So we learned a tough lesson about summer birthday parties this weekend…they have low attendance. I felt badly for Trey, only one of his friends from school showed up and his brothers were more than willing to notice and bring it to his attention. He is pretty easy going and a great time with the kids who came. Maybe it was more me feeling badly for him since this was his first “real” party with friends. It was really fun, though, and we had a great time with all the friends who came to celebrate. Dee got into a water fight with the kids, they all ganged up on her and she did her best to stay dry but everyone got soaked. I made balloon swords and dogs (that’s the extent of my skills at this point) and everyone had a good time just hanging out and playing in the yard. Oh, and the black frosting covered Transformers cupcake cake was a hit!
We kept the party going with a BBQ and planned our next trip to Fay Bainbridge to camp this weekend. S’more anyone?

Hope everyone had a great one, we sure did! We headed down to the parade, did the “window shopping” (booth shopping as it is) and saw many, many friends that we haven’t seen in ages, had a bite to eat and sat back and enjoyed the hometown parade. We knew quite a few people in the parade this year from very diverse floats (Island School, BHS Crew, Bainbridge Little League, St. Barnabus Preschool, Save Our Teachers…). Always fun to watch the boys get excited about the starlight mint or flimsy frisbee that’s thrown their way. Carlos’ big find was some lotion that the Clinic gave out. He held onto that for the day and kept asking if anyone needed some lotion! Who knew it was that easy to please that boy? Trey didn’t make it through the whole parade without falling asleep and boy, his 50 pound frame is hard to carry down Winslow Way. Nana and Papa took the older boys to their house for a rest, while we took Trey home to get some sleep.
With everyone rested, we started up with our BBQ. We had a smaller crowd this year than most but it was nice to be able to chat with everyone and really be able to catch up. The kids played and played and played, we ate and talked and ate and talked. The neighbors put on an amazing fireworks display right in front of our eyes. We could even see the Lake Union and Winslow fireworks this year. What a treat to be able to take it all in. Hope everyone’s 4th was as great as ours!

A fun filled 3rd of July for our crew…yes, 3rd of July. We spent the morning at OT (as we do every Friday morning) then got haircuts, did a little shopping for the 4th festivities and headed home for lunch. In the afternoon, we were so lucky to get to beat the heat in our friend, Helen’s pool. What a treat! The kids are all swimming well enough at this point that they can stay afloat without hanging on a mama. It’s SO nice! Levi and Alice were doing cannonballs and flips off the diving board, I couldn’t believe how daring they were. We had an absolute ball. Then it was off to a yummy BBQ at Monica and Jason’s (thanks guys!) and we all drove down to the street dance in Winslow. Since it had been such a crazy day already and add to that the heat and crowds we were in meltdown mode and didn’t stay too long. Levi, Trey, Alice and Sammy did the limbo and some hula hooping and we got to hear some good music and all in all it was fun but not so sure it was worth the effort.

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Our baby is 4 years old today, can’t even believe it. Usually a mom would say “I still see him as a tiny baby” but for us Trey seems so much older than 4 so much of the time. He’s taller than Levi, he’s so polite and kind and has true compassion for others. It melts your heart when he comes up out of the blue and says “Mama, I love your eyes” He’s got an infectious laugh and a killer smile.
Happy Birthday to our sweet, sweet, special, ginormous 4 year old guy! And guess what…you’re getting a Transformers cake with blue frosting from Nana and Papa, you are going to love it.

And it’s started….Levi lost his first tooth yesterday! It’s been loose for quite some time but he’s refused to wiggle it. For some reason, he started wiggling it a ton yesterday morning while we were waiting at the dr office (asthma…not good!) and he pulled it right out. The tooth fairy came last night and brought a 50 cent piece and he’s got another one loose that may come out today. He was too cute about it, I encouraged him to get the other one out so the tooth fairy would only have to come out once…but he wanted to be sure she had to come two nights. Poor tooth fairy!

Some more pics from our trip…we’re back now, had a wonderful time and are sad vacation is over. Thanks so much Nana and Papa for a wonderful long weekend. The boys are tucked into bed, the laundry is put away and we got pampered with a perfect salmon dinner by Maymay.
Now it’s time to plan the 4th of July party….

After getting off to a rocky start, Levi catching the dreaded stomach flu and throwing up all night before we were supposed to leave, we loaded up the troops and headed down to Westport for the Pirate Festival.
If you aren’t familiar with Westport, it’s just a tiny fishing village down by Ocean Shores but for this weekend they transform the street by the marina into vendor booths and the pirates come out of the woorwork in full garb. It’s pretty amazing and very family friendly. There are pirates who let the kids come and sword fight, ones making balloon swords, lots of food and cool pirate gear being sold and all are more than willing to talk to the kids about their antique guns, swords, etc. I have to say that there isn’t much cooler for 4, 5 and 6 year old boys than pirates and they are EVERYWHERE. Of all the boys, Trey is in 7th heaven and can’t get enough. He loves this one guy dressed up as a skeleton pirate and wants to keep going back to see him, Carlos is all about the sword fighting (he took a big pirate down!) and Levi is doing some serious people watching (he’s still recovering but being a total trooper).
The neat part about this festival is that most things are FREE…the vendors, obviously, charge for their goods but many give away eye patches and stickers and all in all we’re not getting nickel and dimed all day. There are black powder cannons and muskets going off and pirates “acting out” fights in the street, usually where one crew is coming to break their captain out of jail and has to fight off another crew in order to do it. I think the pirates have more fun than the rest of us! It’s been great spending time with Nana and Papa as well, and Linda, Scott and the girls came down for awhile yesterday so the boys always love seeing the cousins.
Back to vacation here..some swimming in the pool, walking on the beach and more pirates on the agenda for the day!