July is for Friends

I swear that summer goes faster and faster each year, and the month of July was no different. We spent this month enjoying all the time with friends that we could. 

July started with a Fourth of July Party at our house. It was the first time that a lot of our friends had seen our house since we moved in last July (whoops!), so it was fun to be able to show it off. The bigger kids enjoyed a slip and slide in the front yard and the littles enjoyed the water table. 

And then they all enjoyed playing in the rain when the front finally moved through later that afternoon. 

We finished the evening with sparklers and fireworks, and discovered that most of the kids were big fans of sparklers, and not so big fans of fireworks. 

 

The kids had a blast going to a few of Grant's t-ball games this year. I can't wait to see them out on the t-ball field next season, but for now, we enjoyed cheering him (and a few fellow daycare buddies) on from the fence. 

The actual 4th of July we spent pretty low-key at home. We played with the air up pool and water table, and even enjoyed a little time outside that evening. 

We spent lots of time outside this month (but honestly, what else is new). The swing set was a big favorite.

As was the pool at grandma and grandpa's. We never seem to make it over there as much as I always think we will, but it's definitely a favorite of ours.

In the middle of July, I took the kids with me up north to visit my friends Kaci and Ashley. We explored their woods, played at the park, swam in their pool, and had the best time hanging out. Looking forward to doing it again next summer, and hopefully Kendra can join that time!

A few days after that we celebrated Grant's birthday party at Star Studio- what a fun thing to do for a birthday! Brayden and Ashley worked up the courage to jump off the trampoline into the foam pit, and Katie loved bouncing on the trampolines. 

We got to hang out with cousin Emily at Eric's mom and dad's house. Her and the twins together always equals a good time. 

On the 22nd, we brought the kids with us to celebrate a high school buddy of ours' wedding. The kids literally danced the night away, barely leaving the dance floor between when it opened and when we finally left around 10. 

The last week of July daycare was closed, so we filled it up with fun! On Monday we stopped by my Grandma Wolf's for a visit with her.

Tuesday called for a little cousin time with Jack and Aunt Yay-yay. 

On Wednesday, I watched Nikki and Connor's kids, so we had even more cousin time that day.

That Thursday we stopped by and visited Great Grandma Blievernicht.

And then Friday we took a little swim in grandma and grandpa's pool! Whew, what a fun week we had!

As far as kid updates go, Katie had a huge month! On the 18th she started standing up from sitting.

Then by Friday she was taking multiple steps (to get to her stuffed lobster none-the-less). When she falls down when walking or losing her balance while standing, she will get so frustrated and smack at or grab at her legs like, "what the heck- why aren't you working right!?". It's the cutest thing! It hasn't taken long for her to really try to walk so much more than crawl. It's a little sad that soon she will be totally walking and will ditch the crawling for good. 

Katie absolutely loves to do everything that Brayden and Ashley are doing. She is a climbing machine, loves to swing, and loves her stuffed lobster. She also loves her space- if Brayden or Ashley get too close, she will scream and try to push them away. Her favorite word is "up", and while she does use it appropriately to be picked up, she's also overgeneralized it to almost every other word at this point, so we need to work on widening that vocabulary. She is still attached to my hip and will often full on scream when I leave a room. She also hates when she makes it all the way down the stairs and whoever she was following starts coming back up. 

Brayden is a lover of being outside, taking four wheeler rides, swinging, building things, playing with the toy kitchen, and wearing pants. I think Eric got him to wear shorts one night when he went with him to basketball practice, but it was not long lived. I always ask him every evening when we pick out clothes for the next day if he wants shorts or pants, and he says "pants, allllll the way down" as he moves his hands all the way down his legs to his feet ha!

Ashley loves dressing up and wearing as many necklaces as she can. She loves to wear dresses and her pretty sandals. She's gotten really good at riding her balance bike correctly, and would swing until my arms fell off. She currently refuses to learn to pump her legs so she can swing herself, but I haven't stopped working on it. She loves helping Eric cook in the kitchen, and absolutely hates being too hot and sweaty (she does take after me a little bit after all ha!).

        

August has even more fun things in store for us, so bring it on!