July 4, 2017

     Following tradition, we always drive south for the July 4th holiday and to celebrate my niece's birthday!

    This year Olivia is 4 years old going on 25. This girl is smart, loving and full of personality. Sometimes the things she says make me sigh or blow me away at their thoughtfulness.  Sometimes Riley and Liam play together and leave out the other kids. This happens in most groups on occasion but its not fun.  On one of the mornings that this happened, Olivia later confronts Riley.  She wasn't mean but very matter of fact about it. Olivia asked her why she didn't want to play with her then tells her that she doesn't like it and that it hurt her feelings. Wow!  That was amazing, this is a simple conversation that can befuddle many adults. Riley just stared at her though, guess we will work on that. I love that she is talking about her feelings. Most of the time they played fine together but it is fun to hear their conversations!  I love these kids.

    She couldn't wait to blow out her candles and did it right away! She is a pro now. This year I made Riley and Olivia dresses out of some of Grandpa Scott's old dress shirts. They turned out really cute. I gave Liv hers as part of her birthday gift this year.

      This first picture of the kids in front of the truck makes me laugh. What August is doing with his hand is how I felt near the end of taking these pictures. It was hot, few of the photos were turning out because anywhere between 1 and 3 of the kids would look away each time. Taking pictures of a group of kids is tough. I came up with a good arrangement for them but getting them to all pay attention for the second it takes me to press the button they get distracted. Makes me wonder if I could be a photographer in the future.  Oh and I did get some good ones of August too but these were the best for the group.

    
    Later on this same night we cooked hot dogs and smores over the fire. They had a lot of fun and were a sticky mess!  The big kids got to watch a few fireworks that Stacy and Jason bought. I let Riley stay outside but true to being in our family August had the sniffles and was tired so I took him in for a nice cool bath to get the sunscreen off and tucked him in bed.

This was a fun packed weekend! The next day Stacy and I took Liam, Riley and Olivia to The Beach Ottumwa.  This kids loved riding the waves in the wave pool and the going down the slide in the kids section the most. Liam was the only kid tall enough for the big slide. He tried the curly one, we climbed up the stairs twice before he decided to go down. I think he liked the slide but struggled with the pool at the bottom. He decided the lifeguard was going to let him drown and refused to go again. I am sure by next year he will give it a go again.

  These next pictures are of the kids getting ready to watch the fireworks display. They did some sparklers but then we decided with the lack of rain that it wasn't the best idea. They loved the fireworks and Riley was a constant narration of oooos and aaahhhs as well as listing the various colors she saw. She looks forward to Olivia's birthday every year because I think she thinks that the fireworks are for that!

    In the evenings Stacy and I were enjoying some much needed sister time after the kids went to bed. We were both exhausted at the end of each day but still had fun watching the Girlmore Girls Netflix series. We finally finished it!

The next and last day of our trip we took the kids to see one of the cheap Wednesday movies. This time it was the Minion Movie. This was Augusts first time and Rileys second at a theater.  They were excited to be there and enjoyed our fun trip to Ottumwa.