Ellie got her ears pierced!

While home in Florida Shelly, Kara & I all took our baby girls to get their ears pierced...we had been talking & talking about it for so long and had decided we would do it all together! So we did...I must admit I was SO nervous getting out of the car at Claire's (cheesy that we had it done there but after talking to A LOT of people about it we decided that we should have someone do it that has done it so many times its like blinking...we were paranoid about having the holes uneven or off somehow! The lady there was the manager and had pierced on average 3 people everyday for the last 5 years...so I think she passed our test--on the other hand my pediatrician had only done about 50, she used the same gun they had at Claire's, she had less options in terms of earings and she cost way more $)but we braved it and we're SO glad we did...I love my little lady with her earings!

Doesn't Ellie look so excited?

In between Ears...thanks for holding her Kara...I wanted to be able to see the holes and approve their positioning! Eleanor was so brave....she had her sucker and stopped crying RIGHT after...and really didn't complain about them anymore...she just got bugged when I had to clean them all the time!

JOB WELL DONE...I was sweatin' it more than her...I was still so nervous at this point...but my nerves were subsiding!

It's almost like a family tradition now...when I was little my mom took me and all the girls (Vanessa 12, Erika 4.5, Me 3.5, Shelly 1.5, Kara 6 mos) to get our ears pierced...I loved having earing in all my pictures as a little girl and now Ellie will too!

Swimmer BOY Oscar

All my kids LOVE the water but Oscar really blossomed this past trip to Florida as a true water baby. Here are some great shots of our little Bots swimming his heart out. His two favorite and always willing swimming companions were Josie June (Erika's) and Austin Dale (Kara's). This little group of terrible twos were adorable all in their new and MOST WONDERFUL floaties that are coast guard approved (that means they're as safe as life jackets--you can wear them boating)...a #1 summer find by Kara & Erika.

He was known to say at all hours of the day "I want to go fwim in the water"...we love his way of talking...so cute!

Oscar and Josie ready for a dip...Austin & Oscar love climbing up on the slide to jump/fall off!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY

So my 4th of July experience began on June 29th the Sunday before the 4th...I got the kids dressed in the most patriotic color scheme we could pull off on a Sunday morning...however Eleanor did have the most darling Chambray Dress with pin-tucks and red Crochet edgings (Thanks Old Navy!)

We sang all the patriotic hymns and ended with the National Anthem. I was tearing up at the swelling of the first verse and was choking back the sobs when we got to the Last verse...my favorite!

"Oh thus be it ever, when free men shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then Conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our Trust!" And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

Truly how blessed we are to live in this great nation. A land preserved by the hand of God for a place of safety and refuge from persecution. I hope we will always, as individuals, families, and a nation, be worthy of the sacrifice of SO many for these wonderful blessings. I am at this time of year SO grateful to those that still sacrifice today to preserve our safety. THANK YOU TO ALL THE ARMED FORCES WHO ARE SO FAR FROM HOME and to those who are doing their duty here as well! I am also so grateful to my mother and mother in law...they are such examples of patriotism to me...We are so blessed to have such wonderful examples for our children of how to honor and be proud of this wonderful country we belong to! Thanks to both of our Moms...you're the best...oh and Dad's too you're really patriotic too!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Eleanor at the Fourth at Ft. Meigs...she was PERFECT...as usual!

The next event on the Calendar was the Annual Town Celebration at Ft. Meigs (An old army fort on the Maumee River in Perrysburg) on July 3rd. We meet up with some friends from town and headed over to enjoy the town Party! It was so fun...Parking was crazy but thanks to my AMAZING husband...we found a PERFECT spot (a $FREE$ spot) squished between a No Parking sign and a minivan that thought they were buying them selves some loading space...no no no...nice work Steve...and it wasn't even too tight...we wiggled right in..I tell you, my babe can handle a Minivan!

On our way to the Maumee/Perrysburg Fireworks...It's a fun little rivalry...Maumee is on the other side of the river from Perrysburg (Sorta like the Belmont/Watertown Rivalry) Every year they have a big 4th of July Carnival and Fireworks (not like the 4th at Waveny Park...but good) launched from the river so both towns settle on the slopes of the river to see the show!!

This is the best shot of the whole family together...Gordon Sported his Pirate hat (thanks Grandma Munns) for EVERY 4th celebration...he some how has it in his head that pirates and the 4th of July go together...oh Gordon!

Gordon did not have time to wait around for pictures...he was there with a million kids to play with...heaven for him...Oscar loved all the kids but was not prone to follow others to their family spots!

We got home from the Fireworks at about 11:00ish and definitely decided that we would be going to BBQ for the 4th and should try to invite some people over...a gamble I know since the 4th was in about 1 hour but I was sure we could entice some people to come...little did we know how many!!

So when I woke up on Friday July 4th at 8:00ish (my sweet husband let me sleep in and was up doing some chores and stuff before I even rolled over) I got out my phone book and started dialing up some people we wanted to invite...our guests included The Luces (2 adults 4 kids), The Dworzycks (1 adult...Emily threw out her back the night before so KJ brought all 4 of their kids alone!) The Brandts (2 adults, 3 kids) The Torres (2 adults, 3 kids) The Wilkinsons ( 2 adults, 2 kids) The missionaries who stopped by during tracking and us...Totaling 13 adults & 19 kids!! So needless to say we had a lot of people...a lot of kids! But it went great we had TONS of food, TONS of soda, some water balloons, some cheap fireworks (we'll discuss that later!), and lots of fun! It was only later when I was asked by someone if we had been planing this for some time (they apparently thought they were the only ones who received a last minute charity invitation). When I replied saying that it was a spur of the moment thing someone else piped up...yeah we were all losers who didn't have plans! It never dawned on me like that!! I think is still like the idea of the spontaneous BBQ!!

