Two front teeth

teeth be gone

Drama

Sometimes when you couple this: 

 With a big sister who is giving mom this "I'm about to really drive my sister nuts" face: 

 you get a lot of drama: 

Toothless

This picture is for Aunt Amy.....

Shortly after I took this picture, the dangly tooth flipped out as the girls tossed around some inflatable pool toys. But not after we begged and begged her to PULL out that ugly looking thing!

We lost the tooth in the crack of the deck but quickly found it and Shane saved the day by retrieving it with a twig.

Whew, toothfairy came and all was happy :)
She is now missing BOTH front teeth; time for some family pictures I think! 

Happy 4th of July 2012

We started off the 4th of July celebration with fireworks on the 3rd. Thankfully they were just down the street over the lake which was just beautiful. The show was spectacular and we had a wonderful time despite the heat. 

 The next morning we got busy preparing for a day full of entertaining. Regan and Sidney just love to get in the spirit of things with various Red/White/Blue snacks and desserts. 

 These are so darn yummy and absolutely delicious! The only thing I did was melt the chocolate and clean the strawberries. The girls take over from there. I'm sensing a lot more kitchen activities in our future. 

 Regan loves the flag cake and asks to make it every year. Good thing everyone likes to eat the jello-poke cake under the flag too. 

 We spent the bulk of the day poolside of course. Well actually, the smart ones spent the day IN the pool...only one crazy who decided sitting on the deck all day would be a better idea. Crazy man! 

The girls simply adore Amy. Once Regan saw her floating around on the boat, she had to climb in too. They chatted away the afternoon and Regan soaked in the love from Amy. 

 My mom came up super early in the day and we had a girls morning. Coffee, a parade and lots of water! THANKS MOM! 

 While I know that sparklers aren't the safest thing for a 6 year old, she did well and quickly learned to just drop the whole thing if it felt too hot. No burns this year.....

...well, the KIDS didn't get burned. But the two "kids at heart" shown below maybe did. 

Their laughter was child-like as they raced away from a lit firework or ridiculously loud firecracker. 

Boys will be boys. At least it was a good show in our driveway. Way to go boys. 

 My sweet baby girl with noodle curls out of each pony thanks to the humidity. 

No curling necessary. 

 We hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July! 

J-U-M-P!

She did it!! Our little independent girl jumped off the diving board....ALL.BY.HERSELF!

The first time, she just went for it, and then the second time around, it took a little bribery. Click HERE to see for yourself! We are soooo very proud of her :) 

 Way to go Sidney!

T-Hud's birthday

We helped Hudson (or T-Hud as Ryan calls him) celebrate his 4th birthday yesterday with a Wubbzy birthday party....I've still never heard of that thing before.

I think Harlow is adorable, and so do Regan and Sidney. Thankfully she's a pretty content baby too as we try to convince Ryan that we look good with one more kid in tow (hint hint!)

Our girls simply love water. Despite the temps, they wanted to swim and play around outside. Hudson and Sidney nearly emptied that pool with their splashing. 

My precious baby is growing up

Happy 4th Birthday T-Hud!! 

Herman The German

We had a trip up Herman The German yesterday while we were in New Ulm for the day. The girls just love visiting Herman, though it was blistering hot, and even hotter at the top. As a result of the bright sun, I didn't catch too many great photos from the top, but I did manage to get a lot of shots of the stairs. I should have counted, but this place has A LOT of them! 

 Regan is generally great at taking pictures for me. She stops and turns to smile, whenever I ask her.

 LOVE THAT! 

 Starting from the top, I took pictures as we headed down. This is the creepy ladder area that goes to the top. I'm so glad my girls think of this as an adventure and not as something that is scary. 

 Down down down we go (Sidney tends to drop a flip flop around this area....and it often drops all. the. way. down!)

 I happen to like the spiral stair case the best. 

 It keeps going and going and going

 And finally we hit the base and we are safely back (almost) on solid ground. 

Into the heat

We've been doing a lot of this lately: 

 And this too: 

 Ocassionally I get in front of the camera instead of behind it: 

Yes we even eat dinner out in this heat: 

 And one little girl's brilliant idea to move the slide to the deep end has given her loads of laughs. 

