Summer Photo Dump series... #2

The fourth of July with cousin Meredith

We brought niece Meredith home with us from Indianapolis to stay for a few days over Independence Day week.  We had fun riding the boat, swimming and of course, blowing things up.

 Sarah IS America's Next Top Model.

 Candace

Anna and Meredith

Meredith and Thomas

A very patriotic family

Anna and Meredith after retrieving their parachute guys.

 Thomas caught his parachute guy in this bucket... nice catch!

"Expecto patronum!"... note sparks flying from the wand.

 Sparkler fun

 Trash can fireworks staging area.

 Appreciative spectators

 Sarah

Anna in perfect wand dueling form.

Summer Photo Dump series... #1

The Indianapolis Visit

In late June, we visited friends and family in Indianapolis.  Here are pictures from the trip, in no particular order.

Hanging with cousin Valerie

 Riding the antique carousel at the 

Indianapolis Children's Museum

 Enjoying some dinosaur time with cousin Becky at ICS.

 Twins playing in the Egypt exhibit at ICS.

 Sarah serving Mommy at the pretend Egyptian cafe.

 Becky, Grandma Spears and Daddy giving Thomas 

some pointers on the waterworks at ICS.

 Candace getting some pointers on 

guitar playing from Uncle Matt.

 Aunt Laura, Percy and Grandma Miles playing Monopoly Junior with the littles.

We love this Dad...

 ... for lots of reasons.  But one of them really showed up today.  After opening presents and having lunch at Red Robin, here's how Tom spent his Father's Day:

...providing the deposit to bring baby Belinda to our family next month

...making a trip to Target for new, larger bikes for all the littles

...supervising the littles while they swam 

...watching the big girls jet ski 

...and finally getting some time after dinner for some quiet fishing.

Real dads put their families first and nothing touches my heart more.  Thanks for all of your hard work and love, Tom.  We love you.  :)

Vacation!

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We went on a cruise and had a blast!  The only negative was not having Emily with us... she has started grad school and a new part time job and wasn't able to attend.  But we did get to hang with Alli and the boys!  Woot!

Four years home

 Fours years home today... look how much they have grown and changed!

The first month home, they were five years old and

 wearing size 3T.  So incredibly cute!

(Candace left and Sarah right)

Now they are nine, and still tiny...

 but such beautiful big girls they have become!

(Candace left and Sarah right)

My heart bursts with love for them every day.  I feel so blessed to be their mommy.

Memorial Day weekend fun

Last day of school was Thursday for the littles.  On Friday, they got to have a delayed birthday sleepover with besties Ava and Sophie.  First we went to see the movie Epic.  It got thumbs up all around, from the bigs and the littles.  Then we enjoyed dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise before returning home for the sleepover fun.  Saturday, Candace and Sarah whipped up some Easy Bake treats from the kit they got from big sis Anna for their birthday.  And last but not least, some swimming made it into the weekend agenda... despite what I would consider less than ideal conditions. (i.e., cold water!)

Ava and Candace

Sarah and Sophie

Decorating the Easy Bake cupcakes.

Showing off the finished products!

Excited for the first swim of the season!

School's out... let summer begin

Today was the last day of class for the 2012-2013 school year.  There have been several fun activities over the last couple of weeks:  field trips, class picnics and (pictured below) track and field day.  I love watching the kids try their hardest at some pretty interesting events.

Candace was pretty good at the standing long jump.

Sarah jumped 64 times in one minute... without any misses!

Thomas struggled valiantly in the anchor position in tug of war.

Many of our evenings and Saturday mornings have been taken up with baseball and softball.  The girls played last year and did surprisingly well... they had never even heard of the game until we signed them up for it.  They took to it quite naturally.  This year they are old pros and have really improved.  Both are good batters and Candace has quite an arm on her little self.  This is Thomas' rookie year in baseball.  As a kindergartner, he "should" be in t-ball in our league, but the organizers recommend he play up a level, in coach pitch.  Apparently word of his athleticism on the soccer field preceded him.  Do I sound a little like a bragging parent?  Well, yeah.  

Thomas at bat.

Sarah loves to play catcher.  :)

Candace takes off for first after getting a hit.

Looking forward to lazy summer days and enjoying more of the great American past time with my littles.

Nine years old!

On Friday, Candace and Sarah turned NINE years old!  It's hard for me to believe my little twins have gotten so big.  We had a very busy day, but managed to have some special birthday fun.

First up, birthday lunch at school with Mommy and Anna.

After school, presents!  The whole family was there to watch.

The twins and Thomas with the presents he gave them.

Finally, after a thrilling evening softball game

 against the white Ashland team... birthday cake!