July 4th finally

I finally found my camera which had been missing since the 4th of July.

Here is a picture with Kate and her cousins anxiously awaiting the parade to start.

Then Beck begging for candy. I spaced off the fact that salt water taffy has egg whites which he is allergic to and shared several pieces with him. Luckily he didn't have a reaction that I noticed, so maybe it will be good news when he gets his blood test later this month.

After the parade, we went to the carnaval at the park where Kate got seperated from us for a few minutes. I was standing next to the bounce house waiting for her and then I looked in and she was gone. She decided to get out and wandered off. Luckily we found her fairly quickly. I was really worried for a second because there were so many people.

Kate seems to have this checklist in her head of all the things she wants to accomplish this summer. Attend a parade on the 4th was one of them as was swim in the kiddie pool and have popcicles. So I think she was pretty happy about the day. Her next item we haven't yet checked off the list is to have a lemonade stand.

She is also always asking if we can have a "pignic". I think that is a pretty funny description since in some cases it is probably pretty acurate. One of Beck's funny saying is when he gets excited he will confuse holy cow and oh my gosh which comes out "oh my cow".

Well now that I have my camera back I can continue taking more pictures. I need to take lots more of the baby since she is getting so cute with all her smiles and giggles.

nap time

I am having a little bit of a dilema with Kate lately. She is four and should not really have to take naps anymore. she fights me about taking them and sometimes if I make her take one she will keep getting out of bed at night until around 11:00 am. Then other times I let her stay up and I find her like this

or this

or this

A lot of the time we are driving in the car she also falls asleep. Yesterday, I let her stay up and she turned into a little poltergeist. It seems like I can't win. I think I will have to keep giving her naps for now since it is much easier to put up with Kate getting out of bed at 11:00 to ask silly questions than to put up with rabid Kate. I hope she is able to transition from truely not needing a nap because it would be a nice time for Kate and mom to hang out and have some one on one time while Beck and sometimes Kiera are taking their naps. I think we both need that and right now we don't get much of it.

Staycation

Here are some pictures of our amusement park day

Beck calls it "Da Ma Koon" in stead of The Lagoon.

Kate loves the rides. Her favorite were the Tidal Wave and Dino Drop. I think she'll be able to ride all the rides in the park with out a problem. After almost every ride she would ask "now can we get cotton candy?" That was her favorite part from last year and she couldn't wait for it again this year. She has already decided what color she is going to have next year.

Kate and Beck were able to ride many of the kids rides twice since there were hardly any lines. I guess a lot of families with young children can't afford to take thier kids to amusement parks with the slow economy.

Eli and Jimmy got to ride on the catapult thanks to Eli's friend Jared who won the tickets and gave them to Eli. Sorry the video isn't the greatest. I was trying to watch my three kids and watch out for the crowds and video tape at the same time.

Here is a quick clip of the decent. I had to add this because Eli's mood is light and happy and then there's Jimmy looking serious and are those tears Jimmy? Just kidding I know it was just the wind, but You did scream like a girl at first :). Hey, I should talk I won't even ride on the tidal wave much less Wicked, Rocket or the Catapult.

Beck had kind of a rough day. He was a good sport despite almost falling in a pond, hitting his head on the cement waiting in line for the log plume and getting his hand stepped on in line for the log flume, and then falling off a picnic bench on his head/face during dinner.

He got kind of fussy toward the end, but it was after all 2 1/2 hours past his bed time. He did much better than I thought since at times he seemed to have a sensitive stomach. He enjoyed all the rides and got really angry when I told him the rocket was only for big boys. I tried to make sure he was prepared and knew what to expect especially on the bumper cars and log flume for example. I was worried about him freaking out if he got wet, but he was very excited to tell me that he was all wet when he met me at the end of the ride.

It was a long, hot, tiring day, but the kids really enjoyed it. I could hardly walk the next day because I forgot to change out of my platform sandals that I had been wearing earlier that day. Luckily I got to spend a lot of my time sitting in the shade taking care of the baby and waiting for everyone else to ride rides.