Fourth of July

Camping

7/1/09

We went on our first real camping trip with the kids last night. I wasn't sure how it would go with three kids age 4 and under, but we had a blast! The kids were so excited about the tent. Hannah and Ellie were great helpers when we were setting up the tent.
Hannah was a natural camper. Greg and I joked that it was like she had been camping for years. She was definitely in her element!

Once the tent was set up, the kids went crazy! They were absolutely giddy as they ran around and around inside of the tent! I tried to get a picture of the action, but the were running too fast for me to get a good one. Even thought it's not a great picture, the look on Ellie's face pretty much shows how excited all of the kids were in the tent.

The kids found these little windows near the door of the tent. They had so much fun crawling in and out of their "kid doors.

After supper, we roasted marshmallows over the fire and made smores. Poor Zach didn't get to try a real smore, but I think he had just as much fun eating the graham crackers.

Hannah and Ellie eating their smores. So delicious and oh-so messy!
I could not believe how excited Zach was to sleep in the tent. Our tent is a nine person tent, so we had plenty of room to set up the pack-n-play inside. As soon as we put his pajamas on, he walked right over to the tent to go to sleep. I thought we would struggle getting him to sleep, but he REALLY wanted to be in the tent. He was grinning from ear to ear as I laid him down, and I don't think we heard a peep from him after that.
After Zach went to sleep, we spent some time relaxing in front of the fire.


I just had to take a picture of the girls sleeping in the tent, mostly because I couldn't believe that they were actually sleeping! I think all of the kids had fallen asleep before 9:00! The kids all did such a great job. It was so much fun to spend some quality time as a family, doing something we all love.

Brenna's Birthday

6/27/09

We were able to go to the kids' cousin Brenna's 1st birthday party. We had such a great time celebrating with this sweet little girl!

Brenna loved her cake!

The whole family.

It was such a beautiful day, so we had a lot of fun in the water outside. Ellie and Hannah had a lot of fun on the slide...it was pretty fast when they were wet!
Running through the sprinkler.

We had a great water gun fight! I think the grown-ups had just as much fun as the kids!
Ellie chasing after me with her water gun!

My new favorite place

6/25/09

We went to the Kent Park Beach the other day, and we had a blast! The kids loved being able to play in the water and the sand! I loved it because it wasn't crowded at all. We will definitely be going back again!

Ellie spent most of the day playing in the sand.
The Miller's came with us, too. What a great day to splash and play with good friends!

Harvest

6/22/09

As most of you already know, Greg and I have had a lot of fun with our garden this year. We love being able to pick fresh veggies for supper. The girls think it's great, too! (They especially liked the strawberries!) Anyway, the girls helped me pick our first big batch of snap peas...my favorite garden vegetable!

Hannah and Ellie were great helpers! They helped me wash and snap off the ends of all of the peas. I remember doing the same with my mom when I was a kid. Hopefully this will be a fun memory for Hannah and Ellie, too.