Independence Day

 What does the Fourth of July look like to us?

Kids wearing red, white and blue and eating watermelon.

Dad's cooking out on the grill.

 Happy kids.

 Kids cooling off from the hot sun by playing with the hose.

 Good, All American food. 

Hamburgers and hot dogs. :)

 American Flag cake. 

We never go without this. Little Miss Chatterbox looks forward to it every year. This year? She made the entire thing by herself from start to finish! It was a jell-o poke cake. She used blue jell-o and added red sprinkles to the cake batter. So even the inside was red, white and blue!

 Sparklers. 

The kids were trying to write their names with them which is why they have such funny expressions on their face. They're concentrating pretty hard. :)

 Fireworks. 

We usually go to my parents house and watch the town's big fireworks from their front yard. That didn't happen this year. So Mike got some fireworks to do at home. This was a big treat for the kids. They had never seen fireworks like this before. I was afraid they'd be disappointed but they loved it! They oohed and awwed and clapped and didn't want it to end. Even Little Miss Sunshine kept saying, "'Nother one, Dad! 'Nother one!". It was a lovely ending to our day.

God Bless America!

June (Part Two)

First Day of Summer

We celebrated the start of summer with a water balloon fight. I wanted to start a fire in the fire pit and make s'mores too, but we didn't end up doing that until the end of July!

Little Miss Sunshine's Butterfly Party

We had a busy but fun day at my parents house as we celebrated Little Miss Sunshine's 2nd birthday. We ate pizza and cake, opened presents, went swimming and then spent the evening with Nana. Oh, and had a tea party! Uncle Ju got Sunshine a tea set for her birthday and Little Miss Chatterbox took it out on the porch and set up a nice little tea party for her, Sunshine and Uncle Ju.
 (The clear, bright pictures were taken by Justin)

Little Miss Sunshine's Birthday

On Little Miss Sunshine's actual birthday, we went to Mike's parents house for swimming, cupcakes and presents. She was so exhausted by the end, as you can see in that last picture! Two days of celebrations for this two year old was almost too much! :)

Last Day of School!

We always celebrate the last day of school with bubblegum ice cream in a cone. But I couldn't find any bubblegum ice cream this year! So, we ate party cake ice cream instead. The kids didn't mind. They love party cake ice cream. Congratulations to Little Miss Chatterbox for passing third grade and to Mr. Funny for passing first grade!

Summer Craft

I had originally planned to make tie-dyed heart shirts with the kids for the Sacred Heart feast. But like most times, we don't always get to everything I plan. But that's okay. We get to them eventually. :) 

I have been making tie-dye for a few years now. My first attempt was making onesies for Little Miss Chatterbox before she was even born. I like to buy the kits by Tulip. They make it so easy that even Little Miss Sunshine was able to squirt the dye on her shirt. I knew that Chatterbox would love this project but wasn't so sure about the boys. Turns out they loved it too! We will definitely be doing this again. A new summer tradition perhaps?