Memorial Day

Memorial Day 2011: Jack wanted to swim in the baby pool, so John got out the baby pool and also the sandbox and filled them with ice cold hose water. Jack could hardly stand in the pools. I brought out the girls after breakfast and Elizabeth screamed in delight, splashed and sat down in the ice cold water. Not sure she is my child :) Anna and Kate were more reserved. They must take after me. After adding some buckets of hot water to the pools, all four kids screamed in delight, splashed and played in both pools. A favorite thing to do was to climb out of one pool and climb into the other. Repeat. Repeat about a hundred times. Anna and Kate were the first to tire of the pools and so we let the girls roam free outside for a little while. They absolutely LOVE to run in all directions outside without any gates. Around 11:00, we met the Frazier girls at the pool. We like that the splash puddle that is fenced in--the girls cannot escape! After eating lunch there, the girls went home for a quick snooze before we went to the Tin Caps game. OK, remember when I said the girls were getting easier and I wrote yesterday how excited I was about attending parties with the girls now that they are getting older. Well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Let's just say a Tin Caps game is a bit premature for the girls. I'm thinking we might have a year or two before we can attempt that again. The girls weren't bad, just EVERYWHERE. The game was so crowed and hot (mid 90s) and all they wanted to do was run in different directions and eat Cheerios off the ground (they were probably ones they dropped, but still). Thankfully, we had many extra hands to help.

Baby pools--pre-hot water

Anna having fun

The look of absolute delight in Elizabeth's face

Back and forth...

Warm water--thanks daddy!

Arlington pool

Lunch time

Kate is a nut over Doritos!

Anna

Tin Caps game

We pretty much sat on these benches right inside the entrance gate and allowed the girls to wander.

Kate is my biggest stinker these days!

Jack and Papa

Juice boxes for the girls. They will drink these up without stopping! Notice the knees of the three of them--all skinned up from all the running and falling outside.

Anna

Elizabeth

Kate

Sunday Parties

We went to Colin's second birthday party this afternoon. It was finally a nice day--not rain, but it was hot! The Lytle's put together a nice party for the kids. Jack enjoyed jumping in the giant castle and playing with Bella. The girls had fun running around outside and cooling off inside, too. We left that party early and went to Lucy's 4th birthday party a little late. We arrived just in time for singing, cake and ice cream! The best part of the day was while I was sitting at Mark and Chris's house, I realized that the girls are getting easier at these parties. They were very late for their nap, and they were manageable. We also managed to feed them lunch without getting out three very large, bulky highchairs and making a gigantic mess. They also played at each house without myself having a panic attack every five seconds about where they were or if the basement door was open. I was thinking back to Phoebe's Baptism at the beginning of January when we were at Mark and Chris's house and how different they were back then. They are certainly growing up!

Birthday boy--Colin

Jack loves playing at Bella's house

Bella, Marie and Colin

Kate and Gianna

Giving her a kiss

Kate and Anna

Anna and Brianna

Blurry picture of Elizabeth and John

Elizabeth

Kate

Brianna and Anna

The girls waiting for their food. This is the first time we have ever fed them anywhere but a highchair. They did great!

They are getting so old!

Marie and I love that our kids fit at this new picnic table. This will make play dates a little easier!

Kate and Elizabeth

Anna

Off to the races after lunch!

Kate and Jack

Opening gifts at Lucy's party

Anna loves the Scudder's dog--behind the cage door that is!