Daddy's Birthday - 4th of July and More!

Adrienne came into town the night before Robert's birthday, so she went with me at midnight to decorate his desk at work. We put balloons with pictures all over, got him some Diet Coke and spelled out Happy Birthday in Hershey Kisses. He was totally surprised when he got to work and sat down to write the news, top story...his birthday!

 

That night we went to Skateland with the Ashbys and Johnsons to celebrate!

Winston and Claire made their own fun.

Even though Robert says he doesn't want a party, he totally does. The one year that I just did a tiny family thing, he was a little mopey. Plus, he's so wonderful, his birth should be commemorated with rollerskating, or bounce houses, or bbq-swim parties, or giant mystery dinner parties, or magicians at Rustler's Rooste, or whatever else we've done that I'm forgetting. I love him!

While Adrienne was in town, we also had a little pool party with friends, so fun! Noelle and Kennedy even put on a lovely little fashion show for us afterwards.

The young women came over, and we made cookie dough for our girl's camp fundraiser (enough for 150 dozen to be exact.) This was the mess I made before they even got there. It was a lot of fun. They are the greatest girls!

We've been going on some tours this summer with friends from our ward, and this one was a blast! We got to go behind the scenes at Peter Piper Pizza and make our own pizzas.

We also got to see the special dough room and go in the big fridge. The manager said, "This is where we keep the mushrooms and onions and green peppers." And Noelle said, "I thought she said green poopers, but she probably didn't." That made me laugh (:

The next day a little bird told us that it was going to be nice and cool outside, and before we realized that little bird was a big liar, we went to the park. Luckily it was Desert Breeze Park, so there was water to play in, so we just got wet with our clothes on.

Winston just wanted to play with the pigeons. He fed them blueberries, Stanton's entire sandwich and all of our goldfish crackers. They were swarming around us and rubbing up against my ankles and getting tangled in my long skirt. It was so gross. I felt like the pigeon lady in Home Alone 2, but Winston was literally squealing with delight, so I didn't wanna make him stop. Plus, sometimes I feel bad for pigeons. I think they get a bad rap.

Stanton and Noelle discovered the coolest, slightly scary swing thing. On the way home from the park, we saw a giant, pink, inflatable pool chair floating in the sky from the dust storm. We followed it, and pulled over when it landed in the middle of the street and got it. We didn't know where it came from so we got to keep it.
The kids felt like they found a treasure, and I totally remember taking big stuff from the side of our apartment complex dumpster (that hadn't been thrown in yet) with my Dad when I was little. I continued the tradition after Robert and I got married, and I made him drag a treadmill from the dumpster all the way back to our townhouse, in June. The whole way he kept saying, "Sweetheart, people don't throw away treadmills if they work." Turns out he was right, but he refused to drag it back out, so it sat in our room for 6 months until the weather was cooler. Again, I love him!

The next night was 4th of July Eve, and we watched firworks and went to Dairy Queen.

Fourth of July Day was extra fun! It was the first year we didn't have a bbq, since we had just gotten back in town and I was about to leave for girl's camp, but we ended up doing other, just as awesome stuff. We went to the nursing home in the morning. The kids waved their little flags, and handed out all of the pictures they colored and finger painted. We love our sweet, old friends!

Then we went to Sweet Tomatoes (all 3 kids' favorite restaurant) with Grandpa and Grandma Curry, and went to see the movie Brave. We loved it! I like tough princesses. After that we let off fireworks in the backyard and the cul de sac. It was a nice family day! I love our country!

Daddy ended the night with a tickle fight, and then we watched fireworks on t.v. We are all still singing the Katie Perry "Firework" song on a daily basis. Stanton gets frustrated cause "it's so catchy," and Winston honestly screams "NO!" when he starts to hear, "Baby you're a..." For some reason he just doesn't like it.

The next day Max came over to play.

I think I forgot for a moment that we live in Arizona cause I took them all to the park to play, again.

Then we wised up and went to Chuck E Cheese, blessed air conditioning.

After we spent the $15 worth of FREE tokens I got with all of my coupons, Stanton and Noelle looked underneath all of the machines for more. That was like a game in itself. They actually found like 5 or 6 more, and they were so excited! I was proud of their thriftiness!

The next night we took Daddy to Desert Breeze Park to show him that coolest, slightly scary swing we discovered. We were smart this time though and waited until night time when it was a wee bit cooler. Stanton also showed him how he's mastered the monkey bars.I love how he sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating.

And Noelle has gotten so brave, perhaps because of a certain new Scottish Disney princess, but she climbed the high rock wall, all by herself! She has been trying all sorts of new things lately.

And Winston kept showing off his slide skills, not to mention pointing back and forth from his shirt to the rocking frog, shouting, "Bibbit!"
 Ahhh, good memories!