We like, we like to party

Does anyone have a song stuck in their head now? No? Then we can no longer be friends. Sorry! 

Over the summer, we have had several friends turn another year old.

In June, Audrey turned 15. FIFTEEN! I remember when she was just a tiny little thing. She looked a porcelain doll. Now, she is a beautiful young woman. Her and Dom have been like brother and sister for as long as I can remember. They lean on each other when they need to. Talk about how crazy their parents are together, or so I assume. Heh. We celebrated her big day on her real birthday during Amy's ice cream social party.

Ethan turned 4 years old in June. He had an awesome TMNT party that the kids loved. They got to make nun-chucks. They got to smash open a pinata. Play at the park and have some yummy food.

Next up, we celebrated Lily's 4th birthday. She had a strawberry party and it was adorable. Yummy food, great decorations and fun people! The pinks, greens and reds were perfect and I loved all the polka dots. Steph always makes a home made cake and her strawberry cake was delish!

Finally, we celebrated Liam's 1st birthday and his big sister Lily's 3rd birthday. They had a combined Super hero and Frozen party. Everything was split down the middle and was decorated perfectly.
We had a yummy dinner and snacks. I had unfortunately hurt my neck the day before so was on muscle relaxers and pain medicine, very unlike myself. Liam used the wooden high chair that a lof of our kiddos have used. Steph bought it at a church and used it with Lily when she turned one then we have each used it and signed our names on the bottom of it. Such a great tradition!

It was a great summer of celebrating all these kids that we adore and love.

Pool Parties

This summer we started up our swim parties again! Our good friend, Amber, invites us to dinner and swimming one night a week at her Moms house. It has been one of my favorite memories from 2 summers ago and is from this summer too. Charlie was just a over a year old when we started and loved splashing. Logan was 2.5 and also loved the pool. Dominic has loved swimming since he was their age as well.

This year Audrey also got a new trampoline, it sits right beside the pool. The kids have fun going from the pool to the trampoline and back to the pool.

Our kids love spending time with their friends. They pretty much ask daily what we are doing and if they get to see their friends. It is adorable how much they love them.

The babies get in on the action in the pool too. Dom loves holding Liam and swimming around. Violet always looks adorable when she gets to the pool! She is such a pretty girl.

I am going to miss our swimming fun nights now that school starts in 2 days and summer has come to an end. I hope we continue this fun tradition next year!

Celebrating America

The 4th of July was my Dad's thing. He loved hosting a huge picnic, grilling for everyone and having fun with his family and friends. This tradition has been passed down to my family and we enjoy it, almost as much!

Our picnic is never on the 4th of July. I have too many family members that work and would not be able to attend, so we have it either Saturday or Sunday around the 4th. This leaves the 4th open for us to join our good friends Stef and Grant, along with their family, for a big picnic! A parade in our small home town! And, of course, fireworks!

As soon as we arrived at the picnic, it was time for food. (perfect timing) We sat down, ate and then headed down to the parade. 

After the parade, the kids had so much fun riding on the golf cart. They took turns in the front seat and cramming onto the back.

The grown ups play some games of corn hole. I found out that I am not too bad! Before we knew it, it was time to head out to see the fireworks.

The following day, we had our picnic here with our family and friends. My best friend was in town and she got to attend. She hadn't been to one of our picnics in years. It made this picnic that much better.

The kids had a great time playing in the tunnel that I had bought. They crawled through it, rolled down the hill in it and ran around with it on their bodies. It was so funny.

Next year we will have a trampoline to add to the fun for the kids. It is here (Logan asked for one for his birthday so we got one for all 3 of them and will be putting it up soon).

 

We even had our own fireworks display thanks to some friends. 

The night sky was gorgeous. 

I did not get to take as many pictures as I wanted because I was hosting. Cannot wait until next year. Our annual traditions with family and friends are the best and I treasure them.

Sun, Sand and Surf

In July we headed to New Jersey. We adore the beach. The sun, sand, water and smiles that they all bring to our faces!

Our first stop was a quick trip to Sesame Place on the way. The kids love it there and we still have our membership from last year. (I do not take my camera in because we took pictures last year and I did not want to worry about keeping my eye on it).
They played in the water and rode down some water slides. No fear, those kids. Charlie and Logan loved the rides. So much so, Charlie actually had a melt down because she could not just stay on and keep riding. Haaaa!

I got a call from our friend, Amber and the kids. They were leaving NYC and were going to join us for a day at the beach. I text them our address of the hotel we were staying in at Atlantic City and they met us there later that night. It just so happen to be Amber's birthday too. So we had a big dinner out to celebrate that. The kids were SO excited that their friends stopped by. All week long, they called the room next to ours "Audrey and Jack's room" well after they had gone home to Pa.

The kids had a blast on the boardwalk after dinner. They rode rides at the pier. Gary and Audrey even rode the Sling Shot (they sit in a ball and get shot into the air and bounce up and down for awhile). It was a long, crazy and fun day.

The second day was spent on the beach and boardwalk. Dom and Audrey got henna tattoos. We went out to eat and for ice cream. Played in the sand and water. Gary and I walked along the beach, holding hands (one of my favorite things to do).

The rest of the week was all pretty much the same. Ocean, eating at new places that we have not been before, boardwalk, rides and fun. We did get poured on one night coming out of dinner. The lighting over the ocean was beautiful but we were soaked and freezing!

Gary played a few slots and the kids and hung out in the casino lobby while he did. These 3 kids...pretty darn cute! (if I do say so, myself)

On Thursday, it was raining when we woke up. Gary and I researched places to go inside during breakfast. We ended up at the Aquarium, with just about everyone in Atlantic City!

Petting sharks

Petting horseshoe crabs

Logan watching the turtles and talking to them like they are the TMNT (I adore this kid)!

After the rain went away, we headed back to the boardwalk and rode more rides. This is the kids second favorite thing to do. The love it! I am guessing we need to make it to an amusement park soon!

And I did some shopping while the kids had a cool tasty treat of shaved ice.

Before we knew it, it was Friday and time to leave the beach. I had lost my real camera charger so no awesome family/kids beach picture this year. This is as good as I got on my phone:

Makes me sad that I will not get a canvas this year of the kids at the beach. However, we may try to go up to the lake and get pictures before the end of summer to add to our vacation wall. We had a good time. Until next year, ocean. Until next year!