The Rest of July

Beach, Wedding, Birthday Party...what more could we possibly pack into July?

Well let's just see....
Baby showers for Abby!

Abby teaches at the Rubber Room where Kade and Ryne go to school.

This was her Rubber Room shower with lots of moms of preschoolers.

Abby also goes to church with us.

Our awesome friend Sarah hosted an amazing tea for Abby's shower.

Abby's baby is named Emily Claire.  I love this name.  Why?  Abby has two sisters.  Guess what their names are?  Emily and Claire!  Isn't that the sweetest????

In this fun game everyone had to place a paper plate on their head and draw the cutest baby they could.  Here, Abby is trying to pick the winner.

Isn't that precious?  Seriously.  This is a good baby.  The scribbles all over the plate that was upon my head did not resemble a baby at all.

Then we played a game to see who could drink up their bottle of pink lemonade first.

It was crazy hard.  No one finished their bottle.  We came to the conclusion that we have no idea how babies do that...but we are no longer surprised that babies like to sleep after finishing off a bottle.  It is hard work.  Sarah and Rebekah were the best at it.

Then we moved on to something more productive.

Sarah had us all set up to make headbands for Emily Claire.

This crafty girl, meaning myself, actually created a couple of headbands.  It was fun!  

Then there were presents...

Abby's mom had made lots of stuff for Emily Claire's room and had sent pictures of it to Sarah to have all wrapped up for the shower.  Isn't that the coolest? So special.

So thankful for such a sweet friend like Abby!  I think I loved her first because my boys loved her so much when she became their teacher.  In fact, Ryne refers to her as "my Miss Abby."  Isn't that sweet.

It was so much fun getting to celebrate Emily Claire's soon arrival with her. (FYI...remember this post is from July...Emily Claire is here now and we love her to pieces....stay tuned to future posts to meet her.)

We celebrated half-birthdays!

It was Kade's actual 1/2 birthday on July 17th.

Ryne's 1/2 birthday was June 30...we were kind of busy getting Monk Monk and Uncle Josh married that day.  

We couldn't convince Ryne that all of that cake at the reception was for his half birthday.  He totally knew that it was all for the wedding and none for the 1/2 birthday.  We did let him pick which drive through we stopped at for dinner on our way to Florida on July 1st but I still felt like he was slighted a bit.  So this year instead of serving up half a cake as usual on half-birthdays I served up a whole one.  Half for Kade and half for Ryne.

They didn't mind!

Tesa and Tyce enjoyed the party, too.

Next up in July was a week of Vacation Bible School.

Kyle and Kade took off every morning for Bible School while Ryne, Tesa, Tyce and I stayed behind to hang out with all of these tots....

With the help of my sweet friend LeAnn, we took care of all the Vacation Bible School workers' kiddos who weren't old enough to go to VBS themselves.  We had a house full of babies every day.  There is no telling how many pounds of Goldfish snacks were consumed in our home that week.  

We had fun.  And word from Kade and Kyle is that Bible School was lots of fun too.  

Kade still talks about their main point, "No Matter What, Trust God!"

I'd show you pictures of the fun they had but I don't have any this year...I was tied up a bit and couldn't make it over to take any.  Maybe next year?

Tesa and Tyce did a lot of growing...

And tooth getting.

And practicing walking.

Then there was the first bike ride...

They LOVED it!

Our first family bike ride.

Kade spent a lot of time drawing.  He loves to draw.

Tried to sneak in some of our morning dates while the boys were in school.

Little bit more challenging now that babies like to be entertained.  It was so nice when they just slept in their carriers while Kyle and I enjoyed a brunch date.  Oh well, they're cute and  it is still doable...just doesn't feel so much like a real date anymore with our little chaperones.

Made it to the Mushroom Festival....

There were pirates!  Kade and Ryne were thrilled!

There was food...

Kade chose alligator on a stick.  Really.  And he loved it.

There was a firetruck to explore.

And to wrap it all up before heading home we let them enter the jousting ring.

Tried to take pics of Tesa and Tyce together in their Curious George shirts.

Granna gave those shirts to Ryne and Taylor when they were wee tots and I love that Tesa and Tyce got to wear them together.

See here is Ryne and Taylor...much younger I believe than Tesa and Tyce, but same shirts!

The together pictures didn't work.  They just wanted to climb all over the chair.

