July Catch-UP

Once again I got really behind. So this weekend (while sitting on the 7th floor balcony of our condo on the beach - ahhh) I put some of the pictures from the past month together. So this is everything and anything from the past month minus the trip to Michigan and the beach which are going to have more than enough to merit a post of their own.

Avery has new roller skates from her birthday and I realized it wasn't very easy to have one kid with roller skates. So Harrison now has roller blades. He is even better on them then her. It is a pretty common thing around here for my kids to be roller skating around the house instead of walking.

Harrison and Will in Grandma Neenie's pool. "Throw me Dad" and "Spin me in circles Dad" are the most used phrases when we go swimming together.




These are from the last playday with friends at our house. Harrison really wanted to try tie-dye so I thought "why not do it with 9 other kids" and yes I really thought that. They had fun, were exceptionally well behaved (yet very very loud) and everyone ended up with a cool shirt.
Harrison and James picking out their style
Avery and Cora working on their shirts
Harrison working
Avery all princess-ed up next to Nicole for lunch
This is when Avery wanted to jump on the trampoline in her skates


Will and I went out the weekend before our anniversary by ourlselves but on our actual anniversary we took the kids to Sea World at night for the "Shamu Rocks!" show and fireworks.

Looking up at Manta, the new roller coaster.

Carousels are Avery's favorite
My kids have to pretend to swim in front of this picture every single time we go to Sea World.

Kid rides...Will is very scared.


I always think he looks so small walking with Will, then I remember how tall Will is and realize he is really growing up.....A random day at the Beach

Same thought as above
I have started calling Avery the "Butterfly Whisperer" Ever since our trip to the butterfly encounter she is obsessed with them (and all other bugs to a slightly lesser degree) and they seem to be just as obsessed with her. This is the second time since then I have seen her walking around with a butterfly on her finger or hand.

Summer Photo Shoot

This is All of the pictures from our summer photo shoot. Even the silly and bad ones. It was humid and Avery was distracted. Harrison honestly loves getting his picture taken, unfortunately he tries so hard that he either looks sad or stressed out. So my main goal was to get Harrison not to try to pose and Avery to look somewhere in the vicinity of the camera. I do think I got a couple of good ones.

(note: thanks to Jamie and Brianna for having such cute tutu pictures so we wanted a tutu as well)

Elephant Jokes

The kids wanted to make a comedy show. I guess they only know jokes about elephants right now. I'm sorry to say I think they got their joke telling skills from me not Will.

The New Water Park

There is a brand new park with water fountains near our house. It is a beautiful park and I am sure we'll be back soon. It was way too hot for a long visit, and Harrison wants me to say it was really stinky. It is right on the lake and I think the intense heat may have brought out the fish smell, at least I am hoping that's it.

Running in the water

Harrison taking care of Avery after she got squirted right in the eye

Run Avery run

Climb Avery Climb

Climb some more, it's only 100 degrees out today!


And this when Harrison got really over heated and sat under the pavilion with me...I took about 30 more..

Pool Jumping

O.k. so it's probably going to mess up my chronological order but these pictures from today are cute. Harrison started jumping last year and Avery has suddenly figured out water going over her head isn't a bad thing so she is joining in.... I think she will be going off the diving board by the end of the summer.

Check out the stacked tubes too. Avery's head pops out by the third shot:)

I figure another year and he will be too tall to jump into our little pool anymore.

The giant summer catch up post.

O.k. I have gotten behind again. SO here are a bunch of pictures up to last week.. There are more from last week that haven't been uploaded but this will hopefully get me closer to caught up.


Avery and her roller skates. She is doing ok in them, but she won't be auditioning for the roller derby anytime soon..


Tinker Toys! Will and Harrison are just as excited as her.
Swimming with friends - it has been a hot hot summer already and we are grateful for all the time we have been able to spend in the water.
Avery, Nicole and Cora
All the kids swimming with Uncle Dan. He is now somewhat of a celebrity in the seven and under crowd around here. Actually, since most of my friends would like to hire him as their "manny" I guess he is pretty popular in the mom crowd as well.And their will be more soon.....

Avery's Birthday Party

This year Avery had her birthday party at the Build-a-Bear workshop with a couple of her friends. Oh and her "best friend" Harrison who she allowed to come despite the fact that was too old. They had a great time, Avery picked a pink unicorn and named it sparkles. Tomorrow is her actual birthday and there will be more pictures then.





Yay look at our fun animals!
The cake
The cupcake she blew her candle out on
(she was really sick this past week and we wanted to keep germs away from the cake - just in case)