Butterflies, Lightning Bugs, and S'mores

Yesterday, all 5 of our butterflies emerged from their chrysalis.  We decided to let them go rather than keep them in the cage for a few days.

 

 Last night we had my parents and Beth & Eric over for dinner.  The boys were very excited for them to get here...

They brought paints for the boys to use.  Adam loves painting with Aunt Beth.

It was so hot that we all put our feet in the pool to cool off.

Then, Paige and the girls came over for a campfire and to catch lightning bugs.  We are loving the ages of our kids right now.  Don't get me wrong, some days I really miss the younger baby and toddler years, but this age is so much fun.  They can play for hours together and don't need us to entertain them.

 

 

Growing up, we would spend many summer nights catching lightning bugs.  Our dads made us bug houses to keep them in.  It was so much fun and now it's just as much fun watching our kids experience the same things we did.

We made S'mores over the fire and once it started to get dark out the lightning bugs came out. 

Such a fun night!

 

A Dutch-Wonderful Day!

We've been checking lots of things off our summer bucket list the past few days.  The best part is we are accomplishing many of them with friends and family!

Thursday morning Paige and I took the kids to see Monsters University.  I loved it and I'm pretty sure the kids did too!  Owen is always trying to scare people so this movie was right up his alley.  When we got home, we had a scaring contest.  I took a video of the kids showing me their loudest roar and then sent it to Aunt Beth so she could judge. 

Friday, Paige and I took the kids to Dutch Wonderland for the day.  We had a great time!

 

This year we visited the water park area first since most people seem to go there after riding all the rides.

We rode tons of rides and got to see the diving show.

It makes me laugh, but we do get a couple stares when one of us has all 4 kids by ourselves on a ride.  Many people think we have two sets of twins since they are the same age and look very similar.

The lady working the Skyline couldn't believe that Sam and Adam weren't brother and sister. 

I love that they are so close despite living in different states. 

Aunt Paige treated Owen and Adam to face painting.

Adam was so relaxed and following directions precisely to keep his eyes closed that we all thought he fell asleep.

Owen was in character most of the time his face was painted.  Cracked us up!

We left the park hot, sweaty, and exhausted, but happy as can be!

Lost Tooth

Owen has had a very wiggly tooth for the past few weeks and Tuesday night before bed I asked him if I could pull it out or if he would just pull it out himself.  He wouldn't and I had a hunch that it would come out while he was eating the following day and he just might swallow it.

I told him that if that happens he shouldn't panic.

When I picked him up from daycare yesterday I noticed his tooth was missing.  When I asked him what happened he had no idea.  He didn't believe me that it was even missing until Linda showed him with a mirror.  He was super excited!  The only problem is, it came out while he was eating snack and he swallowed it.

I took a picture of his missing tooth and told him I'd text it to the Tooth Fairy so she believed him.

Then, he wrote her a letter explaining what happened and put it under his pillow.

The next morning, he had a lovely note, golden dollar coin, and $5 bill under his pillow.  I think kids with missing teeth are just the cutest!  Owen has a slight little lisp now that his tooth is missing:)  Eventually those big, ugly, jagged, adult teeth will push through making him look all goofy.  Until then, I will enjoy his toothless smile.

His Tooth Fairy must really love him :)

Rehearsal Dinner Photos

Jesse & Anna had a photographer at their rehearsal dinner and I'm so glad they did.  Claire was able to capture a few pictures of our family and my boys that I absolutely adore.

 Adam's expression in this next one cracks me up!!!

 And this one just captures their personalities perfectly.

Photos taken by  Claire Palella Photography

Fun in the Sun

We've been having all sorts of fun around here lately. 

Lots of popsicle eating, cape wearing, basketball playing fun!

Active, growing boys require a LOT of food.  This was Owen's dinner the other night- egg whites with toast and after that he had waffles for dessert.  Breakfast for dinner is a favorite around here.

Our caterpillars have already formed crysalisis.  We can't wait for them to emerge as butterflies!  Owen has been keeping a journal documenting all the stages and phases of the butterflies.

Last week we made Flubber!!  I found the recipe on Pinterest.  I had the boys watch a movie clip from the actual movie Flubber before we made it.  They LOVED it and it kept them occupied for at least 45 minutes.

 We had a movie night last week.  Watching a movie on our deck in PJ's= loads of fun!

This past weekend I went to Philly for Maddie's bachelorette party.  We went to an organic spa where I had one of the best manicures and pedicures ever.  Then we had a delicious dinner with lots of laughs and fun celebrating Maddie.  The night ended with some dancing and silly girl talk.  I'm getting old, but I definitely didn't feel old that night!  We only went to bed at 4am.  I don't think I've stayed up till that hour since college (not counting the foggy newborn sleepless nights).  Oh boy was I useless the next day. 

While I was off having a girls night, Mike took the boys to Raystown Lake for a little guys trip. Owen was thrilled and could barely sleep the night before because Uncle Below was also going to be there!

Mr. Adam went tubing all by himself for the first time and spent most of the time in the water.  Here's a picture of both boys tubing together.

