Fireworks

Mike and I made the decision yesterday to take the kids to their very first fireworks show.  Ava didn't wake up from her afternoon nap until really late, close to 5 o'clock so we thought we would have decent success keeping them up late.  There is a local shopping center near our house that does a very small fireworks show, but it is perfect for a one and two year old.  Plus we only have to drive for about a minute to see the show and we don't have to fight any traffic to get home, so it really works out well with little guys.

We were worried about them being scared of the fireworks so we spent some time on you tube watching firework shows.  By the way, if you are ever in Sydney Australia for New Years, you must go to the show.  It is amazing!  But I digress (I looove that commercial!)

Anyways, we drove over to a local home improvement store and parked in their parking lot.  This way we could see the action, but be far away enough that it wouldn't be scary.

Our plan worked perfectly.  Both of the kids had a great time and weren't scared in the least.  Carter keeps asking to go see more fireworks.

Ava was super pooped by the time everything was over, but the nice thing was we left the fireworks at 10:22 and I had her in bed by 10:38. 

Mike and I were underwhelmed with the whole show.  I think I may have spelled out LAME at one point.  But it was great watching it from Carter's perspective.  To him it was amazing, the best fireworks display ever.

We may even try it again next year.

Touch a Truck

Today we went to little boy heaven aka touch a truck.  Despite the heat, Carter had a blast.  There was plenty of truck touching to go around, and here Carter jumped on the back of a garbage truck.

This was the robo mower, a remote controlled lawnmower.  He

 stared at it for a looooooong time.

When he jumped up into the fire truck he said "Ok Mommy, now close door."  Sorry kid, I'm not leaving you alone in a fire truck.  He was pretty puzzled about this.

Checking out the inside of an air force truck.

On a bobcat and inside the rescue helicopter.

Little Miss A was there as well, but I think she was slightly underwhelmed.  Maybe next year!

Beat the Heat

What do you do to beat the heat when it is 94 degrees outside?

Why go to Meme's pool of course!

Carter's cheesy velveeta smile.

Carter chillaxin in the kiddie pool.  I'm probably way to old to say that, much less write it on my blog.

Ava had fun swimming too!  Can't wait for the next pool day!

Baby #3

Learning and playing.

Today was another Meme day (I love summer!  I have a built in baby-sitter whenever I need it.)  This morning I went to my doctor's appointment and she stayed home with the kids.  Everything is looking good, with a heart rate in the 160's, which if you believe in the old wives tale means that this baby is a girl.  I do not believe that because both Carter and Avery had heart rates above and below 140 at different times during their pregnancies, so there you go.  But the chinese gender charts say girl, so it must be true.  (The chinese gender predictor charts were correct with both Carter and Avery, spooky.)  Maybe we are beating the Shadle male legacy?  But how could I not love another little Carter boy?

What else is going on with this pregnancy?  Well, right now Mike and I are talking names.  I have a girl name that I really love, but I'm not set on a boy's name yet.  Mike has a boy's name that he really likes but I'm not entirely convinced yet  (by the way if you are bored, go take my name poll: http://www.babynames.com/Names/namelist_view.php?VNLID=9760138   Carter really loves the name Bingo for a boy or girl.  I don't think I'm sold on Bingo yet.

By the way, we will be having our ultrasound on July 20th at 10:15 in the morning so stay tuned!

           

Thank you!

Thank you Grandma and Grandbo for the new pajamas!

(Carter making a peace sign just like monkey george.)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Mike!  Our kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful Dad.

Enjoy the picture of Mike being superdad, with Ava in the backpack carrier and Carter being carried.  He actually carried both of the kids on our hike for quite a way. 

Our camping adventure

This weekend was our big camping adventure, the very first one since having kids.  Carter was in seventh heaven the entire weekend:  he had juice and cookies, played with ropes and spray bottles, went on a hike and best of all spent lots of time with some of his favorite people in the world.

Keep the cookies coming Grandma!

Carter decided that Bo and Grandma's bed was the perfect place to try out his new inflatable pool raft.

Ava is going through a huge Daddy stage right now. 

Poor pengos made the journey to the campsite but lost his wing during the journey.  Fortunately Grandma was able to perform emergency repair surgery and the wing was as good as new.

We all had such a great time seeing Grandma and Grandbo, Uncle Jason and Aunt Tiffany.  Unfortunately it was hot (VERY HOT) and Mommy and Ava decided to retreat to the air conditioning for the evening.  Carter loved every single second of camping and it was worth every hot and sweaty second that we were out there.  We have returned to camp Shadle today because of thunderstorms and to enjoy the air conditioning a little. 

By the way, Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Jason have posted some pictures of the kids on their blog:
http://www.tiffandjaysgrandadventure.blogspot.com/  They are just beginning their cross country trip of driving to the grand canyon, yellowstone and many many other places in between.

But that was the end of this camping experience.  If Carter has any say in it, there will be many many more to come.