Happy Birthday Hudson

Yesterday we woke up with a 4 year old in our house!  I can hardly believe my baby is 4, but he was SO excited that it was finally his birthday and we spent the whole day making him feel special.

First up was his daily Pop-Tart only this time he had candles in it. :-)

We went on our daily walk with Walker and ran into a ton of neighbors.  Every time we stopped to say "hi" he whispered to me to tell them it was his birthday.  He was so excited.

Then we met up with our friends Tiara, Avery and Dylan for lunch.  We all had fun catching up and visiting.

Next we had to run a bunch of errands that I had been putting off, but he was a good sport about it the  whole time.

We waited for Robby to get home that night, ate a quick dinner, and then went back to Bahama Buck's, the shaved ice place, we were at the night before.  It was Hudson's pick!  He loves that place (and so do I).

When we got home later that evening Robby turned on the sprinklers for the grass and the kids kept inching closer and closer. I didn't even try to stop them and by the end of it they were all completely soaked!  It was so funny to watch and they had the best time.  Hudson declared it the best night ever. :-)

At 4 years old Hudson:

• Loves Ninja Turtles and pretends that almost anything is a weapon. 
• Is a very picky eater, but is very slowly starting to try new things. 
• Enjoys looking at books and having books read to him. 
• Wants to be outside every chance he gets. 
• Would watch TV all day long if I let him. 
• Is becoming more and more independent each day. 
• Is very opinionated and lets us know it. 
• Is the most stubborn of all of our kids. 
• Makes us laugh more than any of our other kids. 

Lake Fun with Friends

Our good friends from Florida come visit us every summer and we have been going to the lake since our oldest were just one.  Now we have 5 kids there with us and even more fun!  We love spending time with them and this year was no different.

The weather was perfect all week and we only had to sit out one little rain shower.  There was lots of time at beaches swimming, lots of sleepovers, some wake-boarding, surfing and paddle boarding, too!

 This year Walker even had a buddy. Their dog, Piper came along for the trip and those two played together from the second they woke up until the second they passed out at night. We're already looking forward to the next visit!

4th of July

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent the past 10 days the lake which meant we were there for the 4th of July this year.  Gigi and Papa joined us for the holiday weekend, but unfortunately the weather was not that great.  It rained most of the day on Friday and we ended up doing patriotic nails and then went to the movies to have something to do. 

The kids did get to go swimming later that evening though during a break from the rain.  

Saturday was more of the same, but after waiting out a few rain showers we finally were able to make it out on the boat for a little while.  Walker was super excited to be able to get outside and enjoy the lake!  

We came back just in time to grill out, get decked out in our red, white, and blue, and get ready for fireworks.  

We have had this lake house for 8 years and this was the first time I had seen fireworks on the lake.  Usually one of the kids has been too young to stay up that late, but this year we all loaded up with glow sticks in hand and made our way out on the boat.  

I was super impressed by the fireworks show.  It was really amazing and just kept going and going.  Then on our way back to the dock we saw other people who were setting them off so the show just kept going and going.  

It was a wonderful weekend with family and it was kind of nice to just have some downtime to relax.

Tennis Camp

Hello blog world! I've been gone for way too long.  Keeping up with our Magnolia Mama site has be busy and then we were out of town for 10 days at the lake so I just didn't have any computer time there. However, I want to be sure to keep up with what we've been up to these past a few weeks of summer.

The kids had all been asking to do tennis so I decided to find a camp for them to try out this summer.  A nearby park had a morning camp that all three kids could go to, so I signed them right up.  The girls went from 9-12 and Hudson was from 9-10.  They all seemed to have lots of fun!

Tennis is one of those sports I wish I could have leaned to play, but didn't, so I was hoping they would have a good time.

They stayed cool with water guns, had snow cones during breaks and learned a lot.  I don't know that either of the girls loved it enough to give up some of their other activities this fall, but hopefully it's something we can squeeze in and still keep up with when our busy school schedules start back.

Centennial Olympic Park

Last week we made our way down to the Centennial Olympic Park to meet friends and run through the fountains.  

It was so hot that day and I did not have my swimsuit on, but the kids loved it and it was the perfect way to cool off.  

We ate lunch down there and also stuck around to watch the "show" where the fountains literally dance to music.

We hadn't been in over 5 years and I don't know why!  They all loved it and did not want to leave when it was time to go.  I promised them we'd be back and we definitely will!  

Swim Team is OVER!!!

OK, I have a confession to make.  I am over the moon excited that today was the first day with no swim team since the summer began.  It ended yesterday and secretly inside I was jumping up and down and doing my happy dance.  I would never fully admit it to my girls though because they LOVED their first season of swim team.  They are already begging to do it again next year, so I'm sure we will.  I am happy to have this first season behind us.  It was a big commitment having to be a practice every morning and the late nights for weekly meets were also tough.  However, seeing how much fun they had and how much they progressed as the season went on was awesome.  They were good swimmers before, but now they are super strong swimmers and their strokes have really improved.  Also, it was great for them to have sweet coaches as role models and the socializing they got to do with their friends was one of their favorite things!  We did meet a lot of new people, so that was really fun!

Their last meet was supposed to be on Wednesday, but the thunder in nearby areas kept delaying the start time.  The kids didn't seem to mind one bit.  The pool we were at was playing fun music and our awesome high school coaches got the kids up to dance.  They were having blast and I know it's a night they will remember for a long time...even though they didn't even swim!

After waiting over an hour to start the meet the weather took a turn for the worse so they ended up canceling the meet.  The girls were so disappointed, but they had the next morning to look forward to!  The end of the year swim team party was a fun time for them to be able to swim and play with friends.  They also received their trophies and Harper received a coaches award.  I'm so proud of them and all of their accomplishments and awards from this season!