4th of July!

Since the 4th of July is my dad's birthday, we spend every year at their house.  This year my mom entered into the annual boat parade.  Because it was a last minute entry we didn't have time to decorate for the theme and go for any of the prizes.  That was fine though because the real fun is the 3 hour tour around the lake.  What happens is that all boats entered in to the tour can decorate for the theme.  This years theme was "Wildwood (Lake wildwood) goes Hollywood"  Most of the boats that decorated were movies.  The tour goes around the entire lake.  The boats cruise at about 5 miles an hour so that each house can see the boats.  The best part about it is that the people on shore like to spray the boats with water guns, water balloons, hoses, etc...  What they didn't expect is for the boat (our boat) to fire first.  Usually the boats only fire in retaliation.  Not us.  Next year we will be prepared with better guns and ammo.  All of the photos (except the fireworks and light scribing) are taken with the point and shoot because my professional camera was going no where near that boat.  We got SOAKED!!!!!

Waiting for the tour to begin......

Siena preferred to hang out in the bucket of water.

Cole and Onyx fished.  But really all Onyx wanted was in the water.  She went crazy every time some one sprayed us with the hose.  

The decorated boats.....

This one was my favorite.  It's UP!

They even have a dog wearing a cone of shame!!!

More pirates but not as good as the other ship.  They were more interested in drinking on this ship.

This last boat went by too fast for me to get a front shot but it is Titanic.

This guy hooks up an old fire hose to a pump and sprays lake water on everyone.

The kids (and Mike) had a blast soaking unsuspecting kids and adults with water.  No one saw the 3 year old as a threat!

Mike and Cole after a good hose soaking.  This kid was hanging out on a surfboard and we noticed that he had one hand in the water.  As we got closer the hand came up and we got soaked with the hose!

Surprisingly Siena thought the soaking was the best thing ever!

Random shore people trying to soak us

Onyx finally got to swim in the lake.  We were not prepared to let her in so we didn't have the harness and 16' long leash, so Mike had to keep her close by.  We didn't want a repeat of last year.

All of the fireworks waiting to go off that evening!

I got to try out some fun stuff with the tripod and camera because I was able to use the remote switch of Lennis's (my bro in law).  He has the best stuff in his camera box.  I was like a kid in a candy store when I discovered that precious, precious toy.

Light scribing with Mike and Cole.

Fireworks from the boat.  If I was on shore the photos would have been a little cleaners but the waves kept the camera moving a bit. But none the less, I learned some new skills and had a blast!

Cole was running from our boat to the one we anchored to (my parents friends boats)  He was saying "Do you see those fireworks???  They are popping!"

I left the shutter open the entire finale so I totally blew out the fireworks but I like that you can see the shore line and the other boats on the lake.

Father's Days weekend dinner

After the "boat trip"  we had a great dinner at my parents house with everyone.  

We bbq'd corn on the cob, buttermilk chicken, and had pesto on the side.

The view from my parents deck.

A unique view of the same deck view.

And then to top off a great day, we found the kids like this when we got home.  We think Cole must have grabbed her hand after she fell asleep because he has mentioned before how he can't hold her hand until she is asleep.

Our Easter Weekend

Easter weekend started out on Saturday with a great breakfast made by Mike. He really wanted to use the waffle maker that made tweetybird waffles just for Cole so we did! For ingredients and how we got tweetybird go here.

Lunch was even better! Yummy quesadilla's! Go here for instructions.
Later in the afternoon we went over to the Cotten's for "make your own pizza" night and Easter egg dying.

This is baby Jacob. Cole adores him and wants a baby Jacob of his own.

While Nicole was getting the pizza dough formed into circles for everyone I photographed the kids outside.

Yes, she did eat it in the dirt. She is still a little unsteady on her feet. I think shoes make it worse.







Siena did her best to keep up with the big boys. She is such a trooper!

While the adults were distracted by other things the boys broke into the master bedroom and enjoyed a little bed jumping time.

Nicole was in charge of dough and sauce and I brought toppings. So much to choose from!

The boys had the best time making their own pizza's.




Dylan went for vegetarian while Cole had a mix of meat and veggies.

Sunday morning the kids went on the hunt for their Easter baskets.





The chap stick was more of a joke because Cole will take ours and hide from us and eat it. We got him marshmallow flavored chap stick and in case you are wondering, yes he did eat most of it with in an hour.

We had so much fun at the Cotten's we for got to dye eggs, so while Siena was napping Cole dyed the eggs.

Lunch was awesome. We made Orzo salad and fruit salad. Mike's mom made bread (the best freaking bread EVER! - will have recipe soon), ham, and a cheesecake.

We celebrated Mike's birthday.

The weather was not cooperative (hence the indoor family photo) so the kids did not get to hunt for easter eggs. We may attempt one this weekend and claim the Easter Bunny hid them really well.