Ah yes - it was that time of year again - time for our annual trip out to WI to celebrate all of the birthdays! I remember feeling thoroughly sad, disappointed and jealous when we had to leave after only a week and everyone else got to stay there for 2 whole weeks. So, this time, we extended the trip and made it 10 days, which made it that much better of a vacation.
The first birthday celebrated with the big ol' Al Man's. He officially turned 3 on July 2nd. We were lucky enough to have Aunt Nancy and Hilary come to visit and to help celebrate that day with Hilary's new baby - Finn. As you can see, he is an adorable baby and was also incredibly good!
Later that morning, Auntie Sara also came to help celebrate! Poor Sara always seems to come to my parent's when there are one million things going on, but as always, she just fits right in and joins in the fun. We had a great day of hanging out with family, playing in the pools, eating one of Alex's (and all of ours) favorite dinners - ribs!, making his cake (yes, another ball - what can I say - it's what the kid likes these days!), eating the cake (while Alex ate doritos) and then opening presents. I think that he would agree that he had a great 3rd birthday!
The next birthday was our good friend Uncle Sam. So, of course, we all had to put on our red, white and blue to honor him. Sorry about the blurry picture and the lack of Charlotte - it's hard to get a good picture of all 4 kids!
In keeping with tradition, we all went to the Green Lake 4th of July Parade. The only difference this year was that it was ONE HUNDRED AND TWO DEGREES!!!!!!!!! For those of my friends in TX, I realize that this is normal. But, in WI? It is most definitely NOT normal. Needless to say, we basically bathed the kids in sunscreen and filled their little bodies with as much water as we could and headed down. We were wondering if there would be a petting zoo again given the heat and were actually kind of shocked when we saw that there was!
Although, at one point, someone commented that they witnessed the poor kangaroo basically just collapse right in front of them. Somehow, I'm thinking that probably wasn't a good thing. Although, surely it gets this hot in Australia, right??? Anyway - the parade as always didn't disappoint. The kids loved getting the candy and Alex especially LOVED the trucks, etc. that came through. I was shocked. The Memorial Day parade in LC? Alex spent the entire parade like this (yes, his back was towards the parade the entire time).
The parade in Green Lake? He was dancing, singing, and screaming with delight.
After the parade, we once again went to the lake front and enjoyed beer, corn on the cob, fried cheese curds, brats, hot dogs and the band. Given that the kids were older this year and were enjoying the music and food as much as we were, we stayed much longer than we did last year and had a blast just being outside with good music and good company.
In between Uncle Sam's and William's birthdays, I went down to Delafield to spend some time with the HS girls (thank you to everyone for watching my kids for me!). We had a great time catching up and meeting little miss Abby - Anne's third baby. I know I've said it before, but it really is amazing how we don't see each other but more than once a year and yet it is always like we just saw each other yesterday. It was a great night!
Uncle William's birthday was spent at the beach - one of our many days that we spent there. Again, now the kids are older, they all loved it. The water was a great temperature (one of the pluses of 100 degree days and no rain) and it was shallow enough that all of them could walk out in it for quite a ways. Another highlight of the lake was the dock that they all jumped off of. Granted, I, being the catcher at the dock, got to stand in the mucky sand by the dock and catch all of them, but whatever. It was fine and I still have both of my legs, so I guess the bacteria couldn't have been all that bad.
Uncle William got the St. Andrew's Flag this year as his cake. His was a bit more fancy with chocolate ganache (sp???) and everything - very delicious. Well done, Mom!
Then came Miss Annabel's pretty, pretty princess day. And, boy did she live it up! She received this adorable Snow White Costume from Will's mom and didn't want to take it off. She wore that thing all day - other than when we were in the boat. We did manage to get her into a bathing suit for that.
As you can see, Annabel got the (slightly impaired) princess cake. Unknown to me, Alex had apparently thought that it was a true barbie and had dismembered the poor thing before we even left RI (the arm was found on our bedroom floor). But, whatever. We figured if nothing else, it was a good "not everyone is the same" lesson to be learned by all of the children. And, not only do some people not have all of their limbs, but apparently, they wear their shirts a bit crooked as well. It's ok - this was one of Lexi's first frosting attempts. We have to cut her a bit of slack. I have leaning purse cakes and Lexi has snowwhite with a crooked top and one arm...
And, although Charlotte didn't have a birthday, she was not forgotten about. It was pretty hard not to forget about her, as there was pretty much ALWAYS food around (for those of you who know my family, this isn't a lie) and wherever there is food? There is Charlotte. That little bugger would eat all day if you let her. AND, she spots it from across the house! Clearly she has some of her mama's side in her.
And, I'm just including this picture because I think that it is hilarious. Lexi and Will bought her this life jacket and put it on her in the house to get her used to it. She wobbled around in that thing for a good hour - bumping into walls and everything. Pretty comical.
The rest of the week was spent doing fun things like going on the boat and bobbing around the lake...
And, of course, peeing off of the boat. Hey - you gotta do what you gotta do when you have 2 newly potty trained kids who need to go pee.
Playing in the pool and on the slip and slide...
A dragonfly...
Making sit-upons. Do you remember those? Grandma was very crafty and had newspaper, plastic wrap and yarn all ready for the kids. They each decorated their own and brought them to the 4th of July parade to sit-upon! :)
And, then, just had a great time being goofy and hanging out with our family...
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