Since the 4th was on a Saturday Erik and I both had Friday off of work.  Which meant that I had Wed-Sun off and since our daycare was on vacation, we decided to take a mini vacation as well.  We went camping in the middle of the week (with all of the pictures we took, that's a post on it's own), we celebrated cousins Violet's birthday and Isaac's baptism and of course we celebrated the 4th of July!  It was a great "stay-cation" which sometimes make for the best vacations!

Mason has us figured out.  Since the boys share a room, and summer means a lot less sleep (who wants to go inside for bed when it's so amazing outside?!), if either one wakes up we rush into their room to get them before they wake the other.  Usually it's Mason waking up early.  Too early.  But if we bring him into our bed he'll immediately fall back to sleep.  Dad can't resist his little snuggle buddy :-)

Boys looking handsome in their Sunday best!

I wonder if Grandpa H is teething too?

We actually managed to get a decent family picture!  Everyone is looking at the camera anyway.

Left to right: Mason, me, Kade and Erik, Sarah and Michael (Erik's brother), Jenna (Erik's sister), Isaac, Jay and Violet, Kurt and Erin (Erik's sister--they're newly engaged!!), Bill and Melody (Erik's parents)

                                      

Great Grandpa H!

For the 4th we went to the pool, like usual.  I kind of forgot to take pictures but we did get a couple from the annual end of the day hay wagon ride.  Although there was no hay, so Kade called it a bench ride :-)

 I'm a lucky gal to have such handsome boys keep me company on the bench ride!  

Happy 4th of July!!

So Many Pictures, So Little Time

Last Thursday Kade was bummed because he had to stay home with boring old Mom and we didn't have any plans to do anything fun with anybody.  You would've thought I was forcing him to sit quietly on a chair all day, or worse yet (in his mind, anyway) snuggle with me!  Sometimes I actually use that as an option if I want him to do something, i.e. "pick up your toys or snuggle with me"--works every time!

Anyway, Erik was also bummed because he had to go to work so I took A LOT of pictures and videos and sent them to him throughout the day.  That might've made for a less than productive work day.

A day in the life with Boring, Old Mom:

Finger painting cards for cousins Violet's birthday and Isaac's baptism.

Train rides while Mom tries to accomplish some cleaning tasks.  Try is the key word--I can't get anything done with these 2 crazies!

Wagon rides up and down and around our driveway…did I mention our driveway is 1/4 mile long?

A few calisthenics before lunch.

Somebody told me he wasn't tired and he didn't need a nap.  Somebody was wrong.

Later that day the boys were going to bale hay for grandma H's horses.  Kade told me wanted to look like a "real farmer" so I had to put his gloves in his back pocket for him.  At first I had the fingers tucked into the pockets but that was wrong--real farmers have the fingers sticking out.  We had to compromise with the gloves in each pocket.  Apparently real farmers put both gloves in one pocket (fingers out, of course), however Kade's little pockets on his little butt were too small for both to go in one.  Luckily, he's seen other real farmers wear their gloves in both pockets so he was ok with it.

Turns out a boring day at home with me isn't so bad after all!!!

99% of the time Kade and my conversations are about sports, farming and construction jobs, with each topic getting their equal share.  If I had a dollar for every time he's told me about a pretend: game he has played in (and won, of course), farm and/or field chore he's accomplished and every house he's built for me I'd be a multi billionaire.  But every once in awhile our conversation turns deep and philosophical, such as this gem we had the other day:

Kade:  "Mom, what does Jesus eat?"

Me: "Hmm, good question.  I think he probably eats the same kind of food we eat."

K:  "So, Jesus probably eats green beans?"

Me:  "Yeah, I think he probably does."

K:  "Do you know who else likes green beans??"

Me:  "Who?"

K:  "Santa Claus!!"

Me:  "You think so?"

K: "No Mom, I KNOW so!!!  Santa DOES like green beans!"

Me:  "Good to know."

Last Friday Kade wanted to sleep outside in the tent so we set it up and Erik joined him.  Of course you can't camp in your backyard without a bon fire and s'mores, right?!

I probably shouldn't point out what's in Erik's hand (ahem, fire starter).  Somebody wasn't a boy scout!  The wood was a little wet though so I won't hold it against him :-)

He had a lot of cute help!

I also had a lot of cute help setting up the tent!

What is it about playing in an empty tent?  It's the best!

Last weekend Lady A and her mom came for a visit.  The original plan was to go to the Chutes and Ladders park, that's actually set up like the game!  However, the weatherman was 100% inaccurate and it ended up raining all morning.  Half way to the cities we changed plans and decided to go to the MN Zoo instead.  The weather finally did cooperate around noon, everyone had a blast and neither of the boys fell/jumped into the tiger compound (which was a very real concern of mine).  I'd say the day was a success!!

Of course we'd be surrounded by tons of exotic creatures, animals we'd never be able to see in their natural habitat and what do you think Kade was most excited to see?  It also happened to be the same exhibit that we had the hardest time getting Mason to leave.  You guessed it, the farm exhibit.  The cows, the barn and the tractor--that's what they couldn't get enough of.  Ridiculous :-)

A terrible picture of Kade but the shark is owning it!

I love this picture of Mase!  It reminds me of a picture from the 70's when those mirror image shots were all the rage.

My little monkeys watching the little monkeys.

Not a great picture of the boys but the penguins sure do look cute!

There was a little splash park that Mason wanted to run into when he was fully clothed.  I stopped him, undressed him and let him go.  Of course that's when he became hesitant!  Little stinker!

No one else had their shirts off because no one else could compete with those washboard abs.  A belly hanging over the waist has never looked so good!

This past weekend we took our first camping trip of the summer.  We packed up and headed down to Lanesboro for the weekend.  It was our first time ever going camping with just the 4 of us so we were a little worried Kade was going to get bored without any friends to play with.  Turns out there's lots of kids at the campground in the same predicament!  Kade found a group of 3 boys to play with and had a blast with them all weekend.  Although they were 9, 8, and 7 he kept right up with them!

Mason even found a little buddy to play with as well!!

We took advantage of the great bike trail system and biked from our campground into the town of Lanesboro.  It was a 3.5 mile journey one way.  We were so proud of Kade because he biked on his own the whole way there and the whole way back!  We figured he probably rode about 10 miles that day if you include the million and 1 laps he and his friends did around the campground.

Although we were happy Kade found buddies, we were a little disappointed because it meant he wanted to play with them instead of hang out with us most of the time.  Mason kept us entertained/busy though!

Mason getting into a popular campground pastime:  Walking your dog with a drink in your hand!

Kade climbing trees at Grandpa and Grandma H's house.

The boys love riding all sizes of 4 wheelers together :-)

Helping dad rake the lawn after a fresh mow!

Last week my brother came up with the girls while Evelyn was visiting a friend in Dubai.  We got to spend 5 days with Vivienne and Noella!!  And Jeremy too, but who cares about the adults :-)  

Kade and Mason were in heaven with so much play time.  We were sad when they had to leave, the next time we see them is going to be an even bigger adventure.  They are moving to Atlanta in a few weeks, so no more 7 hour drives--we'll be taking to the friendly skies from now on!

I just love this picture of Mase.  He looks so old!!

I had a better picture of these 2 but for some reason it's not transferring to the computer.  Oh well, it's still a cute picture of the little cousins.

And, here's the big cousins!  Vivi cannot get enough of her Kade Man.  I think she hugged him and told him she loved him about a million times a day.  Kade's starting to act like he's "too cool" for that kind of thing but I know he feels the same.  He was pretty sad when he had to say good bye.

My handsome little men!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E...

…enough said.