Cate. They have all been a huge hit. Especially the Cars Bingo and the race track/back pack! Thank you!

Fireworks!

Jonathan watching the fireworks.

All the boys setting off little fireworks.

Keith holding Andrew, while his friend Drew sets off a sparkler with no fear.

Jonathan hanging out with Emily.

"It's too loud!"

Watching a huge fireworks display in our driveway.

Andrew liked the fireworks, but not the noise. So, Keith gave him some headphones to block out the sound. Andrew called them speaker phones.
And please don't mock his outfit. He was in pjs and needed shoes and really needed to go to bed!

Watching the fireworks with our neighbors.

We had dinner with friends on Saturday night and the older boys had little fireworks to set off. Andrew was freaked out and wanted nothing to do with the noise. But he started to warm up to them about the time we headed for home. He also saw lots of big fireworks in the sky as we drove home and those were super cool and quiet.

So, when we got home, we told him he could watch more fireworks after his bath. I think that may have been his fastest bath on record.

Every year, our neighbor sets up an elaborate, amazing fireworks show. They shoot them off right outside our house and we sit in our driveway and watch and hope the boys don't wake up. Last year they slept through it, and Jonathan slept through it again this year. But we decided to let Andrew stay up WAY past him bedtime and watch this year, and he LOVED it! Every day since, he asks if it's Fireworks Day. We have tried to explain that it was only for one day, but that is a very hard concept when some neighbor kids are still setting off little ones throughout the week. Hopefully next year he won't be so afraid of the noise!