Deer In Headlights

This picture makes me laugh.

Ella's Birthday Party

We went to Dallas over the 4th of July weekend to celebrate an early birthday with our niece Ella. She had a swim party with lots of her friends from Dallas. The twins thought the party was great!

The birthday girl, Ella! She had her first b-day party in this same pool. I can't believe what a young lady she has grown into!
Cousin Cal swimming in the pool.
Cousin Will swimming in the pool.
Greer, Ella's cousin, showing off her swimming skills! Our favorite line from Greer was...."why do you call Caroline princess? My daddy calls me princess. I am my daddy's princess." So sweet!
Beach ball cookies.
Caroline indulging in a cookie. Yummy! She LOVED it!
Caden peering through the window to the pool. Let me out! After 4 days outside in the pool, we chose to let the twins play inside for this party. Not to worry, there were PLENTY of toys inside for Caden, Caroline and Jaxson (Ella's youngest cousin).
Popsicles by the poolside.
More friends and pool party fun......
Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you Ella! Can't wait to celebrate with you again in Seattle on your actual birthday!!

Bounce House with Cousins

Another thing we did with the cousins was visit a bounce house. The kids had a ton of fun and used up a lot of energy. We didn't take many pictures during this trip but I like this one. You can see how Caroline looks up to her big cousin Ella.
Within a few minutes of leaving the bounce house, we had this in our back seat. Our little man was tired and needed a quick nap.

Splash Park with Cousins

Amy's brother and his family were in town a few weeks ago. While they were here, we all headed to a splash park. We all had a lot of fun.

All five kids liked flying through the water. These first two are Caroline flying.
Caden had a lot of fun with his buckets.
Ella and Cal going down the water slide. You can see Caden and Will in the background.
Caroline and I sliding down.
Caroline trying to taste the water.
We had a lot of fun at the splash park.

Red Head Appreciation Day!

Marble Slab introduced a New Red Velvet ice cream last week and held "Red Head Appreciation" day to celebrate. Caden and Caroline treated mommy and daddy two free ice cream! Caden probably consumed less than a tablespoon of ice cream. Caroline would have eaten all four scoops if we had let her.


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Swimming with Grandpa

We went to Dallas during the long Fourth of July weekend. While we were there, the twins did some swimming with Grandpa and Daddy.

Grandpa helped Caroline swim all over the pool. She did a great job kicking for him.
Caroline loved flying out of the water with Grandpa.
I did the same with Caden.
And then with both kids.
Here is a picture of Caden working on his swimming technique. I was encouraging him to kick.
I love the smile on his face here. This large, open mouth smile was on his face almost the entire time we were in the pool. I'm sure Caden drank a lot of pool water.

Fire Truck

Last month, the family picked me up at work and we headed to lunch at one of our favorite places--Torchy's Tacos. Torchy's is next to a fire station which happened to have a fire engine parked out front. The kids thought it was cool and we walked inside to eat.

After lunch, the engine was still outside so I walked the kids over to get a closer look. Within seconds of walking up, a fireman came running outside to say hi. (Amy will need to make some cookies for them sometime.)
He offered to let the kids inside the fire truck and we took him up on the offer. I thought it was cool when he opened the door because several steps automatically came down to help you get in. The twins didn't care about that part. :)

Here is our little girl driving the fire truck. She was very proud and would have stayed in there all day if we let her.
Caroline didn't want to get out to give Caden a turn so we let both of them drive at the same time. There was plenty of space and they played nicely together.
While sitting in the truck, Caden did something I thought was funny. Every time a truck drove by, Caden would point and say, "truck, truck, truck." For some reason, he was more excited about the mail trucks, delivery trucks, and pickup trucks. I kept telling him he was in a far cooler truck but that didn't change anything. All trucks are equally cool to Caden.

No Sir!

Caroline has a new favorite phrase......"No Sir!" I guess it's true, kids do listen and mimic everything we say! She's heard me say "No Sir" to Caden more than once and now she's taken it upon herself to correct Caden when he's doing something she doesn't think he should with a boisterous "No sir, Caden, no sir!" She even has my tone of voice down perfectly. Perhaps I should come up with a new saying sometime soon!

Helping Mommy Make an Apple Pie

We couldn't make it to Dallas on Father's Day to celebrate with Grandpa so we decided to celebrate a few weeks later during the Fourth of July weekend. One of his gifts was going to be one of Amy's delicious apple pies. Amy makes by far the best apple pie I've ever had.

When Amy started making the pie, the twins decided they really wanted to help. Amy pulled a couple kitchen chairs over to the island so Caden and Caroline could help out. This is the first time they have ever helped make something in the kitchen. Everyone had a lot of fun.

Here is Mommy and her two helpers peeling/cutting an apple.
The twins were very interested in the slicer, peeler, cutter.
Here is Caroline giving it a try.
Caden wanted in on the action.
Caden didn't think he could wait for the apple pie to be finished. He decided to to try (aka: lick) an apple as Caroline turned it.Delicious!

Of course, if Caden does something, Caroline needs to also do it.
As you can see, Caroline managed to get a little bite.
It was so good, she went in for some more.
Here is a picture of the final product. It was delicious!Amy had a lot of fun baking with the twins. I'm sure this will be the first of many more kitchen helpers.