Wow - it's been over 10 days since I did a post (slacker mom!) We've been super busy though. Bri spent the past two weekends building a new play set for the backyard. It's AWESOME and I'm so happy that we finally joined the rest of the neighborhood and constructed a massive, wooden structure for OUR kids to play and climb on.

Last weekend was Father's day and the annual Oswego Prairie Fest. As has become our annual tradition, we met our neighbors for the concert and fire works show at P-fest Saturday night. Bray stayed with Meemaw and Grandpa and the older boys came with mom and dad. It's a LATE night, but it's one of the only ones all year....and SO much fun!! We made a huge circle of chairs, strollers and wagons to keep the kids all in one place. Our little family did some eating...corndogs for the boys, bbq for dad and a couple empinadas for mom. Then, I took Logan to ride some rides since he meets the 38" requirement while dad took A to see the animals. After we got back together, we enjoyed Italian ices in small cubbies hats. Dad got A a balloon which subsequently flew away. He demanded another one and so, a couple of the dads (ours and another daddy) went to the Park District booth and brought back tons of balloons (which made our little circle easy to spot in the huge crowded field during the concert) and about a dozen of these small beach balls. Can you say genius?? The kids kicked the balls around, threw them (and if you're a Houck boy, chewed them until they "broke" and then demanded more) for probably about an hour straight. We did find out, however, that Aiden LIKED that his first balloon flew away "high up in da skyyyy" as he tried to let others go as well (all balloon release efforts were thwarted).
All the kids danced to the music. Aiden in particular was HYSTERICAL. We have several videos on our camera of him and one of the other little girls dancing. She would do a move and then he would copy her. Keep in mind that she is a 4-year old little girl who has taken dance lessons. He was trying to mimic all the things she was doing and it was beyond words funny! When the fireworks started sometime around 10pm, we lined up all the kids in their little chairs and they ooooh'ed and aaaahhhh'ed over the "fire blasters" (as Logan called them. He actually said to daddy: "I'm going to call fireworks 'fire BLASTERS!'") Well, all the kids sat still except for Aiden who had to walk in circles, sit on mommy's lap, sit on daddy's lap and goof around for a just a little while longer until we went home. It was an awesome night and the older boys were actually in bed at home around 10:30/10:45. YEAH!

Brian begins the organization process for the playground set. It came in 5 giant boxes (plus the slide)

After removing the sandbox sailboat, Bri surveys the area where he thinks the playground should go.
This is the hardware all laid out on our patio table. I couldn't even lift the box that all of this came in by myself!
This is the progress after 2 days of work! Our neighbor Jeff came and helped Bri and his dad on both Saturday and Sunday. Bri's brother pitched in on Sunday as well. This took about 30 man-hoursThe kids couldn't WAIT to have their first picnic in the clubhouse. They got their chance this past Friday (6/13) with neighbors Ella and Drew (ya...that's right - DREW!)
Logan's first official slide (end of weekend 1)
Aiden tries it face first...monkey!
Here Brian, his dad and the boys do some work on Saturday, the 14th
Logan carried this socket wrench around for two weekends and tried to pitch in when the big guys would let him.
Aiden up on the ladder with daddy
The completed project!!! I even made them leave off a whole bunch of walls on the very bottom because there is a sand box down there that I thought would never get used if it was all walled off. YEAH!!!
Our boys on their swings!