It wasn't long ago when Ryan despised this heat. It would hit 85 and while Regan/I would be running around outside, he would be huddled in the A/C cooling off. Since buying this house 3 years ago, I will now get texts from him at work "hey, have you seen the sweet forecast!". Just had to get him the right backyard and now he's out there with us :) 

Gearing up

I dug out a few things to get into the spirit for this week's upcoming holiday. The girls sported some heels (still in their jammie's) and had a parade around the pool this morning. We are looking forward to more steamy weather for the week; and we've already been in the pool for hours on end the last 8 days.
Keep bringing the heat!

New headwear

We're hoping to avoid excessive green hair this summer, so we have some new headwear to sport :)

Technically, Regan just thought it would be cool and Sidney followed suit. I on the other hand would like to swim laps without getting tangled in hair not to mention avoid multiple dates with my curling iron on a daily basis.

Aren't we cute?

Man those things are tight!? We all looked a little silly. Regan wa the only one to keep it on all night. Well, until it popped off as Ryan tossed her from the diving board, but that's another story.

Best Friends

Twenty years ago I met the best friend a girl could ask for. And our friendship grows stronger each year. We've multiplied a bit, and getting together is often a bit louder and more chaotic than it used to be but I wouldn't change it for the world! 

This weekend, Kari and the kiddos came up for three days of fun! The kids couldn't wait to hop into the pool Friday morning, just begging even though it wasn't even 10am. Little did we realize just how easy it was going to be, and that by putting water wings on the youngest two, all of them were completely safe and independent floating around. 

Which meant we were left on the pool deck taking silly pictures of ourselves when we weren't in the pool playing around. 

Not to worry, we had 3 very attentive lifeguards watching over the kids while we acted like 15 year olds with a camera. 

William was NOT going to drown this weekend. Noodles, water wings and a kick board. Oh yea, and a floating shark...he was definitely safe!

Sidney was in and out a lot, as per her usual. She stole my sunglasses and made silly faces for the camera. I'll take whatever I can get out of this sweet-over-the-top-full-of-attitude 3 year old. 

The kids played in their pajamas all Saturday morning until they changed directly into swimsuits. They stood next to our fence, watching the neighbor play lacrosse/fetch with the dog.
Talk about cheap entertainment. 

But when you take 5 kids, mix in a lot of sun, 7+ hours in the pool each day, and no naps, you get a little drama. Especially from the girls who all managed to get themselves into break times this weekend. 

But when we were happy, we were all smiles, chatting away, stealing my lawn chair spot and having a wing-ding of a time. 

Boy o boy did we find some fun. From playing "mermaids" to "races" to practicing "diving", it was a full weekend. 

Oh yes, and let's not forget some fun water balloons! We quickly taught the kids to toss the balloons on the grass near their target which proved not only to be less deadly (fewer red welts on bellies), it also was more productive as they popped on contact. 

Come back any time guys!! We love having you!

Happy Father's Day 2012

Father's day 2012 started out with a relaxing trip to Lake Harriet for a picnic lunch and streetcar ride. I documented it via pictures of course, so here we go.

The girls just love to dance around inside the bandshell overlooking the lake. They were able to do just that before lunch when the band arrived to set up for their next show.

We laid out our blanket and hung out, taking in life around us. Thankfully, the girls are still at an age where it's "cool" to be seen with your parents :)

Sidney's expressions can tell a story. She shows happy and joy as quickly as she shows disappointment and fear. Today, she spotted a crane sitting near a duck and screamed "LOOK!! it's a huge duck!". She was sooooo excited!

Love her.

Her snuggles up close to Ryan were priceless. Lately, he has started to tell me "I think she finally likes me!". In all honesty, she has loved him all along, but her preference is mom. She's starting to warm up to him and one night even asked him to put her to bed....though a few minutes later asked me to go through the process again :) We'll take what we can get!



 I was so busy taking pictures of Ryan with the girls that when we boarded the streetcar, I finally asked for one of me with the girls.

 We hope he had a lovely Father's Day hanging out with us (and for the record, he golfed yesterday so he said he wanted to spend today with us....awww, what a nice guy!).