3rd of July!

Every year in Boston Harbor they have a huge fireworks display and the entire community gets really into the whole thing. People have huge parties, the roads are blocked off and everyone is out cruising around the neighborhood into the wee hours of the night. Last year we spent the 4th of July in Florida and missed our first 3rd of July in the new house so this year we decided to invite friends over and have our first "big bash" in the house. The evening turned out to be a fun one! It was a hot day and all the kids (around 25 or so...) played on the slip-n-slide until the sun went down. They were all amazing- no tears, no arguing! We ate lots of food (and lets not forget to mention we drank a little bit as well!) and shared lots of laughs. Around 10 p.m. the entire group headed down the street to watch the fireworks. It was an all around great, fun day!

***For some reason the pictures aren't dragging like they usually do...now they are all stuck together! Ugh.

Fun Day on Black Lake

I have been pestering Dave (yes, I do love to pester that boy!) about taking the boat out to the Lake to "test" run it for Crescent Bar to make sure it is running well before we are using it lots and when the girls and I got home from Everett we decided to head out and go for it! I am so glad we did. We had a BLAST! There is just something about sitting back and watching the girls laugh and giggle together about nothing particular and that is what they did the entire time on the boat. Maddie was the dare devil (weird!) and wanted Dave to go extremeley fast in the boat while Taylor of course wanted him to slow down! Taylor would stick her toes oh so gently into the water and Maddie would practically jump right in to the water. It was hilarious! The boat ran well for sitting in the garage all winter and it truly was a fun way to spend our Sunday together. I am excited for many more boat rides to come!

A Classic Maddie face!

Taylor (and Maddie) screamed as loud as they could when the boat was moving! Something about the wind....

I love this picture...my 3 favorite people!

Maddie and I enjoying some time together on the boat!

Mukilteo Beach

Our first week of "vacation" has flown by! Dave is still working until Wednesday of this coming week and I had to take a class all of last week from 8-4. Not exactly my idea of a fun first week of summer vacation but it is all done now! Dave's mom took the girls for us on Monday and Tuesday and my mom met me on Tuesday night at Southcenter and she kept the girls for us until Saturday morning. It was so nice not to have to worry about them! The girls had a great week with their grandma's and are exhausted! They did the museum, lots of parks, visits to Grandma Oh-Oh's, to Nana's house and to a "birthday party" for Taylor at McDonalds with Connie and Richard! I drove to Everett yesterday to pick them up and we spent the day at Mukilteo Beach with my mom, sister and Emilie. I haven't been to the beach in awhile and they have re-done the whole thing. They have a great park now and the beach has been really cleaned up. We all had a great time! We also had lunch at Ivar's which was delicious! We discovered that Taylor loves clam chowder and that Maddie detests it (shocking!). We spent the rest of the day playing in the pool at my mom's and babysitting Emilie while Darci and Paul went to a dinner party. I think my mom was very okay with us leaving this morning bright and early...she was ready to clean up the house and have some quiet time to herself :)

We are going to enjoy our week coming up- we are having all of our friends over for a BBQ/fireworks show that goes on each year at the marina on Friday and then we are heading to Dave's dad's for a BBQ and swim party on the 5th. We will leave from there to head over the moutains to spend the week at Crescent Bar. yea!

Father's Day!