Bray chills in his baby swing. We inherited this from a friend 2 years ago. I knew we would eventually use it!
Back track on pictures a little. Here is Brady on his 6-month bday. Aiden was helping me take these pictures....
...and demanded one of his own! I used to do these with Aiden and Logan when A was a baby (I got MOST of the months between 1 and 12 for Aiden I think...)
Prairie Fest - we start with corndogs!
What a wonderful daddy!
Posing with Aiden is like having your picture taken with rabid puppy!
Aiden and his first balloon which ended up being launched into the sky (supposedly by another boy in the bunch, but we later found out that Aiden most likely authorized its release)
This small Cubbies hat was previously filled with Italian ice shared by daddy and A. Note the "festival orange" shirt...good for spotting those children who tend to be flight risks!
One of the mini beach balls that kept the kids happy for at least an hour. They were in all different colors and styles. All the kids actually had completely different ones! Daddy taunts Aiden with his happy face ball.
Aiden and MacKenzie cut a rug (yes, we had a wardrobe change into jammies)
I seriously started crying from laughing so hard. This was one of the cutest and most hysterical things I have ever seen!
The dancers take a break during their "interpretive" number (a slow song where MacKenzie led them on a dramatic, ballet-like series of moves)
When the fireworks started, we lined the kids up in their little chairs. L wanted to sit next to Maddie and Aiden couldn't stay in his seat he was so excited.
Love is watching your kids watch the fireworks instead of watching them yourself.
Logan, mesmerized by the "fire blasters"
I tried to get an actual firework in the sky, but you can't see it.
Father's Day picture. "Happy is the man who is a father to many sons" (source of quote temporarily forgotten....but it's a real one!)
Belated mother's day picture (we didn't have our camera at the official mother's day dinner with B's family)

So far, our summer has been very colorful to say the least. Last weekend, my peony plants started blooming red, we filled up about 50 water balloons in shades of blue, green, orange, yellow and pink between Saturday and Sunday, and we introduced "colored bath time". Our first colored tub, a green affair, was used to lure the boys into the tub straight from the car after we went to the pool so that daddy could fix us yummy grilled fish tacos without the two of them running around the backyard getting in the way and getting even messier! Brady is seeing mostly red these days...red swollen gums! He got his first tooth this week and number 2 is just below the surface waiting to pop up which means that mom isn't seeing much "black" (isn't that the color you see when your eyes are closed sleeping at night instead of waking with a sad little teething baby and a pre-schooler afraid of summer thunderstorms??) Here are some pictures of our colorful summer thus far:


I actually managed to get the boys to "store" the water balloons in the water table while I filled them up one by one. We would make about 20 of them and then throw them on the porch. Prep time: 20 minutes, throw time: 2 minutes!

Logan's first toss

Logan sorts through all the colorful balloons on the picnic table. The boys were really good and helped pick up broken bits between each round of filling and throwing

Brady hung out in his bouncer chair under the shade of the table umbrella while we played with balloons. What a happy, sweet baby!

Check out that bowling form! (balloon pictured mid flight above the green watering can)

Fish taco picnic. Here they are after their first colorful bath enjoying daddy's AWESOME fish tacos with mango/peach salsa and corn tortilla quesadillas.

Our blooming peonies (plus look...one of the lots behind the house finally got grass! One down, one to go!). These peony bushes have been in our yard for three years now. We were told that they take a while to really start blooming. Last year, each of the two bushes had 1 flower on it. This year, they each had 7 or 8!

Double click on this picture and you might be able to see why I wanted to snap this photo. It's hard to tell, but Aiden's eyes match the towel he's wrapped up in. This is from yesterday's wacky-water playing session with our friends in the neighborhood plus our friends Caleb and Sammy from playgroup (their mommy was also without hubby last night so they came over for dinner and we let all the kids play with water stuff in the back yard while we sipped a concoction of raspberry sherbet and sprite...well....Logan took all of mine, but Kelly and Anne had some!)

Last night's bath was purple. It looks more like blue in this picture. Every night, we take out the food coloring that is now housed in the bathroom. We choose the color we want to make (green, orange, purple) and then each boy gets one little bottle (for example, Aiden gets blue and Logan gets yellow to make green. They are actually also having an art lesson in color mixing I guess). After I try to help them put in only about 5 drops each, they both get a big spoon and spend a good 5 minutes stirring the water. Here is a picture of a plastic fish swimming in one of the most popular bath toys...my drink tumblers from downstairs (afore mentioned spoons used to be my cooking utensils, but have graduated to bath toys as well....even BEFORE colored baths if you can believe it!)

Here is Brady after his bath. He gets a quick dip in the tub, then I wrap him in his little towel and put him in his bouncy seat until the big boys are situated in their bath. After that, I run to Bray's room, grab his pj's, and get him ready on my bed where I can see directly into the bathroom to where Logan and Aiden are playing in the bath water.