Today we spent the entire day at the pool playing with friends.  It's nice that we don't have to come home for naps now that Adam is a bit older.  Owen left for dinner and a sleepover with Papa and Finney and Adam helped me make dinner.  We've have a food processor sitting in our basement for many years. 

I actually got it as a wedding gift.  I finally used it.  I made honey mustard pretzel chicken.  Adam helped me pound the chicken.  He's always asking to help me make dinner.  I also made orzo with parmesan and basil.  It was such a delicious dinner!

What We've Been Doing...

Now that I have a little more time and we're doing some fun and different things I've been taking more pictures- mostly on Instagram or with my phone because I don't usually feel like lugging my big camera around.  My posts will mostly be a bunch of random pictures about what we've been up to.

A few weeks ago Owen started Karate.  He had been bugging me for a few months (actually since the Karate school came into his school to do a demonstration) to sign him up and I kept putting it off because we were busy and he was already doing t-ball.  I'm not big on multiple sports at one time at a young age.  I know that time will come where we are running kids from place to place for practices so I'm trying to avoid it as much as I can at an early age.  There was only a little overlap of Karate and t-ball.

 

Owen LOVES karate.  I think it just fits with his personality.   The best part is... they offer classes every day and sometimes multiple times a day.  He is in the Tiny Tigers group so we pick any two days a week to go to practice.  If a certain day doesn't work for our schedule, we just go a different day.  Each practice is only 30 minutes long which isn't bad either.  They teach the kids such great life skills too like respect, self-control, attitude, self-discipline, and more. 

The best part is his buddy Gage also does Karate!  Owen is always a little apprehensive at first when doing something new so it's really helped to have Gage in his class.  Owen and Gage became buddies this year in Kindergarten.  Gage came over for a playdate last weekend and Owen had a blast!

 

Saturday night we took the boys to Lanco Speedway for their sprintcar races.  We stopped to release our tadpoles on the way.  It was amazing watching them grow and change into frogs.  I got a little freaked out Saturday morning when I woke up and found a frog at the top of the cage.  It escaped through the plastic wrap and that sucker was fast and jumped high!  It was so scared and hid under our radiator.  Luckily he got stuck in a spider web and Mike was able to get him, clean him off, and let him go in our yard.  We decided to take the rest back to their pond since they all had grown legs and were ready to leave the pond for the woods.

The races were a lot of fun and I think Owen would have stayed all night.  It was very loud and dirty since they raced on a dirt track.

On Saturday I finished a little sewing project I had been wanting to do for a while.  I didn't like the pillows that came with our deck furniture so I bought fabric and followed the directions for this 5 Minute Pillow Cover tutorial I found on Pinterest.  I wouldn't exactly call it 5 minutes, but it didn't take too long.  It took me three tries to finally get the correct dimensions.  The first pillow I made I didn't use enough fabric.  The second one I made, I used too much.  The third pillow was just right.  For that pillow- the first square I cut was 17in. x 17in.  The second square was 17in. by 22in.  That one I then cut in half so I had two that were 17in. x 11in. (just writing that for future reference!)

Owen was getting too big for his bike so he got a new bike and Adam got Owen's old bike.  Mike put training wheels on it and all Adam wants to do is go for bike rides.  He is so appreciative anytime we give him anything that is new to him.  He kept thanking us over and over for his big boy bike and talked over and over about how much he loved his new bike.  He's such a sweetheart.

Owen got a bright yellow racing bike and enjoys riding bike even more than before because his bike can go super fast.  He said he wants to race in a real race.  We'll see about that.  All that boy wants to do is race.

Sunday was Father's Day.  The boys and I are so lucky to be surrounded by great dads.  We went out to lunch with Papa on Sunday so I took a few pictures before we left.

Mike is everything (and more) that I ever wanted for the father of my children.  They are so lucky!

Speaking of Father's Day...I know, one day, Adam will kill me for posting this picture, but it's too sweet not to post.  He loves his baby so much and takes such good care of her.  The way he talks to her and loves on her is the most precious thing.  I have no doubt he is going to make a great dad one day. 

Yesterday our butterfly larva arrived in the mail.  We did the whole butterfly life cycle thing last year, but Adam was still a little too young to fully get it.  He was so interested in the tadpoles, I think he'll love this too and understand it more this time.

The pool we go to over the summer was all set to open and then a huge sinkhole caused all sorts of damage.  I kinda doubt it will open this summer so yesterday we tried out a new pool.  The boys really liked it and it was nice to finally be able to swim!

At the beginning of our summer vacation I made a bucket list of things we want to do over the summer.  This is what we came up with so far...

This morning we went to Cocoa Castle in Hershey and then to Chocolate World.  Fun, fun!

Last night, while I was lying in bed with Owen, he was showing me all of his boo boos and was a little upset that he had so many.  A lot of them are from his new bike, but not all of them.  I told him that boo boos are a sign that you are having fun.  I said that each one has a story and if we sat inside all day watching TV he probably wouldn't get any boo boos, but how boring would that be?!