Birthday #2 and #3

The nice part of a summer birthday is you generally get to celebrate several of them!  Since many people are vacationing over the summer, getting all the friends and family together for a large birthday party is difficult, so we enjoy several of the smaller varieties.

Ben - happy to be back in Minnesota, Sylvia - not impressed... 

OK, this is more like it...

It's present time!

We had a good time up at Charleen's and Micheal's house.  It was warm outside, but we were able to welcome back Ben and Hope to Minnesota and have some birthday cake for Sylvia as well.


As for July 12th...  Sylvia's actual birthday, she enjoyed a great day at school including "bike day", "treat day", and mom and dad both picking her up.  She got to pick what she wanted for dinner - shrimp on the grill.  And of course, got to open some more presents.

My little pony - "Rainbow Dash" w/ Violet testing out the new water gun from Zach and Charlie

New sheets from Ben and Bonnie!

Violet thinking that the presents may actually be for her! 

So that concludes Sylvia's 2013 birthday celebrations.  Now mom and dad just need to get all the thank yous sent out!

Violet's 1st Haircut

The day had to come... our little baby (who is officially 2 years, 1 month old) got her first haircut.  We visited the great folks at Salon Bambino and Violet was a champ!  We figured she wouldn't sit on the chair herself, but mom's lap was perfect!

Getting ready... good-bye long hair!

Clipped up and starting in the back

Almost done - with the assistance of a grape sucker

The finished product!

Big sister also had some fun!  A nice manicure to celebrate her first full day as a five year old!

In all it took about 35 minutes and there were no tears, no screaming, and only two bribes (suckers)...  I would assume the next haircut will be sooner than two years out!

4th of July Celbration

The weather was much improved this year (temp and dew points at least 20 degrees cooler), the water was perfect, and Oasis Island was buoyant again!

About 20 of our closest friends joined in the festivities of the 11th annual 4th of July"celbration" last week and the countdown to July 4, 2014 has begun.

After some significant patching, the Oasis Island was back in full use!  It needs a daily fill of air, but hey, it is floating again...

Zach and his "star spangled" glasses over-seeing the action

New for 2013 - "water rockets"... I don't know the official name, but they are squirt guns on steroids.

Also new for 2013 - "sandbox on the beach"... In an attempt to bulk of the sand beach, we purchased some new sand.  Luckily for use, the kid at Menards gave us the "premium" sand which must have came direct from the Gulf Coast.  It was wonderful!

July 4th means the early B-Day cake with Sylvia.  Anxious (or hungry) friends watch closely as the candles are about to be extinguished.

Sunset on July 4th with my love, Mr. Oasis Island

The day after was a bit windier and a bit cooler, so the kids were mostly confined to the beach...

and the swing-set...  Not sure what is going on with Sylvia and Violet?

We did need to take a quick paddleboat ride however.  Zach and Sylvia doing the leg work while Violet was captain of the vessel! 

Looking forward to spending the 12th annual 4th of July celbration with our family and "our family".

Giant Post-it(R) Note

One of the many benefits of working at 3M is bringing home the cool samples.  I recently brought home some samples of the new "Big Pad" that has recently been launched.   Sylvia took the opportunity to draw a self portrait.

While most of the day was inside trying to stay cool, we did have some pool time this afternoon.  It started off nice, but later turned into two crazy kids spraying water everywhere...  Maybe I just need to relax and let them destroy the backyard?