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.