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;)