"It's uncanny what can pass through the umbilical cord. . ."

I took this picture a while ago.

They both just happened to walk into the room at the same time and I realized they were practically "twins".

I had to take a picture.

And then we got a little silly.

So I was reminded of this little photo shoot on Sunday.

You see this boy has been combing his own hair lately.

He doesn't want any help.

He doesn't want anyone watching him while he combs his hair.

And he is so proud of the final outcome when he is done.

So on Sunday, he of course had to comb his own hair again.

(I've come a long way in my parenting philosophies and I let him)

He looked ridiculous.

I'm not gonna lie.

But he was happy, so I was happy.

We all pile in the car to head to church and I hear from the back seat . . .

"um mom, mom, mom, I need you to turn the air conditioner off right now!"

I turn around and Kris has his hands up in front of his head blocking the air from hitting his hair.

"Why?" I ask.

"mom, mom, it's gonna mess up my hair."

Kyle gets in the car and turns the air back on.

I immediately turned the air off and say to my husband

"We have a bit of a problem. You see the air conditioner is messing up your son's hair."

To that my husband replied,

"It's uncanny what can pass through the umbilical cord."

No other words were needed and we all sweated our way to church.

What do your kids do when you tell them to "be creative"?

Our Camping Trip

We each kept ourselves very busy on our 3rd Annual "JLT" camping trip this year.

Here's Kyle putting up our tent, our home for three days, the place my children slept for three nights, and our protection from the bears we saw each night. . . 

(I personally wasn't worried one bit that a thin layer of plastic was all that separated my family from those bears - nope not one bit)

Kristopher became quite the expert marshmallow roaster. . .

(and he only had to go through half a bag of burnt to a crisp marshmallows before he got the technique down)

Kale loved those SMORES. . .

He also loved getting up one morning early with dad to start the fire all by himself.

I kept busy getting my feet as dirty as I possibly could.

Laurie and I had a contest to see whose feet could get the dirtiest. . .

(it kept her mind off how dirty her feet were so she wouldn't ask her mom to wash her feet every five minutes - glad I could help)

I also kept busy by eating. . .

I'm still drooling over this meal!

And what would a camping trip be without a few temper tantrums to annoy fellow campers?

Glad to know she can throw herself down in protest no matter where we are.

Mostly she had a great time wandering around camp.

She loved hearing all the dogs bark.

In fact, one night as I am doing dishes I look up and there is a stranger with my daughter in her arms.

Apparently she had seen their dog and followed them to their campsite. . .

After awarding myself mother of the year award I thanked them for bringing her back.

( I guess those temper tantrums came in handy because they knew exactly where to bring her back)

We hung out by the lake one day. . .

And the big boys brought out their toys as well. . .

A giant slingshot to launch rocks into the lake!

So after the dad's had their turn, the kids all got to take a turn.

They were loving it.

Well, Kristopher didn't have the strength to pull the slingshot back far enough to launch a rock, 

so the dad's decided they would run while Kristopher let go so the rock would launch a little further. . .except Kristopher didn't let go and not only did the rock get launched into the lake, but Kris did too!

It was soooo funny.

He went right into the lake.

We would have won AFV had we recorded it!

But I'm betting the kids had the most fun with the noodle swords we brought.

They had a blast sword fighting in the forest.

Even a few hours of Rain couldn't keep us from having a great time!

We're booked for next year right????

Ahhh Camping!

More to come from our camping trip. . .

This was absolutely Kara's favorite part of camping.

(I think she deliberately got as dirty as she could so that she could get a bath in the big metal bucket!)

On his own. . .

These are training wheels. . .

Training wheels that came on Kristopher's new bike.

Training wheels that are now off of Kristopher's new bike.

Because he doesn't need them anymore!

In fact he may not have ever needed them. . .

Kristopher had "bike day" at preschool towards the end of the year.

We took his bike and helmet and I dropped him off for a fun filled day.

Upon returning to preschool I see my child riding someone else's bike with NO training wheels!

His teacher comes up to me and asks when he learned to ride a bike. . .

I answered "today".

What dad does not have to run down the middle of the road holding on to a bike seat with one hand all the while promising his child that he won't let go only to let go to see the child fall to the ground?

That would be Kyle.

No helping this kid.

He literally got a bike and started riding!

Go KRISTOPHER!

The REST of our 4th of July

Once again we woke up bright and early to get "our spot" along the parade route.

We ate our donuts and waved our American Flags at the 5K runners as they ran their race.

To pass time Kyle even took the kids on a walk up and down Vernon Street.

And finally, the parade began, and my kids became very patriotic waving their flags and clapping at the participants in the parade.

How could you not be patriotic when you get to see a poodle dressed in a prom dress next to a wedding cake?

I'm still trying to figure out how this little number got in the parade. . .

All in all I was very impressed by the parade (we even had a band and baton twirlers this year).

The city was going to cancel the parade due to budget cuts but businesses in the community stepped up to fund the parade and I am so glad. I love this family tradition we have.

Later in the day we met up with friends and had a great BBQ and swim party to pass time before the FIREWORKS began.

She was ready.

We started off with the sparklers of course.

And this guy graduated to double sparklers.

And this guy found out he could light all the water balloon remnants from our water balloon fight earlier in the day on fire with his sparklers!

They also discovered they could write their name on the ground with FIRE!

Even she got in on the action and loved it!

And then we started the FIREWORKS SHOW!

Is there anything better than homemade pie and fireworks?

And just because we started our day out with Kara's drama. . .

I thought I would show you it's how we ended our day as well!

She didn't want the fireworks to end. . . Neither did I!

I love this Holiday!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

She LOVES her Independence!!

Hopefully she cheers up later for the FIREWORKS. . .