July 4th ( a year late)

So, this year is strange for July 4th for us.  We had a difficult time picking a camp week for Kate and Harry.  Harry usually goes to camp for two weeks and Kate wanted to go two weeks this year but due to an upcoming trip we decided that one week of camp would have to be it this year. Anyway, the only week they could BOTH go (due to camp availability) has them traveling home later today.  They actually arrive tonight.   We knew it was bad timing but it was all that could work with our summer plans and camp availability.

We've been invited to two parties but the camp pick up cuts into them both.  We will see how they are when we get them and we might go to one of the parties before pick up and one after:)

Anyway, I was looking back at former 4th of July posts and realized I never posted any photos of last year.  It was also a quiet 4th as the boys were at camp and Kate was the only one home with us.  That being said, Kate LOVES the little bike parade and carnival in our neighborhood and we always go.  I am sure she is really sad to have missed it this year.

So, I wanted to post the photos from last year.  I will post date them probably in a few days. It appears these are all from my iPhone.

Kate is very lucky that one of her best friends happens to be our next door neighbor.  These girls play all the time.  I went and got them all the stuff and they decorated their bikes together.

face painting + snow cones= fun


Now usually, Kate rocks the hula hoop contest.  She always wins.  Harry and I aren't too shabby either. In fact, our family often sweeps that one.  I don't have any video or photos so I am wondering if we left early.  I did find a brief video of the bubble blowing contest from last year.


Bubble blowing...





I have no clue what we did after the carnival because I obviously did not take any photos
(maybe I was having too much fun).

 And see that is why it is important to not wait a year to blog about something.

 We did have a little ice cream sundae party before bed though ( a little 4th tradition for us).

the 4th of July 2013

I need to get more creative with my blog titles.  Anyway, Our 4th of July was fun but a bit disjointed this year. Harry was graciously invited to a resort (just outside of town) with a family for a few days so he was gone most of the day. Ironically, some of our good friends Hoot and family were also at the resort and they brought Harry home and stayed for dinner!  We love "the Hoot family" so much.  And our kiddos have very special friendships as well.  They are "salt of the earth" good people.

So, our day started kind of early. Dave and Will went off to the DPS to practice parallel parking as a driving license test is coming up for him.  Apparently, you can practice at the DPS when they are closed and loads of people here practice the parallel parking because honestly in Texas that is not something we do a lot of.  But I digress...

Each year our neighborhood hosts a sweet bike parade and carnival.  It is very nice but very HOT.  I was soaked by the time we went the block and half to the school for the carnival.  With Harry gone and Will too old, we though maybe we'd skip it this year.  But NO WAY!  Kate is all about the 4th of July and she was so excited to go.  Seriously, you would have thought it was Christmas morning by Kate's excitement.

I had a very cute red, white and blue dress and bow all set for Kate but she vetoed it.  She said the dress might get in the way in the hula hoop contest (which she won last year and the year before) and she could not wear the bow with her bike helmet.  So we grabbed the whatever we could find.  Also, because we are slackers, we did not decorate her bike.

Kate did some crafts and got some painting on her arm.  Will was going to the Astros game with a bunch of his friends so Kate desperately wanted Dave to take her.  She got an Astro's baseball on her arm to seal the deal:)

So, onto the hula hoop contest...  Kate told me before we left for the parade.  "Mom it is going to be a lot tougher this year to win."  I said, "Why?"  She then told me that now that she was 7 she was in the 7-9 age group and those 9 year olds are really good.  Kate is not super competitive at all but she does like hula hooping and she is really good at it.

There was a window right behind her and it was so crowded that I could not move to the other side to take pictures.  Kate did VERY well in the hula hoop contest.  I thought she would win.  It was down to 3 girls.  And then they did the flamingo.  Kate can do it but she did not know she had to keep her foot up for the whole second song. So she put her foot up and then set it down and the DJ wanted them to keep it up.  So the the other girls tied for 1st and she came in 2nd.  She was happy with that!  I was happy that there were no junky stuffed animal prizes for 2nd place as I just cleaned out our play room!

I posted a video of her in the hula hoop contest on Instagram.  You can see it here. It really is better than these pictures and it is 15 seconds:) And her dancing here  (SO cute!).

After the carnival, I went shopping and started preparing dinner for our guests.  And Dave and Kate took off to the Astros game.   Dave sent me this from his phone:)

Later in the day, Shelly and family arrived and were kind enough to bring Harry home with them.  We had a casual dinner.  Poor Hoot was feeling sick so he laid on the couch most of the time.  And Libbie was exhausted but she rallied to have a giggly good time with Kate.  I absolutely LOVE seeing these girls play.  They just have the best time.  And they are pretty rough and tumble too.  They wrestle and belly bump!

There is a story behind this castle.  We are doing a MAJOR purge of our house (more on that soon) and we started with the playroom.  We literally got rid of half the stuff in there.  Kate fell in love with this castle when we went to Disney a few years ago.  Santa bought it for Christmas that year but she never plays with it.  Libbie loves it and plays with it every time she comes here.  So Kate decided to give it to Libbie.  It was very sweet.

After dinner we did a few fireworks.  Stephen and Shelly always bring my boys fireworks (which they LOVE).  Thank you for bringing them!!!

I love how Kate is dancing with JOY at Libbie's neon sparkler.  That is so Kate.  She LOVES Libbie so much!

