Summer fun

Happy birthday, Elsie!

This post is really late, but I was having trouble posting a new entry and just now had time to go back and try.  So, the was supposed to be posted on Elsie's birthday.  Better late than never!

Elsie turns 3 today!!!! Pictures of her big birthday party are to follow....(as soon as I have time! :))

The big wheel race and a rodeo!

Our city had a second annual Big Wheel Race for kids a couple of weeks ago. Sophie LOVES her big wheel and is very fast on it, so we signed her up! It was cute watching her race with the other kids, and if those bigger boys hadn't been in her heat, she surely would have won!

Stretching before the big race

Dad and Elsie were Sophie's "pit crew." Elsie kept leaning up to Sophie and telling her, "Go really fast, Sophie!"

We also went to a "rodeo" at the state fair park with the Slovinsky's. They had kids activities like learning how to lasso and shooting pretend guns at a target from a "horse."

Bailey and Gage...they were content sitting in their strollers and trying to pull each other's hair!

Our cute cowgirls!

Grammy and Pop's visit

Gage and Pop had a special connection, especially since Pop insists that Gage looks just like he did as a baby!

Mike and his dad went scuba diving in Lake Murray...not much to see, but they seemed to have fun anyway! And it was a nice way to beat this Oklahoma heat!

One of our neighbors recently told us that he's gone to auctions at storage places, like that show on tv called Storage Wars. Basically, these storage places auction off storage units that have been abandoned by the owners. Mike and his mom have seen the show and wanted to check a real auction out. They said it was very interesting (and offered some interesting Oklahoma people watching as well!).


We braved the 104 degree heat and took a trip to the zoo!

The was Elsie and Gage's first carousal ride!

There are many more pictures, but I think they were on Grammy's camera.

Thanks for coming out, Grammy and Pop!!!

Gage is Talking!

I'm so proud of my little boy, he can already talk. We're considering enrolling him in Toastmasters or a public speaking course at OU. Can you guess what he said first?

Father Daughter Dance

Sophie and Mike went to the first annual Moore Father-Daughter Dance. Sophie got to dance with her daddy and her friends, and Mike got to wear an Hawaiian shirt and pretend that he was back in California!

Sarah, Sophie, Emma and Hannah

Mike said Sophie danced more than he'd ever seen her! It must be all the "So You Think You Can Dance" episodes that I watch with her!

Once Elsie turns 4, Mike will have 2 dance partners to take with him! What a lucky daddy!

Colorado

A couple of weeks ago we got to take a little trip out to Colorado. The kids and I drove out with my parents and then Mike flew out and drove back with us! The cousins had fun together, as usual, and we also got to meet the newest addition to our family, baby Sam!

It was nice to cuddle with a little baby again, and Sam sure is a cuddler!!! We're pretty sure that he went one whole day without being laid down because we held him the whole day! But that's what Aunts and Grandmas are for!

Elsie and fingerpaints are a scary combination!

Gage looks so big compared to Sam!

Not sure what was going on here....Elsie probably told Caleb to do it!

Watching morning cartoons at Grandma and Grandpa's place

Mike LOVED running in Denver! Here he is from the balcony of my parents' new place after one of his runs. There is a Japanese sculpture of a man down in the courtyard outside...the man in the sculpture is supposed to be lying face down on ice, representing something-or-other (it was too deep for me to grasp). It's a common thing to see people walking by stop to pat his buttocks, so Mike had to participate as well!

We went to Elitches one day (an amusement park in Denver). It was really fun...I have so many memories of going there as a kid. The kids had a great time too, and other than losing Elsie for a brief time (we found her and she doesn't seem traumatized by it, although Grandma and Grandpa might still be), everything went amazingly smoothly, considering we had 6 kids with us!

Micah and Sophie rode a rollercoaster together...they didn't seem to enjoy it while it was going on, but afterwards they said they had fun.

Katie spilled powdered sugar from a funnel cake all over baby Sam's head! The poor little guy had no idea!

Going up in the miniature Tower of Terror...

and coming down!

Since Gage will only sleep on his tummy, we brought the wagon for him. He did great!

This is a sculpture of a huge broom and dustpan outside of the art museum. It is dusting up our dirty children!