Ten on Tuesday

1. Happy Fourth of July everyone!!! We celebrated over the weekend since I had to work today. I hear Zach and the boys had a great time at Edmond's 4th of July parade this morning without me. Here are my boys in their 4th apparel this weekend. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of Rowan, who was decked out in the red, white, and blue, but here are my other two boys!

Thatcher was the happiest little nugget this weekend. Love him sooo much!

 This was Zane when we got into the car to go to the lake. The glasses were broken before we got there, but still a pretty great outfit.

 2. The kids were super excited that their besties were at the lake Saturday. Here are Zane and Maggie being very festive. They had a blast swimming together.

 Maggie took a turn at feeding baby Thatcher. She did really well and he tolerated random people manhandling him all day like a champion!

 Here is MJ having a convo with Thatcher. He has a lot to say these days.

Uncle Able put MJ and Zane to work making all the hamburger patties, complete with the secret ingredient of cheddar cheese. These kids are great workers. I love that they had gloves for this task as well.

 3. Saturday night was our big fireworks show at the lake. It did not disappoint. Zach even set up a floating board to set off some fireworks from the water while he quickly paddled away in a kayak. I'm happy to report he made it out alive with just a few minor burns. My favorite part were the little boys conversations. "Yellow is my favorite color. "OOOHHH I like blue too." They were sitting in there little chairs chatting the whole time.

 

4.  These two have the best time together, doing nothing. They sat in various places by each other, all day, just chit chatting about various things. I love how well they get along and how completely different they are from their older siblings. They did swim some, but also spent a lot of time sitting on these steps.





 7. My family stayed at the lake and slept in until 7am!! That's a big deal at our house, but we quickly were out on the dock catching fish. Baby T really wanted to get on the business end of a fishing pole. Next year kiddo!

 Rowan had caught nine fish before breakfast and I think had caught well over a dozen by the end of the day. He might have been catching the same fish over and over, who knows, but he is quite the fisherman. He is not however into holding his fish once they are caught.

 The fish were jumping out of the water, Zane caught quite a few as well.

 5. Once it was time to come inside and cool off Uncle Able taught poker lessons while listening to The Gambler on repeat. Zane now knows how to play five card draw pretty well. We're still working on the betting portion of the game, we did bet some grapes and chips later in the day, but haven't really mastered that part yet.

6.This trip to the lake Zane got some kayak lessons from my Uncle Jim. Jim is great with kids and was very patient while trying to teach kayaking basics to Zane. I was pretty impressed at how well he did given the size of the kayak.

7. There was also lots of baby fun with baby Alice and Thatcher. Alice is always on the move these days, but I did get some good cuddles in with her as well. Look at this darling face.

8. Sunday evening my cousin Jason's crew arrived. His wife Jennifer got lots of baby cuddles in before we had to head home.

Here are five of the seventeen Dotter Great Grandkids. There was another one there, Jason's daughter Julianna, but she was kayaking while we took this picture.

9. We came back home late Sunday night so the boys and I tried to recover from the weekend yesterday. We took a trip the library and spent lots of time talking to and feeding this chunk a munk. He wants to eat non-stop. When he's not eating he's talking to his big brother's and I, I love his tiny, happy voice.

10. Did I mention that Zane spent his piggy bank money on a swimming pool last week. I had been avoiding buying one, because they are always such a pain, but Zane decided to spend his money on the cheapest one. Uncle Able took him to get it and kicked in five bucks so he'd have enough money for the bigger one. The boys spent all day Thursday in the pool, splashing, playing catch, jumping in and out, full day of entertainment well worth twenty dollars. A great way to spend piggy bank money.

Classic pictures of summer!