4th of July in Rochester

We spent the July 4th holiday this year in Rochester with my parents and my brother and sister's families. It was a crowd of kids, but they all had so much fun playing with their cousins. Grandma and Grandpa had so many fun things for the kiddos to do in the backyard and we lucked out with some pretty nice weather, although it was hot! The girls were so sad to come home!

Morgan loves convertibles right now (and taxis-ha!). So, she was super excited to see Grandpa's convertible in the garage. She had to take a "test-drive". Avery was her navigator.

Cousin Nolan jumped in, too. And Avery played princess of the parade sitting on the back.

We stayed at a hotel since my parents house was packed full! Avery found the bible in the drawer and pretended to read stories from it to Daddy. She kept calling it her "book of prayers", but her stories were not prayers.

Playtime in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard was a highlight of the weekend. There were a couple of pools, a slip-n-slide, a sand-box, a tree swing and a zip line!

Did I mention there was a pear tree? Avery kept picking the "baby pears" to bring home to plant our own tree. :)

Grandma had some fun crafts for our budding artist, Avery.

Morgan spent some time playing with play-doh with her buddy, Beckett. She treats him like a little brother - it's adorable!

At the hotel, Matt got stuck with Morgan and I slept in a bed with Avery. I think I won that! Morgan kept scooting Matt closer and closer to his edge. Avery did sleep perpendicular to me one night with her bony little feet jabbing me in the gut. :)

What July 4th would be complete without a parade?!? The Rochester parade did not disappoint. We were right at the beginning and we got pelted with candy! The kids all came back with huge bags of candy! Santa even made an appearance in the parade and the girls went crazy!

After the parade, we headed over to Sparks in the Park, a carnival with a few rides and games. We actually got Avery to go on a couple of rides with her sister. She got to play a couple of games and win some prizes, too. And they got their first carnival snow cones!

We were able to sneak in a little swimming time at the hotel on Sunday morning. Morgan did laps back and forth in the pool (it was a pretty small pool!).

On Sunday afternoon, we had a BBQ at my parent's house and celebrated my mom and aunt June's birthdays. My dad made homemade ice cream - a July 4th tradition! Aunt Erin brought out a huge bucket full of squirt guns and the kids ran around getting everyone!

Grandpa measured all the kiddos on the door. Surprisingly, Morgan was the tallest by a half inch over Grayson. That girl is growing! I think she is now the same height I was at her age.

Grabbed a few more pictures from Brett...

Family picture

The kiddos had a water balloon fight while Matt and I were at the reunion

Looks like a ton of fun!

Watch out Uncle Ross!

Enjoying some homemade ice cream

Campout... rain delay

We decided to campout a few weekends ago because the forecast looked great (0% chance of rain and not a cloud in sight). So, Matt put up the tent (left off the rain cover, cause why would we need that with a 0% chance of rain?!?) and we got all the beds and blankets set up inside. We made hotdogs  and s'mores on the fire pit for dinner. We caught lightning bugs. Seemed like a perfect campout. Until around 11pm just as the girls were finally settling down to sleep, I feel a drop. At first, I didn't know what was happening, then a mini-downpour of rain happened. Just enough to get everything in the tent wet. I took the girls inside and Matt scrambled to get the rain cover on. But, the damage was already done. And of course, Avery refused to go back out in the tent after that. She was half asleep and just wanted to sleep in her dry bed inside. So, that's where we finished the campout... inside in our beds while our blankets dried out... because there was no more rain after that 5 minute shower. Someone really didn't want us to campout!

Avery with one of her carnival prizes

Playing inside the tent

Getting the s'mores ready

There is no easy way to eat a s'more

So yuumy!

Watching kindles and relaxing

Scary backyard monsters

The next morning - Matt said he put the cover on upside down and backwards - ha!

Carnival

A few weekends ago, Downers Grove had it's annual carnival. We took the kids up to check out the rides. They are now tall enough to do all the kid rides. Of course, Avery was much more interested in playing the games and winning prizes than going on the rides. And Morgan wanted to ride every.single.ride! I did take the girls on the big slide and when we got to the top, Avery wouldn't climb on it. The ride operator just picked her up and set her on the slide and down we went. Then, she cried at the bottom because she hated it. :(  Morgan ended up riding a lot of the rides with her cousins Grayson, Hunter and Beckett. They had a blast!

Getting SO tall

Catching up to her sister

Avery didn't mind this ride at all

Fishing for prizes

The fish are weighted - the heavier the fish, the bigger the prize

On the carousel, which went surprisingly fast!

Can't miss the lemon shake-up stand!

Morgan loved the carousel 

Riding the motorcycles with her cousin Hunter

Nature class

We went to another nature class at Lyman Woods through the Downers Grove park district. These are fun for the kids because they get to paint/decorate something and then walk around through the woods collecting bugs and "treasures". This particular class was all about toads and the girls got to make little homes for their potential toads. :)

Painting her toad home

Checking out the beetles

Posing in the woods

Setting the toad free

Coloring a picture of a toad