pools + picnic + sparklers = long post...

here i am, making up for slacking off yet again. having to "catch up" time and again isn't teaching me my lesson, it seems... so here we are with another long post. then again, there's so much we like to share it can't really be helped!!

once the weather FINALLY warmed up and the rain went away, it was time to take out the kiddie pool. daddy hosed it out and cleaned it up, then filled it for the littles. neither cole nor madi were really sure what to do, exactly, so they started with some tentative splashes, then some dramatic marching through the water...

... which escalated to jumping (madi fell backward over the side at least three times, silly girl!!)...

... and finally all-out full-body splashing. the water level went down pretty quickly, but they sure had a ball!

(i love my camera's shutter speed... catching those huge splashes is tons of fun when the shutter can keep up with them!)

last sunday after meeting we stayed at mom and dad's for a picnic. the kids haven't had one before, at least not that they really remember, so it was exciting for them. they sat so patiently at the table- or maybe it was the novelty of it that kept them entertained.

grandpa and his "princess" had some bonding time after lunch. madi doesn't get the whole nick-name thing, so when my dad calls her his princess, she replies with "no, i'm just MADI". :)

grandma and cole blew bubbles...

... and remington chilled with his daddy.

then he chatted with mommy for a little bit (thanks to kelvin for the photo!)

wednesday was our ninth anniversary, and kelvin surprised me with roses! it had been "one of those days" so they were a nice surprise. it doesn't seem like it's been nine years... in some ways it seems like just yesterday that we said our vows, but in other ways it feels like this is all we can remember (in a good way, of course). we've been through a lot and have each other to thank for getting through it. and we've learned that it's ok to fight, as long as we're fighting for each other. nine years finds us stronger, wiser and with three small, beautiful babes under-foot. what could be better??

i dug out the walk-about for remington to use, seeing as he's more alert and wanting to actually DO something these days. there's one small problem, though: he's so petite that it takes mounds of blankets to hold him in place! by the time he's all tucked in, he's already bored. or mad. either way, he's going to have to get a bit bigger before the fun factor can be figured in. poor baby!!

this past saturday (the 2nd) kelvin and i left the kids with mom and dad and took remington to minnesota. it was just a quick day-trip to take sarah's bed to chase's apartment so he has something comfortable to sleep on his last month of being a bachelor. the day was perfect for travel, but i forgot the camera so we got no photos of remington's first roadtrip. we were kind of discombobulated before leaving though- it was wicked hot friday, so the barn apartment was stifling... it hadn't had much of a chance to cool down before the big windstorm hit and the power went out. it was still out when we left (around 5.30-ish) so not only were we a bit on the warm side, i didn't get to take a shower. yuck. but we made the best of it, enjoyed a good drive, had some time together and were glad to see cole and madi when we got home.

of course, they'd made the most of their day too- fresh air, room to run, playing with grandma, grandpa, auntie sarah and uncle chase... they were on top of the world, i think! they even "helped" with cleaning; cole did a wonderful job on the door.

two kids + two squirt bottles makes for some pretty good fun!

daddy's truck even got a "washing"... they were too cute, squirting the truck with water, pleased as punch to be cleaning daddy's hemi.

poor remington had a case of the crankies, though- he did wonderfully in his carseat the entire trip, but when we got him out of it after getting back, he realized he had a lot of fussing to make up for.

last night i had a little fun in the kitchen. it involved lemons, raspberries, honey, a saucepan and a strainer.

homemade raspberry-lemonade syrup!! it's really good with seltzer water, but plain water will do just fine too. it turned out a little more tart than i'd planned, but it won't be a problem to stir a little sugar in our glasses along with the syrup.

after supper and once i was done with the syrup, we went next door to let the kids play while we waited for dark and fireworks. henry and cole had some fun with henry's swords (i love the look on henry's face!!)... definitely little boys, those two!

miss maggie wanted to hold the baby, so she got her turn with baby remington.

another couple and their two little girls came over as well, and all the kids played duck-duck-goose. cole and madi are at the age now where they can learn and enjoy games like that but there's hardly enough people with just the two of them and me. they caught on rather quickly and had a ball! it was funny to watch: 6 kids all under the age of 5, running around. they all played so well together :)

before long, it was dark enough to break out the sparklers. our kids have never seen them- in fact, this was the first year they stayed up to watch the big fireworks, so everything was really new and exciting.

cole was a little unsure but still got a kick out of his very first sparkler.

madi held hers at arm's length...

maggie looks hypnotized!!

... and madi STILL had her's out as far away as possible. she was a trooper, though, and held onto it till it fizzled out.

:)

cole got the hang of things and was willing (begging) to do more...

... but all of a sudden his sparkler was on the ground and was was screaming. he was crying and trying to keep his left foot up, but it was so dirty from running around that i had to take him back to the house to check things out.

it seems that the top part of his sparkler had fallen onto the ground after it burned and not seeing it, he stepped on it. he has a nice blister on the bottom of his poor little foot. i washed it off, disinfected it, stuck a bandaid over it, put his shoes on and back to the neighbors' we went. he wasn't interested in sparklers anymore, though. this morning when i asked him how the owie on his foot was, he squinted up one eye, held his thumb and finger a few millimeters apart and said, "it's just a little bit owie".

once it finally got dark enough, we all migrated out to the sidewalk to watch the big fireworks. it's always guess-work when it comes to how cole will react to new things, but he did great! he sat in the lawn chair the entire time watching them; he even mentioned something about the thunder, hahahahaha!

they were pretty...

... even madi thought they were neat, once she got her face out of daddy's shoulder. it was pretty cute- she was clinging to him for dear life even before the big boomers started (we had a few bottlerockets and someone down the street had a few they were setting off, which scared her a little), and even as her face stayed buried in his shoulder, she kept saying "i want to see, daddy!".

the other remington from next door came home for the last bit of fireworks, so after everything was over with, we HAD to get a shot of the two remingtons... or as the older one said, "remington squared". our little remington slept through the entire display, safely wrapped in the moby. i love that thing!

so despite our first fire-works injury (thankfully quite minimal), our little family enjoyed our very first fireworks show together... and it was fun to have been able to hang out with our lovely neighbors!! :)