That Holiday with the American Flag

We started off the holiday weekend with Anna dumping an entire box of Cheerios around the house. I think she was playing "Hansel and Gretel" or possibly leaving a Cheerio trail for Roo to follow. It reminded me of the movie, "ET", when Elliott uses Reese's Pieces to get ET to come to his room...




When I informed her that she would have to clean it ALL up, she immediately ordered Drew and Fritz to start eating.



She even demonstrated the most efficient (and possibly grossest) way to get Cheerios into your mouth. She learned everything she knows from Fritz.



Drew just pouched.



I saw a T-shirt somewhere that said, "The Bigger the Bow, the Better the Mom". When I mentioned it to Anna, she immediately pulled the bow off.



We went to NO on Sunday for a pool party at my cousins' house. Jay and Tom have made it a 4th of July tradition and we look forward to it!

Grandma asked Stephen to make her a drink. Stephen grabbed Anna and taught her how to make the perfect bourbon and coke. "Foist, you gotta fill da glass wit ice. Grandma likes her drinks with two fingas of bourbon. You got little fingas, so you got to use TREE!"



"And den, you gotta fill da rest up wit coke."



Robert and Joelle came to the party and helped us entertain the kids while it stormed outside.



Drew played the piano. Shaun is convinced that we have a virtuoso.



Anna ate lots of chips while she waited for the storm to end.



While Joelle taught Andrew how to go up and down stairs in preparation for our trip to St. Louis.



He LOVED the stairs! Unfortunately after this, my camera batteries died, so I have no pictures past this point in time.



On Monday, Carl and Mary Jane hosted dinner for everyone. Aunt Sheila, Aunt Rochelle, and Uncle Howie drove in from NO. Rochelle convinced Drew that she was ok by feeding him chips.




Here were our (not so successful) attempts at a family picture.

Midsummer

I have come to the startling realization that summer is halfway over :(
Shaun maintains that he can't wait to go back.
I maintain that if he doesn't shut up, he'll get beaten with my big toe.


Drew LOVES the power wheels and often sits in it and yells until Anna takes pity and gives him a ride around the yard. She is such a good big sister.




Drew has been taking a few steps on his own. Unfortunately, he seems to have performance anxiety whenever he knows we're filming him.





Drew is holding the gift that Shaun and Anna picked out for me for our 6 year anniversary. When Shaun asked Anna if he should get me flowers, she said, "No, get Mommy M&Ms so that she can share with me!"




On Wednesday, we drove down to NO to spend the day at "Camp Kathy". First, we walked to City Park so we could travel over the bridges.




Then, Anna fed the ducks.




We checked out the swings on the Great Lawn. Miss Independent told Kathy to get off of her swing because she could swing it herself. :(
(I DID admonish her for being rude)




In Story Land, Anna ran around and tried everything at least twice. Kathy was really good at keeping up with her. Drew just watched.




The slide at Jack and Jill was almost vertical and Anna tried to convince us to let her hold Drew on the way down. He passed on that one.




Both kids liked the Fire Truck a lot!




I think it was Drew's favorite thing all day!




He did NOT like the mister. We tried to decide if it did much because we were already so wet with sweat, all it did was make us wetter, rather than cooler.




We took a break in the castle, where Anna sat on the throne and learned a new shape:
the fleur-de-lis.




We walked back to Kathy's for lunch and a swim. Drew was so tired that he fell asleep in the pool.




So we made a little pallet for him and he napped while we continued swimming.




Anna showed Grandma her new swimming skills. Grandpa let her take a break so that she could visit and swim with us!




After we swam, we ran by the house to visit Grandpa and to see the progress. I absolutely love the floors that my parents are installing!



Here is the kitchen. My dad is a bit out of focus, but you can see how fantastic it looks!

Dancin' with the Steve

Here's the video I couldn't upload yesterday.

Party Time!

We celebrated Andrew's first birthday with a low-key, semi-last minute get together. Such is the luck of a second child :-(
We had a nice time anyway!



Drew is not a huge fan of cake, but I made cupcakes by request. I held the cupcake OUT of his reach until we had finished singing Happy Birthday.





Drew with his "lil mommas", Amelia and Lilly.



Drew is really a connoisseur of ice cream sundaes (homemade, sonic blasts, mcflurrys, etc.). After he finished his own sundae in his highchair, he started cruising around the kitchen to take care of everyone else's leftovers.



YEAH!!!



Anna is high energy and sometimes a real handful. My cousin, Stephanie, passed on some great advice as to how to approach this "dilemma". Every morning, we ask ourselves, "How are we gonna wear her out today?" and try to plan activities that involve incredible energy expenditure. On Wednesday, we met Kristen and the kids at an indoor bounce place full of different kinds of spacewalks.

Drew's favorite thing to do is "jump jump jump". So what if Anna's nose gets in the way?



Peter and Drew had a lot of fun in the blow up ball pit. I didn't know these still existed!


Peter is high-energy too!



Drew LOVES to make sure his immune system is still working!



Both kids conked out on the way home and slept all the way until the next morning.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!



On Sunday, we drove down to NO for Father's day dinner with my parents and Stephen. First, we went by the house to see the progress. Uncle Stephen was VERY entertaining. He and Anna jumped on the beds, threw grapes, and danced.



Grandma gave Drew a taste of the Hughes Family drink of choice.
He fits right in.
I am still the only Black Sheep.



Grandma giving me a stern talking to on the merits of posting photos of her previous action. She seemed convinced that I would misconstrue the events and show her in a bad light.
Cause I've never done that before.



While Stephen picked some stuff out of Drew's hair, I maintained my innocence. She was not convinced.



Right, Drew?



So then we had a small dance party, in hopes of wearing out these two turkeys before dinner.



No such luck.

I have a video, but blogger won't let me upload it. I will look into other options.