Gordon holding his sparklers....if you know Gordon can you imagine he did next?? We had a sparkler safety talk before ignition...we explained that the burning part is SO hot...don't touch it...it will burn you...apparently Gordon thought he was excluded from this condition....because this is what his fingers look like today...07.07.08

See the blisters on his index finger and thumb...ouch!

Disney is for EVERYONE!

Park Hopper Passes for the whole Family...$0
thank you thank you thank you ERIN & BOBBY!!!!
Parking at Magic Kingdom...$10
Mickey Mouse Ice Creams for 4...$20
Lunch at the Cosmic Ray's Cafe for 4...$27
Souveniers...$47
Going to Disney with your own kids for the first time...PRICELESS!

On the train/shuttle from Pluto Parking... We are SO excited!!! okay so Steve is a very good sport and is pretty excited to see how the kids do but is convinced we will be on our way home by 3:00...the kids woke up this morning talking non-stop about going to Mickey Mouse's house (in fact Gordon was in tears about stopping at McDonald's to get breakfast on the way--he wanted to go straight there)...I AM SO EXCITED and I am convinced that we are staying to see the fireworks at Park Closing!

Our first ride of the day was Aladin's Magic Carpet...kinda like Dumbo...looks great but not that spectacular of a ride...carnivalish but a little better!

THE PROGRESSION OF COMFORT WITH MEETING BUZZ...

The boys were wary at first of this "gigantic Buzz Lightyear" but soon warmed up to him!
We LOVED the Buzz Lightyear ride...you get to shoot the bad guys!

During the ride your "mission" is to fight the Evil Emperor Zurg and his bad guys...towards the end BUZZ catches him and you walk out of the ride to see and hear Zurg talking from behind bars...Gordon jumped right up to see if he was real!

Auntie Jenny (Steve's sister) was such a great help on this fun filled long day at Disney...
WE LOVE AUNT JENNY!!!
Thanks for all your help!

It was a HOT day and it is one of my favorite childhood memories to get a Mickey Mouse ice cream treat so we decided to take a break, eat some ice cream and watch a little sidewalk show! I love that at any point during the day you can find something to do that is perfect for catching a break...I love DISNEY!!

...amazingly enough Oscar was our brave boy with the characters while Gordon needed much probing to even get near them...go figure... I would have bet $$ it would have been the opposite!

...seriously you have to be one big GROUCH to not LOVE DISNEY...

Steve and Jenny had the boys up on shoulders to see Story Time with Belle...Darling...a must do...Belle chooses children out of the audience to come up and dress up as part of the story/play that she narrates!

Okay so at about 3:00 right when Steve was thinking we would be one the road home...we took another little break and got on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride (it's like a train on an elevated track that takes you all around Tommorowland and tells about what you see, it even goes inside the different buildings of the rides--it's like a sneak peak of Tomorrowland)...well within minutes both Oscar and Steve were out! So we had some snacks and enjoyed the cool breeze! (we went 3 times...they let us stay on when they saw the sleepers!)

...at about 5:00 pm we went over to Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios) to meet up with Steve's brother Matt and some friends that were in town (Meghan & Casey Getz & boys) We had a great dinner at a cute little diner and rode the tower of terror...we even took Gordon...Steve and I were a little gullible to take the advice of Matt & Casey that "it will be fine, it's not scary at all" YEAH RIGHT...if it weren't for Steve and I laughing and talking in ridiculously cheerful voices the poor boy would have had nightmares for weeks...Thanks guys! He made it though and did feel ultra cool at Matt& Casey making such a fuss about how brave he was and how cool he was for going on that big ride. I wish I had some pictures of his face during that ride...eek...and hilarious!

A HUGE hit in Hollywood Studios was the Star Wars ride...Gordon rode it twice...Oscar was too short but he did love riding on all the replica machines that they had planted around the area. Of course this is where both boys decided they wanted to get their souveniers...and I can't say I blame them...when you exit almost any ride you end up in a gift shop...well this one is modeled like on of the Tatooene (sp) buildings...like a sand igloo...and there is a station where a Jedi helper assists "younglings" (jedi's in training) to build their own light sabers. So the boys got to build their own custom light sabers....pretty cool I must admit and not too $$ only $20...oh and they got collector's pins too...ohhhh...I guess pins are hot at Disney!

Well so we decided that we would stay for, supposedly, Disney's best night time show...Fantasmic...and to tell the truth it probably would have been cool if Steve and I were there without the kids...it was SO loud and SO scary...the premis is that Mickey has to fight all the "forces of evil" aka EVERY SINGLE BAD GUY ever made in a Disney movie...to save Minnie...all while they are trying to get him...it had a lot of cool but scary special effects lots of fireworks and well lots of fire...we only stayed for about 10 minutes of the 30+ minute show...but maybe next year when they're older? or maybe not!

We did it...we stayed until park closing...our boys were such troopers! I said this to them as we walked out to the car and Gordon perked up and said "We're storm troopers?" needless to say they were delirious and rightly so! We walked in the door at just after 1:00 am and fell into bed!
Phew, Disney is great!

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN ERIN & BOBBY for the tickets...IT WAS FABULOUS!!!