Abbey turns 7!

After all of the July 4th festivities die down, then we get to celebrate Abbey's birthday! I can't believe this girl turned 7 this summer - where has the time gone? She was excited that on the day of her actual birthday, Cousin Caroline and Aunt Domi came over for some fun. Abbey requested a cookie cake this year, so I found a Frozen themed one at the store. It made me sad that she did not want a big decorated cake this year, yet this was so much easier!

So after her dinner of choice (spaghetti), we got the cake ready.

I surprised her with candles that relight again after you blow them out!  She didn't know what was going on, but when we first lit them, they were sparking so she was a bit nervous!

Once they quit sparking, she went in to blow them out quickly...

And then...oh my goodness....the flame came back again!  It was really fun and took her a while to blow them out completely.  

Cuties!!  Oh, and notice Abbey's shirt!  We watched a lot of the women's world cup this year so she really wanted a shirt of Abby Wambach, so Aunt Domi got her an Abby Wambach shirt and she was thrilled.

For her birthday party, we took a bunch of her friends to see the Minion movie.  She had the shirt to go with it (thanks again to Aunt Domi).  

And Abbey made all these cute Minion goodie bags to give her friends.

Ready for the movie!

After the movie, we walked the kids over to the frozen yogurt shop and everyone got a tasty treat. We sang happy birthday to Abbey with our yogurts.

It was a fun party.

Then it was back to our house to relax and open some presents.  Uncle Brandon very kindly had stayed back at the house with Matthew during the movie party.  And the girls were quick to cling to him (as usual) for some rest when we got home.

After Matthew got up from his nap, he had a good time walking around the block with Uncle Brandon and then having a snack with Aunt Domi.  Look at those curls!

Despite the long hair, I was not ready to cut off those cute summer curls!

Ben got our his volcano set and the kids did some fun science eruptions.

As part of the birthday celebration (and part of an early celebration for Juliette's August birthday), I took the girls down to the American Girl store for breakfast.  The girls were excited to wear their matching clothes with their dolls.

Caroline and Aunt Domi met us down there too and we had a really nice breakfast.  I haven't been to the restaurant for other meals, but I will say that their breakfast is really good.

After breakfast we had fun walking around the store.

Abbey had been saving her allowance money plus some birthday money she received and was able to buy herself Grace, the doll of the year.  She was so excited and I was proud of her for saving her money and using it on a big purchase like that!

Girls and dolls....I love it!

This is a poster of the doll that Abbey bought.

Obligatory American Girl star picture!

Juliette did not have enough money to buy a doll and instead of continuing to save up, she decided to spend all of her money on a matching bathing suit for her and her doll.  Glad she had enough money saved for that!  And Caroline also had saved up her money (since Christmas!!) and was able to buy a doll too.  So proud of these girls for saving up their money for some big purchases!

Cutie pie.

The boys had spent the morning at the planetarium downtown, so while we waited for them to pick us up, the girls watched the American Girl movie that was being shown in the store.  

It was a great morning.  Here is Juliette showing off her new matching swim suits!

The girls went to a performance camp - setting the stage - that was similar to the play they were in during the spring.  This time the girls had real parts and they were so excited and did great!

The play was "Into the Woods" and Abbey was Cinderella and Juliette was one of the wicked step sisters.  Great job girls!!

July 4

July 4th is one of our favorite times of summer. Our village has a really good parade that we go to each year and one of our favorite teachers happens to live on the parade route and invites us to come watch it from her yard. It is always a good time! And as is our tradition, Aunt Domi and family come up to celebrate with us too!  We were excited to have Matthew be more of an active watcher of the parade this year.  Aunt Domi helped him get into the spirit of the parade.

I love this picture.  He really enjoyed waving to everyone.

Then he realized that candy was being thrown!!  Thanks to Juliette for sharing her bag with Matthew.

Juliette and Abbey with our good friend (back for the summer from Singapore).

Cousins!!

Cuties :)

I don't have a great picture of it, but Abbey drew an American Flag on her cheek with face paint.  It was really well done.  She loves being a big sister to Matthew.

So glad to see my good friend Rachael back from Singapore!

A huge thank you to Mrs. Balogh, our school's Assistant Principal and Ben and Abbey's former kindergarten teacher, who invited us to her house to watch the parade!

After the parade, we hung out with the Acuff's for a bit before they left to attend some July 4th activities with their friends.  Later that afternoon, we had some friends over to our house for a BBQ.  

Ben had a lot of fun catching up with Michael and Charlie after being apart for a year!

The boys!

Mr. O'Connor had a magic wand and amazingly, every time Juliette looked into it, a dollar magically appeared for her!  She is still talking about this so I hope Mr. O'Connor remembers his magic next time he comes back!

And what is a 4th of July BBQ without some sparklers?

Juliette was actually a little afraid of the sparkler, so she needed Daddy's assistance to really hold it.

You can see her face here - she is not a fan of this!

But she is a fan of hanging out with her buddy Danny (who she plans to marry someday - they have it all worked out to have Macaroni and Cheese and Buttered Noodles at the wedding!).

Then they all walked down to see the fireworks while I stayed at the house.  It had been a long day for Matthew, so I put him to bed and listened to the fireworks.  I could see a few from above the trees too!  The next day we introduced the kids to the Frontier Days Festival.  We have never gone before and have purposefully kept the kids unaware of it, but this year we decided to embrace it and I must admit, it was a lot of fun.  They were pretty excited!

It's a big carnival with all your typical carnival rides and games, but the kids had never been to a carnival before and they really enjoyed it!

So cute!

Matthew enjoyed this game where he got to pick out a duck to see if there was a prize on the bottom.  He actually wouldn't pick up the ducks, but did enjoy putting his hands in the water and pushing the ducks down as they went by.  Finally Ben had to help him actually pick one!

Matthew is so easy going.  He just goes along with whatever we are doing.  Give him a big iced lemonade and he is one happy baby!

Ferris Wheel!

And the kids each did this big jumping thing where you were attached to big bungee cords and bounced on trampolines.  It looked like a lot of fun!

Matthew waved to them as they jumped.

And they had a game where you could bounce a ball into a glass water bowl to win a fish.  Well we let each of the kids try it and Ben won 2 immediately and Juliette won 1.  Abbey didn't win any, so we paid for one more try (which is about 6 balls worth of trying) and then she went on to win 3 fish.  So, we added 6 goldfish to our family!  We warned the kids that they wouldn't last long so to not get too attached to the fish, but would you believe that I am currently writing this on the day before Thanksgiving and we still have 4 of these original 6 fish!  The fish were cheap to win by this game, but all the tanks, supplies, food, etc. that we have bought for these fish really added up!  Oh well, it has been fun for the kids.

Another great July 4th to add to our memories.  And I have a feeling that going to Frontier Days will now be part of our annual 4th of July Festivities - hopefully we won't come home with 6 fish every year though!