This month is such a special one....

Hannah's birthday was August 5th just four days after Joseph's. Her birthday celebration actually started on July 31st when we went to pick up Sandy (her best friend that moved away at the beginning of the summer) Sandy was going to stay with us for a week and celebrate Hannah's birthday. By Monday

night she was so homesick that she decided to be picked up on Tuesday unable to stay even one more day even though Hannah's birthday party was on Wednesday. That evening told me that having just one girl could be a real blessing. Sandy was crying because she was homesick and felt bad about it and Hannah was crying because Sandy was leaving and was going to miss her birthday. What a fun evening we had.

On Hannah's birthday I took her and three of her friends to make bracelets at the Potomac Bead Company in Hagerstown. (Steve's mom lives close by so I picked her up so she could help me.) This store was filled with every bead you could ever imagine wanting or needing and they were very nice with the girls. When we were done there we went to our favorite ice cream store for cones and presents. The ice cream store is the best--the cones are so big that you can hardly eat the whole thing and eating it is only half the problem....you first have to decide what kind of ice cream to get. It is a wonderful place!!

That evening we ate Hannah's favorite dinner of rice and gravy and opened her gifts from the family. All in all it was a great day (even without Sandy).

I can hardly believe that she is 11 and will be starting middle school.

Joseph turns 7

Joseph and Banana

On Saturday Joseph had his 7th birthday. We had a really good time. We went swimming in the afternoon. It was a pool that has fountains, buckets, water slides and other activities.

Joseph loves the water and has really become a fish this summer. When we were done we drove to the mall in Tyson's Corner and met Emily. We didn't tell Joseph where we were going until we walked up the the Build a Bear store.

Joseph had a really good time picking out and building himself a monkey. (I had originally picked this present because he really likes frog and the store had frogs, but apparently that was a limited time offer animal and they didn't have any more left) Joseph got to pick out an outfit and Emily bought him some accessories to go with his monkey.

He named the monkey Banana. We then went out to dinner and let him open the rest of his presents.

He was one happy but tired little boy when we got home.

Oh what do you do in the summer time?

Here are some the of the pictures of stuff that we have been doing this summer

Being a rock band

Picking and growing flowers.

Rocket launching.

Swimming

Scout camp..

Time just seems to go so fast when school is out. How come it doesn't seem so quick when school is in?

I LOVE THE SUMMER!!!

Bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do?

On Thursday morning I came downstairs and noticed that there was a car sitting in front of our house. I saw that there was people sitting in the car so I assumed that they were waiting for someone. I didn't think too much about it. An hour later I noticed that they were still there. It looked like they were sleeping in the car. Another hour passed and they were still there. It was starting to make me nervous so I decided to call the police. I was a little bit nervous, but I looked up the number and called. I don't know what I thought was going to happen, but it was surprisingly easy. Ten minutes later a police car showed up. The cop took the driver out first and did all of the things that you see on TV. He made him put his hands on the hood of the car and spread his legs. The officer then patted him down. (All of this happened with me looking through a slit in the blinds and making the kids stay away from the windows.) I continued to watch as the officer did the same thing with the passenger and proceeded to administer all of the touch your nose with your finger etc. Then the officer searched the car and started pulling out stuff including a full open bottle of liquor. After about an hour and a half another adult (which turned out to be the driver's mom) came and got the kid and left. After it was all done the police officer came to the door and asked if I was the person that called. I said yes and he explained that the kids were probably sleeping it off. (Though why they parked out in the open in front of my house I don't know)

It was an exciting morning. While this was all going on the little neighbor girl came outside to see if Seth could come and out and play. She didn't make it as far as our house because when she saw the police officers she went in the house yelling that she wasn't coming down here because the police were arresting people. Her mom didn't believe her until she went to the window and saw the cops. She called me a few minutes later wondering what in the world was going on. We had to laugh because her little girl was worried that the police had come for us.

Life just has limitless experiences just waiting for us!!

4th of July

What is better than blowing things up? Nothing according to all of the little male people that live in my house. They started several nights before the 4th and continued until the very last minute of the 4th. We had friends over and lit off all of the "fun" stuff (anything that leaves the ground and then explodes) on Friday. On Saturday we went for a BBQ and smaller scale explosions to Steve's mom's house. All in all we had a busy, but great 4th.

Happy Birthday America!!!

Seth turned 4!!

So yes it was a month ago today, but I just have been behind. Seth turned 4 on June 1st. He was so excited to have his birthday and he had been telling me for months what he wanted (every commercial that came on brought on new excited shouts of MOMMY I want THAT for my birthday) He started out his birthday by going out to lunch with me and the little girl that I watch Lydia. We went to IHOP because I had a free "its your birthday" meal for him. He was so excited when the waitresses came out singing to him and gave him ice cream. He has the greatest reactions to things. He makes the excited face and will say things like "AWESOME" and "COOOOOL" and "WHOAAAA". We then took a trip to Walmart where I got him his new bike and he got to pick out yet another match box car. (Though you can't call them match box cars you must call them Hotwheels...he knows where to look to find the Hotwheels logo) When we got home and checked the mail there was a package from Aunt Tami. There was definitely a struggle trying to decide what we should do first ride our bike or open the package. That evening we had a green cake (food coloring is a wonderful thing) and ate green ice cream and opened some more presents. He was in hog heaven. It is great when they are little and it is still the simple things in life that make them happy. He told me that we all need to have more birthdays. He is also already telling people that he will have his 5 birthday next and will ride the bus. Life just keeps flying by.

On the Go

(Joseph and his 1st grade teacher)

We have been on the go since school got out on the 5th of June. I still have several posts that I want to get done, but it seems that we are always either headed somewhere or just getting back from something. It is a good feeling. I love the summer. I like having the kids home and not having any kind of schedule. I like getting up at 9:00am instead of 6:30. I like going swimming and to the movies and hanging out with friends. I have to organize my pictures and then I can post

Hannah's trip to Hershey park

Seth's Birthday

Our trip to Kings Dominion and

Some other stuff

YEAH FOR SUMMER!!!!