So talk about slacking...now it's been a REALLY long time since my last post. In my defense, two weekends ago was my second "special date" with Brady (aka: plane trip to San Fran for Den's shower). This past weekend was the 4th of July. The run down went like this:


Thursday: B took the day off, but still had several calls to do. I went to the party store and bought a ton of decorations and we decorated the wagon, Logan's bike and Bray's stroller for the bike parade the next day. Our neighbors joined in the crafty fun on our driveway and then we went to Ribfest that night with a bunch of friends (no kids!)


Friday: Neighborhood bike parade (see pictures and reference title of entry), a swim in the pool, dinner with Memaw, Grandpa & the cousins and fireworks at the clubhouse. We made s'mores in our firepit, the boys all played with these rockets memaw bought them, and they set off a ton of smoke-bomb type fireworks (which was hysterical because they would light one and then all of the boys minus Bray would "dance" around the smoke....too funny!) There were, of course, those tiny little poppers involved...the ones that look like very small treat bags and those "fireworks" that shoot out confetti. Logan kept calling the paper "celebrations" as in "look mom...there are celebrations all over the patio!" We had purchased a bunch of glow-in-the-dark stuff and adorned ourselves with that before heading over to the clubhouse for fireworks. I decided that the glow things are the "orange festival shirt" of the night-time event. I could spot Logan wherever he went even though it was dark. Accidental genius! Mental note for next year!!


Saturday: Back to work I guess. Bri did some stuff in the yard during the morning and then we went to a hot air balloon festival that night with friends. We were so jazzed for Aiden to see real hot air balloons "up in skyyyy". He and the other kids totally enjoyed seeing the launch and then most of them (minus Logan and Bray who both couldn't take the noise) jammed out to "Bad Medicine", a Bon Jovi cover band. Aiden was a dancing fool!!


Sunday: We went to the pool in the morning and then ran errands in the afternoon for Aiden's upcoming 2nd birthday party!


And now, without further ado, here are about a bazillion pictures from the weekend.......




This is Logan at the starting line for the neighborhood bike parade. We pulled up and every one's bikes were waiting behind this line. L thought he should just get right on up front and stay on his bike until someone told him to go. All the other kids were running around, but our little guy has focus (ya...right)
AJ and his scooter...ready to roll (or where they?? stay tuned for more details)
Brady was happily pushed along in his stroller for the parade. I had a name tag right next to his head until he reached up, grabbed it and turned it into a high-fiber snack (in other words, I took it away from him when he started chewing on it). We managed to convince Logan to move his bike back into the crowd at the starting line with all of his neighborhood friends (as opposed to right up in front). He still didn't want to get off of it though.
Aiden...waiting in line holding his precious 4th of July balloon.
A view of some of the riders getting ready to head out. We are at the neighborhood clubhouse in the parking lot.
So, phase one of the parade went from the clubhouse and down the street to the main housing area. Ryan here ditched the scooter after he couldn't keep up with the bigger kids and jumped in our wagon with Aiden. At this point, Logan is WAY up ahead with the kids on bikes, Brian is trying to keep up with him (unsuccessfully) while pushing Brady and I'm hauling Aiden (now Aiden and Ryan)
During phase 2 of the parade, we move from the main street into the houses. At this point in the parade, the kids were supposed to go down one street and make a big circle around and back to the clubhouse. This picture was taken at the beginning & end of that big circle....a journey that none of these little boys made. Brian took Brady around and Logan rode his bike. We learned from a neighbor who managed to stay close to Logan that he actually didn't know that he was supposed to continue looping around and was heading his bike towards home. The 2 older girls in our group (both 4 years old), got so far ahead of everyone that one dad (the same one who sent Logan back around the circle instead of towards home) was sent to find them. During this time, AJ got tired of his scooter and jumped into the wagon with Aiden and Ryan.
Mr. Jeff takes a turn hauling the three boys in the wagon
hu?? Here, AJ takes over the wagon duty, but where did Aiden go? Why is a 2 year old hauling another 2 year old? We kept asking him if he wanted help, but he wanted to do it. You should have seen him....just plugging away pulling Ryan in the wagon. He made it quite a way too!! Ah ha! Aiden (pictured here on daddy's shoulders heading back to the clubhouse) ditched the wagon for a ride with a better view. Logan rides beside daddy and I now have Brady in the stroller.
There she is! Here is Ella...one of the older girls who went so fast she was actually missing for a portion of the parade. I think some of the kids actually thought this event was a race.
There they go again! Ella and MacKenzie speed away...no wonder they were lost! (by the way....did THEY know they were lost? Most likely not)
Sweet Brady decided it was nap time...oh to be pushed around and sleep whenever you want. I think that's my dream life :)
Ah...the real goal of the race - donuts. I did shove bananas in their faces between yummy chocolatey bites, but who am I kidding...I had a couple myself! By the way, blogspot spell checker denies the existence of the word chocolatey...wha?! Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary begs to differ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chocolatey !!!
Here we are in the afternoon playing with these cool rocket launchers that Memaw got all of the boys. I didn't know if L & A would be able to do them, but oh they caught right on. I'm thinking it's some sort of male gene...right up there with never getting lost and laughing when someone else burps or passes gas.
Brady plays on the floor inside the house....far away from the rockets and their launchers (launchers in this case meaning young boys ranging in age from 2 to 12. You're a smart boy Brady!)
S'mores.....notice how everyone is eating theirs and I'm still roasting. It's an art people...and it takes TIME to get the sh'mello juuuuust right.
Aiden didn't go for the chocolate so much as the marshmallow. I call that his "little devil face".
Here, Logan and Ella hold hands as we walk into the grounds for 'Eyes to the Skies' (the balloon festival we went to almost purely for Aiden's sake...although good times were had by all as the next pictures will illustrate)

How cute. Here, Ella models the butterfly she had painted on her face. This only took like 5 minutes! Aiden and some of the balloons (he is wearing a pair of foam bunny ears around his neck. We didn't get any pictures, but the Energizer Bunny Balloon was at the festival and this thing was HUGE....like 4 normal balloons put together. They even handed out these ears).
Daddy holds Aiden who looks "up in skyyyyyy" at the "ha air badoons"
Is it love....or is he trying to choke me. haha! See the dirt patch behind me? Well, our kids managed to find this and play in it all through "dinner" (although the adults were oblivious to it's existence when we chose our grassy sitting spot). All the kids managed to get absolutely filthy in this stuff. I know it will be a shock to you all to hear that Aiden was taking fists full of it and throwing it around.
Kids on shoulders...jammin' out to "Jovi"

Daddy and Logan acting goofy together.
The balloon in the distance is tethered to the ground. It was one of two available for rides. As we left the festival, I was pushing Aiden and Bray in the double stroller. I heard this little voice up in front saying "bye bye ha air badoons" as Aiden waved his tiny little hand. I knelt down and we said good-bye to the balloons together. I even turned the stroller around and walked backwards towards the exit so he could watch them for just a little longer. Could he be any cuter?
Look everyone - it's another picture of Brady sleeping in the stroller. Ironically, this kid was the last man standing when we got home that night. He woke up in the car on the way home and didn't go back to sleep until sometime around 10:30.

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.