Summer fun

I guess it's not technically summer yet. But today was a nice day, so summer it will be!

We had two things to do today. The first was Brendan's soccer banquet/picnic. We got there a little late because we were waiting for Lucas to wake up and then we had to feed him a little lunch before we left (picnic food not so great for 13 month olds with only four teeth). We had a nice time. The weather was perfect - not too hot, but not chilly like it can get in this particular park because there are so many big shade trees. We got hot dogs, pop, ice cream and popcorn (not all at the same time though). The kids got a chance to jump on the bouncy things a little bit, they got airbrush tattoos, they got to play on the playground. There was a raffle (but we didn't win anything, oh well). Brendan got a trophy which he carried around with him the rest of the day like it was an action figure. So cute, his first trophy. He also got a little goodie bag with some candy, and some soccer stuff like a notebook, a soccer ball necklace and an inflatable "soccer" ball (kind of like a small beach ball). We had a really nice time there.

A couple hours later came the not so fun thing we had to do today - Alyssa's dance pictures. First, I had to spend part of the morning fixing up her costume to get it ready for the pictures. When it was time to get ready, I had to put her hair up in a bun with lots of gel and hair spray, get her all dressed up in her costume, including hat and decorative arm thingys, then do her makeup. Bleh. Our appointment time was 5:45. We got there early, but she managed to be the last one done and we got home about half an hour later than we should have. But she took a nice picture and she likes doing it, so I suck it up.

Then we came home to a nice dinner of shish kabobs on the grill and we ate outside at Brendan's request.

Gee, Jeff and Brendan looked thrilled, don't they? It really wasn't that bad.

After dinner, I caught the kids playing some kind of game that involved the line "You are a jaguar..."

Then they started playing with the inflatable ball Brendan got from the soccer picnic and trying to kick it high into the air. And I tried to get some cool pictures of them doing it.

Brendan couldn't get it very high. But Lucas was impressed.

Alyssa was a little better at it. This was the best picture I got, with both her and the ball in mid-air.

Lucas was impressed again! He would do the arms in the air thing almost every time anyone kicked the ball.

He was also impressed with Alyssa's Ring Pop.

Ahh, the best part about having older siblings!

Finally, some pretty flower pictures from the pots around our patio.

This picture taken seconds before he grabbed a handful of that purple petunia and wouldn't let go. I had to pry it out of his hand.