Fireworks

I love summer! It is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love the long hours of sunlight and the hot days and going to the pool. I also love celebrating the Fourth of July with good friends. This was our third annual celebration at Michele and Barry's house.

Wesley's likes all of Evan dress-up stuff. Here he is as Darth Vadar and Evan is dressed up like a Storm Trooper.
Here is Wesley dressed up like a dinosaur and Hunter is a snake costume. Wesley only got out of the costumes to eat (all he ate was cherry pie, a cupcake, and ice cream) and for the fireworks.
Wesley likes the sparklers.

So does Lydia.

We watched the Falls Church City fireworks from the driveway.

It's a good thing Josiah had a three hour nap after the parade on Monday because he was still awake to see the fireworks. I think he liked them.

I felt a little overwhelmed having three kids at the party. Josiah is into everything. He even drank someone's juice box and turned over someone else's water. I did walk away from him at one point because Lydia was begging me to go in with her to get a cupcake (why couldn't she go by herself?). Thankfully another mom with three kids picked up Josiah for me and kept him from getting into who-knows-what. Because he required so much supervision, I never even tried to get Lydia or Wesley to eat dinner. Chris said that Lydia must have eaten her weight in watermelon.

It was a very fun evening and I loved seeing so many friends. I'm already looking forward to next year's party.

Independence Day Celebration Parade

On Monday we went to the Fourth of July Parade in Fairfax. We met up with friends to join in their annual tradition of watching the parade. Hopefully, it was the start of a new tradition for our family.
There were several high school marching bands and The Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps. There were several bagpipers.

The Shriners' little cars were fun to watch. When Chris and I worked in the Virginia Tech library, we used librarian carts to haul paper to reload the photocopiers. It was fun to see the librarians out with their carts. This dog ballon barely fit under the wires. It was Josiah's favorite. The Just Klownin CC Low rider car club was fun to watch.

The parade was almost two hours long but Josiah watched it all. Wesley and Lydia liked getting the candy that was handed out by various groups.

Josiah really got into this bluegrass band. He was clapping and kicking his feet.

The Bolivian dancers were very cool.

Pirate's Cove's Diving Boards

On Friday, I took the kids to Pirate's Cove. This is a very small water park but we enjoy it. We went last year and two years ago. I used a coupon from the Entertainment Book for buy admission get one free so it only cost us $13.
Josiah loved everything about Pirate's Cove.

He is such a happy baby.

He sat in a little chair with Wesley to eat lunch and snack. Of course, he tried to get away several times.

This year, we tried the sand area for the first time. Of course, the kids loved it.

Our neighbor Parker could've stayed on this digger alll day.

Josiah has started to practice standing by himself.

He loved playing in the sand.

Wesley wanted to jump off the diving boards. He could've done this all day.

Lydia also wanted to jump off the diving boards. I was thrilled! This was her first time jumping off the diving board without me in the water to help her. A few weeks ago, she tried the diving board for the first time without a floatation device with me in the water to help her. After she landed in the water, I grabbed her and gave her a little help to get to the side. But, yesterday she did all by herself. Over and over again. Her preferred method of getting to the side in dogging paddling.
Pirate's Cove was not crowded at all on Friday. The kids didn't have to wait in lines for the slides or the diving boards. My kids and I had to leave after four and a half hours because we had another event that evening. We were all tired from the wonderful day.

Please Touch

On Saturday, we used our super duper membership to get into the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia for free. That saved us $60. We did have to pay $8 to park and the carousel was $3 per child. We also ate lunch in the Please Taste Cafe. Surprisingly, the food was reasonably priced.
We started out in the water play area and then Wesley and Lydia played on the big keyboard.

Josiah found a piano that was his size. He is such a happy baby.

After looking at each and every option on the carousel, Lydia finally chose a rabbit.

Wesley chose a goat.

Josiah really liked the carousel but he seemed to get tired before the ride was over.

Lydia pretended to cook in Wonderland.

Sometimes she is quite contrary.

This cute little boat, that went up and down, was in one of the special areas for kids three and under. It provided a nice challenge for Josiah's balance.

At 11:00 we saw a magic show. The kids got to pet the rabbit after the show. Wesley is still wondering how the magician made the rabbit appear.

Lydia and Wesley both enjoyed the grocery store.

This cute baby really had a good time at the museum.

Wesley asked Chris, "What is this?"

Wesley got to use the scope to pick up balls.

Lydia had a turn, too.

Josiah complained when I picked him up from this car.

This was a cute little model car wash.

Lydia was very serious about pumping the gas.

Here she is "driving" the Scion.

We need one of these hampster wheels at home!

Chris and Josiah on a space shuttle.

Lydia and Wesley loved launching the foam rockets.

Josiah had fun pushing buttons on the control panel.

This is something we probably wouldn't try at home - painting bubble wrap.

The Play Foam is pretty cool. So cool, that we went by the gift shop to buy some to take home.
After 4 1/2 hours, we were ready to leave. We took a short drive to zoo where we spent two hours. It was a super fun day!