Independance Day!

We LOVE the 4th in our small town. It is a BIG deal here! Everything shuts down for the day, everyone is out and there is a big party! We party from sun up to sun down. We start every 4th at the church for a flag raising and cinnamon rolls! Then we head off to the children's parade. This is basically all the kids in town show up ready to walk, ride, or what ever down the main street in town. This is the "opening act" to the bigger town parade. My kids love participating in this here is a picture of them lined up for that!
This is the only way we could keep Ruth out of the middle of the road and this only worked for a short time. In a chair with candy!

The "big kids" waiting for the parade!
This was Amelia's fancies hair to date! It is a flag and I am sorry the picture isn't as clear as I thought it was when I took it but if you look close the upper left has tiny buns that make the stars of the flag and then there are 6 french braids making the stripes. It wasn't to bad to do and we copied the idea from my favorite hair blog! But she got lots of comments and it held up really well which I was actually worried about! Hayden actually let me do a star in hers with pigtails but sorry no picture!
After the parade we always throw a big BBQ for all our friends. Her is a great picture of the "rescue mission!" Ethan was being super smart and was walking on the top of our back fence... then what do you know he fell over into a GIANT patch of blackberries! It was quiet the event! Larry had to lift a latter over and wedge it down so he could climb back out. No major injuries just a lot of scratches. He will live, although he tried to milk it for the rest of the day!There was a lot of other excitement too. Some water fights... I got Larry with a water balloon, tried to get Neal with one, then they threw me in the pool... A bunch of other people ended up getting wet on accident... you know the story it is hot there is water around and adults who never really wanted to grow up, that is the way we roll! It was a lot of fun and a lot of great food! We look forward to doing it again next year. But we weren't done yet! When the sun goes down the next party starts!
This picture pretty much sums it up. Ruth is NOTHING like Hayden and LOVES the fireworks. She would cry till you gave her another sparkler. She had a great time!

Week 3 of Summer break/ 4th of July

This year we did all our celebrating on the 3rd of July as the 4th was Sunday. We started with the ward's annual Cinnamon rolls, and flag raising! This year it was followed by a softball game. It was 1st ward vs. 3rd ward! 1st ward totally creamed them!!! It was like 8 to 2. But I have to admit we only had one person on our team under the age of 18 and the other ward half their players were. It was a lot of fun and only one injury! But nothing to major thankfully just a bruise. We had our BBQ in the afternoon and then went down to the river for fireworks. Here they do them for a few days. It was a lot of fun. On the 4th we lit off our fireworks at home after having Family Home Evening!

Ruth Looking cool!
The swings are always a hit! I think only one kid got kicked by a person swinging this year. Must be some kind of record!

Ruth loved all the excitement! Not that there isn't plenty of that on a regular basis but this was a much larger scale! She is a party animal!

Our annual BBQ was a lot of fun! Some of our regulars weren't here this year and they were missed but we all still had a lot of fun!

The big pool was a hit too. It was nice to have this and the kids have a lot of fun!

A bunch of the kids enjoying the "hot tub" That is what they were calling the little pool since it warms up faster.

Memorial Day weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend was kicked off on Friday with Brock's 7th birthday. I already posted the party pictures and here is the picture of him with his Dino cake! We had cake Friday night when we got home from the ward lip sync. It was a long and busy day! But he loved it and had a great day! (all that matters really!)Friday while I was running a party full of kids Larry unloaded a load of mulch for our garden. It was a mix of a bunch of stuff and should be wonderful for our garden! He got it all done late Friday night after all the festivities!

Saturday was spent playing baseball and unloading bark dust for our flower beds! Our front yard now looks soooo beautiful. The kids really got into helping with this project. They have small wheel barrows and had a lot of fun running them. (they only hold a couple shovels full but every bit counts and they enjoyed working so it was fun!) Even Hayden got into the action!

Amelia liked running the broom more then the wheel barrows but helped anyway! It is amazing how much help the CAN be when they want to be. With me being mid way through this pregnancy I have to say I feel it a LOT more then ever and it is nice to feel like they are helping where I might not be as able as I would like to be. I typically just do everything while I am pregnant and don't really hold back. I don't like using it as an "excuse" to get out of things but I have to admit I feel an urgency to not over do it this time. I notice that I can get contractions or braxton hicks already when I get very physical. I don't know if it means anything but typically that is a last month thing for me so I am trying to not over do and find out the hard way that I should take it easy. I am not being lazy by any stretch of the imagination. I did baby sit like 100 kids this week, but I am not super comfortable pushing a wheel barrow...

Isn't Hayden cute with her wheel barrow!

Ethan was such a big help! We also planted our garden on Monday and I was surprised at how fast we got it done. We put Hayden down for her nap and Ethan, Brock and Amelia dug the holes and all I did was put the plants in. Then they all gave each of the plants the water with B1 while I supervised. Then they all helped clean up while I got stuff ready for a BBQ. I was shocked at how fast it went and how much help they really were this year! I was so proud of them. Ethan is the official weeder this year because that will be one of the things I know will be dang near impossible with my belly being a giant as it already is!!! He is very excited about this job and I know he will do a wonderful job. It is nice when they get to be good helpers! (And willing ones!!!)

Another exciting thing from this weekend was Saturday there was a baseball tournament. Ethan's team played at 11:00 and Ethan got his very first hit of the season! He hit it clear passed the basses and it rolled into the out field! He made it to 1st base. The next 2 hitters made hits to base and the bases were loaded the next guy hit a grand slam and they all ran in! It was very very exciting!!! They won their game by a landslide and moved on in the tournament. The down side was the next game was on Sunday. I knew a head of time that if they won they would have a Sunday game. I asked Ethan what he wanted to do if this happened and he told me he would tell his coach he wouldn't be there for the Sunday game. Which he did. I was so proud of him for making a good choice on his own. (I would have made it for him if he had made the wrong choice though.) Anyway we will find out Wed how his team did in the rest of the tournament. They have only lost one game all season so I am hoping that they did well.

On Monday when we were all done with the planting, and everything was cleaned up we had a BBQ with friends. It was a lot of fun. We have some friends who are moving away in a few weeks (which happens a lot in this ward). It makes me sad to see them go. We were really hoping they would stay around for a long time but sadly the school district is not seeing it my way! Anyway it was nice to just visit with friends, and let my body rest while we ate tons of yummy food. I am sorry to say I didn't take any pictures even though I really should have. I doubt I have any pictures at all of our friends that are moving! It was a beautiful weekend and we got lots done! Hope yours was good too!