No balloons=No fun

We went with some friends the annual hot air balloon festival here but due to some bad weather, we never even got to see the balloons launch.  Boo!  So this is all we got.

34 is big around here

We celebrated Rob's 34th birthday on August 18th.  Ava was super excited about the hat she bought him to wear and the gifts she bought him at the dollar store which included a whoopee cushion.

The 4th

 (Pretend you are reading this on July 6th and you are amazed at how on top of things I am that I already have my Independence Day post up. Okay, begin.)  One of my very favorite holidays? The 4th of July! I love it, it's great.  I always dream of spending the morning hanging out on the sidewalk as I watch a fancy parade, followed by a few hours meandering through some type of festival (because I honestly ADORE festivals - all of them - ask Rob), going home to grill something delicious for lunch, (after waiting the mandatory half hour) going swimming, and then of course, topping off the evening with some incredible fireworks.  In all 30 years of 4th of July's (can I write it like that?) I've experienced, it has never ever actually happened that way.  But a girl can dream right?  One thing I absolutely do not believe in skipping are the fireworks.  I'm kind of ridiculous about it.  (Again, ask Rob) I. want. to. see. fireworks. And not the dumb kind that you light off your self.  Because they are dumb.

The girls in their cutie pie outfits (you would not believe all the crying and tantrums I went through to get ONE good picture of this. )

I'm tired and the fireworks still haven't started. 

Aaaaaaaaammmmmaaaaazzzziiiinnnggg!

And then they got a little loud

Family Home Evening by Ava

My sister and her family keep a history of all their family home evenings which I think is such a good/fun idea so we decided to start it in our family.  So here is tonights:

Opening Song: I love to see the temple (chosen by daddy)
Opening Prayer: Mommy
Lesson: The Tower of Babel by Ava (It went something like this): The tower of Babel was at a time when "people were very curious about heaven" (she's just recently learned the word curious) so they built a tower to get there.  Heavenly Father didn't want them to do it so he changed their language so they couldn't understand each other.  This way they couldn't build the tower because if someone said please give me that piece of wood then the other person wouldn't understand him. The Brother of Jared did good things so he asked Heavenly Father to unchange (not change) his language so he could talk to his family.  (Directed at Dad): Is building a tower the way to get to heaven? (Dad answers no) What is the way to get to heaven? (Dad says its by following Heavenly Fathers commandments.) That's right.  Now we are going to do an activity.  The good things go in the bag with the Brother of Jared on it and the bad things go in the bag with the tower of Babel on it.
Activity: We then played a game where we read little strips of paper i.e. you shared your toy with a friend.... and decided which bag to put the paper in.
NOTE: Ava planned this activity herself after playing a similar game with our goats and sheep lesson and after hearing the story of the tower of Babel several nights for her scripture story.  She chose the pictures to put on the bags and cut them out, glued them on and cut the word strips out as well.  She did a great job giving the lesson with very little help from mom.
Closing Song: Families can be together forever (chosen by dad)
Prayer: Dad
Treats: Charlotte handed out cookies that her, mom and Ava had made earlier.

Some stuff we've been doing

Hanging out with the girls

Making volcanoes (and silly faces) with friends

Waiting to wave to daddy as he drives away to work