Fourth of July Festivities

We were exited that we were able to celebrate our nation's birthday with the traditional parade and fireworks this year. Here are the photos of our day. 

The girls waiting for the parade to start. 

The girls and their friends watching the parade

Their were 60 parade entries that ranged from bikes to 4-wheelers that crawled up each others tires to typical floats and balloons to bag pipe players, jugglers on stilts, violins in marching bands, Native American dancers, line dancers, rhymthic gymnast, and even Thai dragons.

So more about the Thai dragons. Their float stopped in front of us and actually wanted to interact with those watching. They picked Rachel. This is Rachel crying and trying to get away from the dragon. She was so afraid. I even tried pointing out that there was a person inside but she was not hearing it. If she didn't have a back on that chair she would have been gone! But she couldn't get away and it took the people inside a while to realize that they were terrorizing her to stop. Someone did come out and apologize to her and us and they felt so bad. Oh well we're still chuckling over it and it's a moment I don't know if we'll ever forget.

After the parade we all went home for a nice nap and woke up to rain. So much for grilling, so instead we used the griddle to cook up some delicious carne asada, chorizo and italian sausage. The girls thought it'd be fun to play in the rain with their umbrellas (they don't get too many chances to use them). 

 It stopped raining in time to enjoy my favorite part- fireworks! This is Ashley's first time going and seeing fireworks, so we didn't want to miss it. We packed the cooler and brought chips with Mike's homemade guacamole. (Are you noticing a mexican food theme on our American holiday? I did) Meet are friends near a park and watched the fireworks explode, what felt like, right over top of us.

The kids entertaining themselves with glow bracelets turned swords while waiting for the fireworks

waiting in their princess chairs

Rachel sat with her friend and loved every minute of the show

Ashley watched the first firework and then turned around ready to cry because of how loud it was she spent the rest of the night cuddled up with Daddy. 

Marble Paint on Wednesday

 Rachel and Ashley marble painted on canvas last week. They had a blast rolling the marble around and off the tray and onto the table and floor and wall and me.  Yes somehow I still managed to get painted even in this.

Rachel is so proud of her art work that she took the liberty of hanging them up in our hallway upstairs with scotch tape.  My favorite part is that it's kid height.

   

Ashley getting a little help controlling it from Tara.

Mom and Brooke come to visit

Last week my mom and sister braved the 24 hour drive from Houston to Vegas. It was fun and very helpful to have them around. We did lots of coloring, shopping, girls nights, laughing, sitting in doctors/hospitals, watching movies, and playing games. The funniest 10 minutes were from sitting at our table at the Santa Fe Buffet giving our drink order to getting our first plate. I had a duh moment that started it all. The waitress asked my sister what she wanted and as she was answering water I was thinking , the buffet of course.  And since I have a habit of not keeping things to myself I shared which was a mistake of sorts. The waitress called over someone else so I could tell them and it just went on from there.  My mom and sister said they always start at the desserts to make sure they have room. So we walked straight to the desserts and when I grabbed the chocolate silk pie (that was delicious) they said your actually eating dessert first. I said that's what you said we were doing. As they laughed they explained that they just looked at them so they knew how much room to save. So back went my pie until after dinner.  It was a fun girls night out, I'm lucky to have such a great mom and sister. Thanks for coming out we were all sad to see you guys leave.

Family Picture Slideshow

Preschool- Music and Ducks

We've had a little bit of a hiatus on our reading and preschool stuff but we're trying to get back on track because really I should have plenty of time to do things now that we're home most of the time yet I'm having difficulties finding it. We did do a small lesson on Music and then Ducks.

finger painting to music fast and slow

playing music in glasses

Duck bills with pringles

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I love the side view

My favorite was the duck race. Sorry I cut off Ashley at one point.

Multigaming

June 15th

The girls both wanted to play a game but they wanted to play different games.  I was trying to keep Rachel up a little longer so the girls would nap at the same time and I could get a little bit of down time.  Which resulting in my sitting and playing 2 different games at the same time. It worked.

Ashley and I played Candy Land while Rachel and I played Enchanted Forest.

Pool Day on June 15th

we had just filled the pool and it was too cold to sit in so they stood almost the entire time they were out there.