Poor Hoot tried his best to have fun.  I sure hope he is feeling better today.

  LOVE this one of Will and Libbie!

Unfortunately, it started to drizzle and Owen and Harry were not feeling well so the night came to a early and sudden end.

  On the 3rd, it was just me, Kate and Dave and we took Kate swimming.  I just wanted to share her cute patriotic suit with y'all because it is probably my favorite suit this year...

{Instagram}

Of course, once all the peanuts were fnally together, I had to get a few pictures:)

I hope y'all had a safe and happy 4th of July!  

4th of July

Oh my goodness...we have had a lot of stuff going on and I will write more about all that soon...but tonight I am EXHAUSTED so I am going to make this quick.....

Our neighborhood has a great little 4th of July celebration.  We almost did not go this year due to some things but we rallied and went afterall.  In years past, Harry, Kate and I have all won the hula hoop contest and it is funny how people recognize us now for our mad hula hooping skills.  Anyway, I was in no mood to hula this year (very sore from my weight lifting class PLUS my plantar fasciitis (read excruciatingly sore foot) is back and a very stressful late night before).  But the kids did great....

Kate is ALL business with the hula hoop.  Some little boys hoop kept hitting her face and she spun on!

Yup--she WON!!!!

She shared 1st place with one of her little best friends, Layne....

Then it was Harry's turn.....

And he won 1st place too!!!!  He even beat all the girls in his age group!

If only there were corporate sponsorship or Olympic hula hooping, our family would have it made!!!

The it was time for the bubble blowing contest.  Harry won that last year too and he has been practicing  for a few weeks.  A teenage girl almost beat him but in the end it was a tie for 1st!



I am not sure if this was the winning bubble or not (they blow them during an entire song).


AND POP!



After the contest!

{Will has been doing a junior life-guarding program and he had to work the morning of the 4th.  He LOVES it though.  He cannot wait to finish his certification and work for $!  He has been working for free so far!}

Later that day, we went to our one of our best friend's house for a delicious cookout and fireworks.  I snapped a few photos as we were walking out the door...









  I brought a caprese salad with fresh basil from our garden and a spinach, feta, pine nut and strawberry salad with this dressing.  The dressing was DIVINE!  Although I make that salad a lot, I had never made that particular dressing before.  Try it.  It is so good. I will definitely make it again.

We had a nice day even though Dave was fighting bronchitis and we were dealing with some other stuff that I'll blog about soon.

Hope y'all had a great 4th of July!!!

You can see past 4th of July posts here.

4th of July Weekend (part 3)

Our neighborhood has a really sweet, old fashioned bike parade and carnival every year for the 4th of July.  The kiddos all meet about a block from our house and ride their bikes to our neighborhood school (another block and a half).  At the carnival there is a petting zoo, pony rides, free drinks and watermelon. All sorts of carnival games and contests.  It is such wholesome family fun.  And we see our neighbors, friends and school mates there:)

All the decorated bikes and wagons and scooters.  I was too lazy to get there in time to photograph the bike parade.  Harry made it in time and I think Kate and Dave brought up the rear.  We were kinda sleepyheads this year.

Kate danced us a storm with the DJ.  She did the twist and the hokey pokey and she turned herself around.

Harry won the bubble blowing contest AND came in 2nd in the hula hoop contest for his age group.  He almost won 1st in that hula hoop contest.  His hoop never fell but he put his foot down during the flamingo challenge at the last second.

I know this is a horrible photo but I had to show you Harry's hula hoop method.  He barely moves.  I am not sure how he does it.

Kate rocked the hula hoop contest and won 1st place in the 6 and under age group! She was ALL business and didn't even stop when the contest was over. She could have competed in the tricks with the older kids too!

She won this lovely teddy bear...

Harry won some stuffed thing too and a ring pop.  I have never been a fan of stuffed animals.

Then it was time for some serious business for the adult hula hoop contest.  You might remember that last year, I tied for 1st in the championship round.  I wasn't feeling it this year and was not going to compete but Harry urged me on as did some neighbors.

I was doing fine for a while but then I lost focus right about HERE when I turned and smiled for the camera....

and I was out. Oh well.  My abs still hurt.  A Dad won!  It was awesome.  A man has never won before.  He was quite good too.  See that booty?  That is my official "Summer of Pie" booty right there.  If you were here last summer, I had the "summer of salad with no dressing" booty (doctor's orders--damn crazy candida diet)!  I definitely see a bigger booty this year. Yeah, that "Summer of Pie" might not have been such a good idea after all! In fact, it might have interfered with my hula hooping abilities:) I mean really what was I thinking when I said we'd make a pie every week?! I did make a blueberry pie today though. And I ate a piece.

After the carnival, Dave took us out to our very favorite Mexican breakfast place on the planet.   YUM, I love my Mexican Omelet (also NOT good for the booty)! Seriously, we LOVE this place.  When we lived in Virginia we used to whine constantly about how much we missed our Taqueria.

I think we swam and recovered from our food comas in the afternoon.  At night we had family movie night and watched "How to eat fried worms."  It was really cute.  Good family flick.  I had to cover my eyes during some of the actual worm eating scenes (no real worms were injured supposedly). Then the boys snuck out to see the fireworks while Kate slept and I watched the Casey Anthony circus trial recaps on TV.  All in all, we had a GREAT weekend.