So I just stuck with individuals.

Oh dear, look at Tyce, Momma!

Silly boy!

We still hadn't given Tesa and Tyce their birthday presents...

So we put their birthday shirts on them...

Tesa added a hat...isn't that cute.

Then they got to open presents...

Cute clothes from Aunt Kim, Uncle B, Brandon and Taylor

What in the world could be under this blanket looking wrapping job???

A water play table from Aunt Kim, Uncle B, Brandon and Taylor!  Nice!

Notice how Kade and Ryne had chairs of their own to have to sit in and watch.  It was all they could do to let Tesa and Tyce play with their new presents without help.

Then came the tricycles from Granna and Paw.  Ryne could no longer contain himself.

Tesa was especially fond of the pink bow.

Tyce looks ready to hop on.

We totally went for the practical gift and got our babies some helmets.

Ryne testing out that cool pink trike.

And Kade had his turn too! That pink tricycle was a big hit in our house.

Now the tassels on Ryne's ride have her attention.

Next, gifts from Monk Monk and Uncle Josh.

Tiny Toms!

Another practical gift from the parents.  New sippy cups!

Why?

So that we could work on no more of this....

We didn't have any trouble kicking the bottle habit with Kade and Ryne but these babies were proving to be a different story.  (don't worry...we are all done with bottles now...remember this is a rewind to July post.)

I was so taken with the sweetness of the Tiny Toms that we just had a mini photo shoot surrounding them...

Tyce was sure proud of  his new shoes.

Look, Mom, I have TOMS!

Kade sneaked into the photo shoot.

Really cool thing about these sweet shoes.....there are two kiddo somewhere in the world who need new shoes that will also be getting a pair.

What else in July?

Lots of playing.

Even the hard outside kind of playing where you get pushed off the slide by your big brother and end up with a skinned nose.

This was also the month that Tesa decided she didn't like wearing bows in her hair anymore.  Got very few pictures of her with a bow.  And if I managed to get one on her and distract her so that she forgot about it, Tyce would notice it and promptly remove it for her.  It was as if he knew she wouldn't want it there and was doing her a favor.  

In celebration of the last day of July and the expiration of our zoo pass...

We went to the zoo!

And had just as much fun as ever.

This was the first time that we took Tesa and Tyce in to see the sharks.  I think they enjoyed it.

Kade and Ryne certainly did.

Took the boys to visit the touch tanks for the first time.

That was a fun new adventure.

I was proud of them.  The rule is "touch but don't pick up" and that can be hard.

But they did great at only touching.  Guess they are growing up into real big boys who know how to follow rules.  That is nice.

Then we spotted this guy...a pipefish....just like the Mr. Squiggles that Kade caught in the ocean on our Florida vacation.  They really thought that was cool.

Another first was testing out the Hurricane Simulator.

It was crazy.

And you know by now that our boys love crazy!

Posed in the shark's mouth. Yikes!

We watched the animal show while Kyle strolled the babies around.

There was a super hero in the show so they were totally into it.  Oh, and it did have some really cool animals, too.  But I think it was the super hero that took it over the top for them.

Tesa and Tyce really looked at things more than ever before.  I think they enjoyed the zoo so much this time.  Won't be long and they will demand to do the zoo minus the stroller.  Oh dear!  I'm NOT ready for that.

Got to see one of the tigers super up close.

My favorite part...watching my kiddos and their Daddy enjoy the zoo together.  They will always be my favorite animals!

And because they were good, they got to end the zoo trip with a ride on the carousel.

After the zoo we stopped for ice cream....for some reason I didn't take any pictures of that.  If I remember correctly it was because I was busy feeding the twins their ice cream treat.

It was such a good last day of July that we didn't want it to end.  So on our way home, we just stopped at the park to play...

And we all had a lovely time.

And I took lots of pictures.

Tyce kept crawling out to where the boys were playing ball.  He just wanted so badly to play with them.

They did let him play!  And this is one of my favorite pictures of my littlest fella.

I especially love to see my kiddos being nice to each other.  What Momma doesn't, right?

Kade kept diving for the ball and making us laugh.

Looking at this picture of Kade and Ryne, can you see why we often get asked if we have two sets of twins?

Can't think of a better way to end July than with the people who make my heart so happy because I get to call them mine.

 July...what a wonderful month...and that's a wrap.