the 26th.

Now that it's finally public, I can finally start posting pictures on my blog!
Can't believe i'm 2/3 of the way done with this pregnancy!
There's a long list in my head that I want to get done before he comes and i'm trying REALLY hard to cross things off of it.
Hopefully this nesting feeling lingers on for a few more months!

Water Party

Kate had her party on Monday, with her friends from school & church.  It was a nice theme to go with.  Water is easy in the summer.  So I set up a slip n slide, a kiddie pool and then we borrowed a jumping house from a friend.  They were set!

We had hot dogs, chips and popcicles for lunch.  Then the party consisted of them playing in the water.  It went by fast and before I knew it, it was time to open presents.  The kids seems to have had a lot of fun.  Glad Kate has made so many wonderful friends here.  Each one of them is so fun and nice.  They all get along, which is always a plus in groups.  Next Birthday is Joe's....what to do....

Kate's big day.

Kate had a wonderful birthday!  She got some wonderful things that she adores.  We went out and ate at Red Robin.  It never fails.  The kids always eat their food.

Just wanted to say that this girl is amazing and a blessing for our family.  She's like the calm during the storm...usually.  She's so easy-going.  She's a bit sassy but I think that's from the example from her older sister.  She's genuinely kind and wants others to be happy.

This evening, she said the prayer.  She prayed that Emma would have a happy birthday and have a great day on her birthday too.  Emma had a bit of a struggle today with Kate getting all the toys and attention.  But she was a good sport and let Kate have her day.  She's become really understanding.

Here's to the start of birthday season around here.  From now until Dec. there is a birthday every month!  Wish me luck...

Waterville Days

 Yesterday, on the radio, I heard about Waterville days happening on Saturday.  I have been there once to visit a specific bank that was oddly in Waterville, WA.  It's up out of the canyon of the Wenatchee & Columbia Rivers.  It's a pretty neat view when you hit it.  It's completely flat and wheat fields as far as the eye can see.  And then you see this Waterville right in the middle of it.
So I thought it would be fun to go to Waterville days with the kids since we usually don't do anything fun on Saturdays.

As expected, it was small.  Really small.  They had one activity for the kids... a "go fish" booth.
The kids thought it was the coolest thing.

There were about 15 booths total, with a live band, a book sale and an auto show.

Luckily they had a park circa 1959.  I think this thing is banned in like 35 states or something....

We stopped to get a treat from here.  MMMmmm probably not again.  We were told their selection of ice cream was vanilla or chocolate.  So we ordered chocolate.  They quickly corrected us by saying

"OH no, we just have vanilla but we have chocolate syrup that we mix to make chocolate ice cream.  We also have caramel and butterscotch toppings."

So they really sold just dinky sundae's that were overpriced.  LOL

Also their "fruit smoothes" title was very misleading.  It consisted of frozen berries (from costco), vanilla ice cream & milk.....doesn't that sound like a berry shake?  overpriced as well.

But since we were visiting and wanted to help their economy, we didn't complain. :)

It's always fun exploring neighboring small towns.  Not sure when we'll do it again though ;)

Cherry Picking

The lovely thing about these parts of WA is the fresh produce.  And even better when you know the owners.  We were invited to pick cherries so we took advantage and went over there for FHE a few weeks ago.

There were SOO many cherries that were ready to be picked.  They were so good.

And I stuck the girls in grubby clothes so they wouldn't get cherry juice stains.  I should add "my" grubby clothes :)

PS that's Emma's new helmet that she's obsessed with.  So she wore it in case "cherries fell on her head"

We picked TOO many cherries.  We froze a bunch and have made a ton of fruit leather but we still weren't able to eat all that we picked so they went bad :(

"Cherries!"

Hogle Zoo

The big family went to Hogle Zoo the day before we left.  This was exciting since my kids haven't been to the zoo in ages.  The last time was when Emma was like 2 or something.
I even rented a double stroller and it was the best $8 I ever spent. It was super hot that day and knew the kids would be tired of walking.

They loved the Merry-Go-Round!  We were first in line so they got to pick their animal.

We did the zoo train that lasted 5 minutes....but it was still fun .

Before leaving, they had fun playing with this ball that they could roll!

Honestly, by the end, I was spent.  It seriously so hot.  I don't do hot, especially pregnant.

 I think we crashed the rest of the day until that evening when I was asked to take pictures of all the grandkids together for my mom.....just remember when planning, don't do a big outing like to the zoo the same day as wanting to take pictures of all the kids....just saying...