We had a great (and somewhat comical) day today! Taylor gave Dave a special present this morning...sleeping in until 9:00! Wow! Now, only if Maddie would start doing that :) After Dave and Taylor got up we had waffles and bacon for breakfast and Dave opened his gifts from us. His favorite? I found the cards that you can record the girls voices on- they turned out really cute and I know that he will treasure them forever! We were then off to Emerald Downs for some fun. Here is where our day got extremely comical and at one point Dave and I looked at each other and could only giggle uncontrollably! So...we get to the horse races and the girls are very excited about the horses, the crowds, the bouncy house, etc. It is somewhat overcast at this point and a little bit windy but we carry on our way. We watch race #1 and then the girls want to check out the bouncy house so Dave is going to go head in to place a bet for Race #2 and I take the girls to the family fun section. The weather is slowly starting to get worse- the wind is picking up and rain clouds are rolling in. We watch Race #2 from the pony line. Dave leaves us again to bet on Race #3. We are 3 spots away from the front of the pony line and that is when everything turns sour! All of a sudden all I hear is screaming and I turn and look and the gigantic bouncy house that is a slide has come off the stakes (with children on it) and is literally flipping all the way down to the horse track. The ponies notice the screaming and buck 3 of the kids off of them. Let's not forget that at this point in time the clouds open up and literally DUMP rain on us. I was highly concerned about the little children that were stuck in the bouncy house but was happy mine were with me. I grabbed their hands and we ran for cover. When I told the story to Dave all we could do was laugh. We left 10 minutes later. What a day! But you know what? We were together, having a great time which is all that really mattered! I don't think the girls will ever want to go back- Taylor is in our bed right now because she was afraid she was going to have nightmares tonight! Happy Father's Day!

Dave opening his cards from the girls.

Taylor and Maddie before entering the horse races. Notice their attire? Perfect for a down pour!

I forgot to mention that it was free cap day.....Checking out the horses.

Broken Collar Bone!

On the morning of Taylor's kid birthday party, Maddie woke up crying saying that she had fallen out of bed. Dave and I weren't too concerned about it but when we tried to take her jammies off her to put sunscreen on she couldn't lift her arm up without crying. Dave ended up taking her to the walk in clinic that day to have it checked on. 3 hours later they were back, enjoying the kid party. The doctor had said she had just bruised it pretty badly and that in 4 or 5 days it would be just fine. We carried on with life and Maddie seemed to be doing great! Well, 2 days ago, the girls were in the tub and I was washing them down and I noticed this rather large "lump" on her collar bone. I called Dave in and we both got a bit worried about it. It felt like her bone was literally growing up into a ball. Needless to say, she headed back to the doctor yesterday where without even taking an X-Ray they told us that she has a broken collar bone. Thankfully, the break is healing how it should be and we actually don't have to do anything for it. We got extremely lucky because if it hadn't been a clean break the bones might not have met up nicely like they are doing right now. Phew... Maddie is doing GREAT! She has been arguing with Taylor that her "neck" is not broken and that it is all better!

Taylor's Ballet Recital

We got to enjoy Taylor's ballet recital this weekend! Wow! What an improvement from the last Spring Recital. No tears and only a little bit of stage fright. I was so proud of her! She told me before her dress rehearsal that she was "very scared but that she would be her bravest". She didn't show it on stage this year that she was scared at all. I think I even saw a smile on her face! Thank you to all the family who came to watch her! It meant the world to her and when I went to pick her up after the performance she asked me "where are my fans, mom?" Too cute!

I love this shot...look at those buns :)

So proud of herself and very happy that her family came to see her dance!

We can't forget about Maddie! She wore her tutu to the performance!

Princess Party!

The day after Taylor's birthday she had her friends over for a Princess Party. She had two requests for the party- a castle cake with all the princesses around it and a bounce house for everyone to play in. Our friends were nice enough to let us borrow their bounce house for the day and the princess cake turned out very nicely! It was a little warm out so it ended up being very lopsided but I was still impressed by it! I think Taylor had a fun day- all the kids played in the bounce house, pinned roses on Belle and just ran around outside. Taylor got lots of great gifts from her friends and if you didn't know it you would have thought this party was actually a Hannah Montana party and not a Princess one based on all of the Hannah Montana "junk" she got! She is still in heaven playing with it all! A memorable day for sure! We love you Taylor Bug!

Taylor and some of her friends enjoying lunch!

The castle cake! Thank you to my mom and Carolyn for all their hard work with this!

Taylor and her cake....it was hot and at this point had lost all interest!

My new favorite picture of the girls. I always have the kids sit with the birthday girl while they open up the gift they brought for them and I take their picture and then send the picture in the thank you card. This was the picture of Maddie giving Taylor her gift. I just love it!