birthdays, piggyback and ring around the rosie

So I had a birthday, and here are the pictures. It is so fun to have family close by to come up for the festivities (and so I'm not left eating a very yummy cake all by myself)! John was a dear and made the fettucine alfredo (the ingredients all just happened to be in the fridge; hmm, imagine that :). And he made my favorite ding-dong cake with the girls, who firmly believe that cool whip always tastes much better when it is purple. Here is a picture of blowing out the candles: my first birthday (well, maybe since I was one or two and couldn't do it myself) when I didn't get to blow them out. Calvin came sneaking up during the song and before I knew what was happening he had the candles blown out before the last notes of the song had ended! I was so surprised that he knew exactly what to do and had the lung capacity to do it (only two tries!). It was hilarious, and I didn't mind too much.


Here's the crew partaking of the goodies. Matt was here too, but he was in the other room on the phone when I decided to get out the camera. Sorry Matt! And all bets are off at the dinner table (well, ours, anyway): you leave ice cream unattended long enough and it will disappear one way or the other! Thanks guys for coming up, it was really fun.

Kimmie and Calvin both thought the cake was pretty darn good. Funny how not hungry they are during dinner. Then you pull out the cake and all of the sudden those kids are starved!

I had to make cookies for the stake pioneer day activity (which got rained out, lovely), and Calvin has recently discovered the perks of "helping." Said perks ended up all over his face (it was yummy dough) and we had to get a picture. He would only pose with me in it too, so forgive the saturday non-grooming and just look at the kid.

And here's a series of photo of piggybacks. I came in the room and Calvin was giving Kimmie a piggyback around the room, trying his hardest to actually move with her on top of him (which is actually not as hard as it seems since he weighs nearly the same as she does, notwithstanding the six inches she has on him!). So I pulled out the camera and they all showed their amazing piggybacking skills.

Last but not least, here's Calvin's latest and greatest. He has been singing Ring around the Rosie and Twinkle Little Star all the time the past few days. This is the best I could get on video. The kid refuses to perform on demand. Still, I think it's cute.

In other news, the girls started swim lessons today and were very excited. And of course I forgot the camera. Emily was so excited she could hardly stay still in the water, it was so funny to watch. Kimmie was not at all sure of things and had to be convinced to do everything, though she did it eventually. She can be such a daredevil if she's sure of herself, but if not, it's really hard to get her to try. She zips around better than Em on a bike, but in the swimming pool she's pretty timid. Calvin was dying to get in the water with them but sadly, not allowed. I'm going to have to find someone to watch him during their lessons or find something really creative to do or he's going to go crazy by the end of the week. I'll take him to the open swim session on Friday though, and hopefully that will make it up to him. Anyway, I'll remember the camera tomorrow!

happy Fourth of July

I guess I should post pics of the holiday weekend. We celebrated the Fourth around here abouts. John really wanted to go camping but because of many factors it didn't work out. When the downpour started about dinner time I was kind of glad we didn't! Fortunately it cleared up by the time fireworks were ready to go.

Anyway, we started the morning early cooking 5 dozen eggs for the ward breakfast. Holy cow! They had plenty of eggs there. Pancakes were yummy too. After that we puttered around a bit and then John took the kids up to the foothills on a hike with his family. I stayed home, watched a movie (Great Expectations... weird), and cooked food to get ready for the bbq that night. We drove down to John's parents for the bbq, stopping to get fireworks on the way (nothing like waiting til the last minute), and had a fun dinner there. John's brother David was in town and was the newly elected favorite uncle in Emily's book--which might have had something to do with him carrying her the entire hike up the mountain earlier that day. During dinner the thunderstorm started and we got a bit nervous, but as I said it cleared up and was pretty nice for the fireworks, although kind of cold! We went to the church and set up blankets and chairs on the lawn to watch the city's fireworks. It was fun. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I couldn't capture the cute scene of Emily on David's lap, Kimmie on Richard's, and Calvin on Gary's to watch the show. Darn it!! We also had lots of sparklers and I'll have to download pics off my phone to see if any of those turned out. After the show the streets were a parking lot so we did our fireworks at the church. Made for a late night, but it was fun. The kids all conked out pretty quick on the drive home. What a novelty to be able to spend an evening with family and then drive 15 minutes home to sleep in our own beds! Can everybody just come move to Colorado? It would make things a lot easier!!
This picture is from Sunday night dinner. Notice the Trivial pursuit game. Gary and Richard were obliging and let me trounce them at this game again. I think they use it as insurance so I will continue to play other games with them, knowing that they can beat me at everything else! I've gotten so I refuse to play any kind of economic or strategic game with them--there's just no point. I already know the outcome! If luck is involved, then I at least have a sporting chance, albeit a small one. These boys are just too smart for their own good. I think playing Trivial Pursuit is good for them. :) Okay, it's not too bad for my ego either. ;) Thanks guys.

This past weekend was fun. I went to a baby shower (time away from kids, what a concept!) and John took the kids around shopping and downtown. I met them there later. We got these prizes from the library's summer reading program so we went and got some free ice cream cones for the girls (and yes, some for me, though John and Calvin shared too) then walked around a bit. John showed me the Oak Street plaza where they had a band playing and a little water sculpture/park that the kids LOVED. They got totally soaked. I kind of wanted to join in, it was hot! There was also a guy doing balloons there and Calvin kept trying to take the other kids', so I got him a dragonfly, then Em wanted a flower and Kimmie a butterfly. They were pretty good! They lasted all of an hour after we got home, but it was fun and the kids loved it. It was fun to do fun things together as a family. I tried to get pics of the kids with their balloons, but getting them to all look in the same direction after a long day get interesting. Oh well...

I also have to post this picture of Calvin and me, because I love it! He is my little buddy and cuddlebug. He is all boy, but already watches out for his mom and knows when she needs a hug. And also knows that if he needs a hug, he can always get one from me!