birthday fun

after having a mellow morning, we invited ryder's friend, oliver to come spend the afernoon with us, and stay for a sleepover! the boys play so nicely together, so it was such a fun day! we all went to the middleton pool, which is an outdoor pool with a few water slides that ryder has been waiting to check out all summer long, it was fun, but glad to have our pool membership at our little swim club!!! we then went back home for some backyard fun, dinner, sundaes (which we called "mondays"), and sparklers!

quinny painting with ryder's new paints! she loves this activity:)

playing some croquet, which he loves!!!

happy birthday ryder russell

our little rooster woke us all up at 545am on july 25th....to be expected, of coarse!

jesse and i put together a treasure hunt for the morning of the big day. we had 7 little gifts for ryder, so there were 7 clues leading him to his birthday treasure. it was so fun, and made the gift part last a little longer and took a little bit of the "crazy" away, which is always a good thing:) he also got to open gifts from extended family as well......what a lucky boy:)

birthday pancakes.....he blew the candles out before we even finished the song, what a punk!!

"when the hell is it my birthday??"

bubbles

made a large batch of bubbles for all the kids to play with while we were in birchwood......and had all sorts of weird tools to use for wands (rings, wands, spatula, fly swatter), but the all time favorite was, their hands!!!

after chasing bubbles for almost six years now, cohen finally caught one! he was so excited, i really think he was totally amazed by his raw talents:) oh, how i love being a witness to childhood!!!

"check this out mom"

family time

we drove up north to birchwood, for a super quick, and super fun weekend with family and friends.

cousin lani, aunt tessa, and quinny!

watch out....we're coming through!! quinn had so much fun playing with all the girls!!! she LOVES her girl time:)

ryder and cohen, acting like a couple of crazy monkeys! ha.....such a difference between genders sometimes, huh:)

breakfast...in the backyard!

happy 4th of july (ha! i'm sooo far behind)

chillin at james madison park, on lake mendota, waiting for the big show:)

it seems like the skies were gorgeous everywhere on the 4th......i was content with just the view!

birthday wish list

although we've been super busy these last few weeks, ryder was not going to miss out on making his annual birthday video....enjoy;)

childrens' deep thoughts....

sitting at the dinner table the other night, with food on her fork, quinn looks at me at says, very quietly with her inquiring little voice "mom, are going to be an old lady?", i was a bit caught off guard, but replied, "well, yes, i will, but not for a long time". then ryder chimes in "well, i will be an old man", then giggles, and then quinn says, very seriously, "and, i will be an old princess". we all started laughing so hard, ha! she's something else!

duet

so after watching tessa and i preform "rupert and mcgee", the kids were inspired to put on a show of their own. listen to ryder's voice, it cracks me up (when we did our skit our voices were different, so this must be his own "chin persons" voice). good stuff, good good stuff!

tessa poppins

aunt tessa surprised the kids and i, on my 33rd birthday, wow!! what an absolute, hands down, best present ever!!! we were all so excited to see her, and our house was filled with laughter, singing, a few tears (can't spend time with tessa without a tearful "ah, i just love you" moment), swimming, biking (in the rain), and lots and lots of skits! yes, tessa and i broke out the good ole' skits that we did when we were little, like the chin people, prisilla, 6 days later.....oh, they are all so funny!! the kids were so impressed, and i saw them watch us with bewildered eyes, and thought, what a great thing to show my kids; i was a super silly kid once!

outdoor entertainment

while camping i broke out the video camera, wow!! this will be so fun to watch when he's like 16, trying to be super cool, impressing the ladies......reality check, it's always a good thing!

i like to ride my bicycle

okay, this is coming to you a little late (long pants and a vest, definitely not summer attire), ha! i must have forgot about it.

quinn, once again, has surprised us with her amazing capabilities! she, like ryder, learned to balance on her little wooden bike (thanks again ny mangos), which she rides like a maniac! so, when ryder's friend wanted to give quinn his old two wheel pedal bike, she was just thrilled, and that is all it took, she wanted to ride! so here she is, her first ride down the road, at age 3!!! now, we only let her take it out on occasions, with us running close by, cause, we just can't trust our three year old quinny, she's a little dare devil;)