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Archive for July, 2009

As always, we have been busy doing whatever it is that keeps us so busy! Last week, Anya, Josiah and I had 2 play dates with little Raegan & her mommy Laura (including a trip to the zoo) hit the mall, stopped at a few garage sales (which can be interesting with 2 kids) and spent a lot of time enjoying the nice weather outside. Of course I forgot my camera when we went to the zoo, so as soon as I get a copy of the pictures from Laura, I will post them.

We were also busy this last weekend with a visit from Charlie, Jason’s business partner from Albuquerque, NM, a Saturday lunch party at Paul & Lois’ house, working in the nursery at church on Sunday morning and finishing up our last Alpha class Sunday night. It was a fun weekend!

Here are a few pictures of kids playing at the mall play area!

Because why wouldn’t you want to fall asleep on the hard wood floor playing with a bath toy?

Tonight we picked our first 2 tomatoes from our topsy turvey tomato planters. Although they were small, they were delicious! Here is a new slideshow program I am trying out. Check out our “Mid-Summer Garden”!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Anya definitely got plenty of opportunities to celebrate her 4th birthday this week with 3 birthday parties within the last 7 days! The celebrations started last weekend with a trip to Winfield to celebrate with Papa Ronnie, G’ma Jeryl and Aunt Joni. Anya was very excited about the “pig” cake G’ma Jeryl & Aunt Joni made for her and of course all the presents she got. Josiah even scored a few presents and had a lot of fun playing on his daddy’s old push bike and G’ma Jeryl’s little rocking chair.

Monday was her actual birthday and she started her day at Science Center Camp. This year she went to both science center and zoo camp and had a blast. It is definitely something we will continue to do each summer! To celebrate her birthday we headed over to America’s Incredible Pizza Company for supper and fun. Anya had a great time playing the arcade games and Josiah even got to ride on the carousel…so everyone was happy!

This week Anya also got her haircut for only the 2nd time in her life. I took her to the girl who does my hair and Anya was very insistent on telling her to only cut a little bit off! After her trim Anya was very excited to sit in the makeup chair and get some pink lipgloss!

This weekend we headed up to Forest City to celebrate Puckerbrush days and Anya and Aubrey’s birthdays! Although the weather was cool, we had a great time watching the parade, participating in all the activities in the park and watching the fireworks. The theme of the parade was “Woodstock” so Jason & Jill had a very groovy float in the parade for Miller Pharmacy. Anya was lucky enough to get to ride on the float with her cousins and had a blast throwing out candy to everyone…she was smiling from ear to ear when she went by! Anya also took part in the kiddie pedal pull competition and we were all amazed at how far she made it. She was just happy to get her blue participation ribbon and a can of pop…it just doesn’t get any better than that! Saturday night we bundled up and headed out for the fireworks and boy did we have good seats! We were in the very first row (up against the caution tape) and the fireworks were directly above our heads. It was a great show and had us laughing the whole time about how close we were to the action. So close in fact that Suzie (Jill’s mom) had a firework remnent land on her and burn a hole in her sweatshirt! Next year we might opt for the second row instead

Sunday we had Anya & Aubrey’s birthdays at Jason & Jill’s house and the girls had fun blowing out their candles and opening presents. Anya has so many new things to play with she can’t decide what to do first! Last night on the way home in the van Jason & I thought it was so cute when Anya said “I love everything I got for my birthday…and I love everyone who gave it to me”…..ahh, such a sweet girl!

Here are pictures of Anya’s birthday week fun.

Today Miss Anya turns 4 years old! Where oh where did those 4 years go? What an amazing little girl she is growing up to be and it is so much fun to be a part of it. I thank God everyday for my little girl and everything she brings to our lives. We love you Anya and can’t wait to see what excitement you bring this year!

Wow! What a fun and busy 4th of July weekend we had up in Armstrong/Ringsted. We took off early Friday afternoon to head up there and got back just in time for supper and an amateur firework show at Papa Jim & G’ma Barb’s house with Jason, Jill & family. Even though it was raining most of the time, the kids had fun playing with sparklers and hearing the boom from the firecrackers.

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed to the track in Armstrong for the kiddie races. Anya had a great time running in the 50m dash and taking part in the softball throw. She was more than happy to get her “participation” ribbon! After the races we headed to the park in Armstrong for the big wheel races. Anya did great and got 2nd place in her age group and scored a free ice cream cone from DQ and $3 cash….well worth the effort! After all that physical activity, we were hungry and headed to Nazareth Lutheran Church for lunch and then down to Great G’ma Martha’s house to watch the parade. Zachary, Noah, Anya & Aubrey had a ball collecting all the candy thrown to us (trust me, there was ALOT) and Josiah had fun just watching all the commotion go by. After the parade we headed back up the park to play and hang out until it was time for fireworks. Then we headed out to one of Papa Jim’s fields and had a great view of the show. Unfortunately, so did all the mosquitoes that joined us! Josiah & Anya both fell asleep during the fireworks and were out for the rest of the night. It was a busy day and we all had so much fun!

Sunday we headed into Ringsted to attend the Oleson family reunion/Great G’ma Ruth’s 80th birthday party. It was fun to see some relatives I hadn’t seen in a long time and the kids had fun playing in the park. After the reunion dwindled down, we loaded up the van and headed back to Des Moines. After baths and supper we all crashed in bed after our crazy busy weekend!

Here are a few pictures of our 4th of July Fun.