Playdate at the water park...

This pole is how you turn on the fountains and so Carsten pretty much just hung out here all day...

Blueberries!

Blueberries are ripe for picking... The library here has a summer reading program and one of the prizes is a pound of u-pick blueberries--yum. Reese, Carsten and I went to pick them on Friday and they are all gone now--slurp.

4th of July 2010--Lots of Firsts

The boys got to go on their first fishing expedition with Papa, Jim, and Uncle Dave...

Reese caught his first fish (and only two were caught total...)

And Carsten convinced Jim to take off his training wheels... and guess what??? He can ride!

Now we need to get him a less girly bike!

Swimming Lessons!

Well, we are finally getting around to swimming lessons for these two... and they are loving it! Carsten's teacher is Catherine and he likes her (except today she dunked him and he wasn't so pleased and won't stop talking about it). Reese is doing great--he moved up a level today--on day two! Cousin Justin is also going with us, but he is still working on getting in... might take some time.

Wedding Weekend

Reese and Carsten were in a wedding on Friday night--Joren and Katelyn's wedding...
They did very well--I had told them they needed to smile a lot and it looks like they did!

Some of the other guests... crazy relatives.

The boys with the bride and groom...

Reese and Carsten got to ride around the golf course with this man (don't know him, but very nice!). They loved it!

We then went to another wedding Saturday morning 3 hours away... I forgot to take my camera (it was safe at the hotel...), so no pictures. This time it was Jim's cousin, Thomas, who got married. Busy, but very fun weekend!

Farmers

Carsten and Daddy out being "farmers" on our new to us riding mower (for the worried grandmas--Jim had already mowed and Carsten was just doing the driving. :)

Carsten's Birthday!

Carsten wanted a farmer hat cake (I tried...) and he wanted to go to "Vurgerville" for lunch! Papa and Auntie Alicia and Uncle Todd and cousins met us there.

Carsten with his helicopter from Papa.
He was quite tired after lunch and is still asleep in the car clutching his helicopter...

We celebrated Carsten's birthday today as we didn't have time yesterday... This bottom picture here is him opening his present from us on his brother's birthday (they picked them out themselves the day before Reese's birthday and it didn't seem fair to make Carsten wait 2 weeks to open his!).

Carsten

Today--4

3

2

1

0

Happy Birthday Carsten! Today is a busy day with a wedding to attend so we are going to celebrate tomorrow...

Reese

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

I enjoy looking back at pictures of my boys and so I thought I'd put up Reese through the years for his birthday--a couple days late... I'll have to get busy and do some for Carsten tomorrow! This picture of Reese at 0 is also of Grandma Paula as it is the two year anniversary of her passing... We miss her greatly!

Happy Birthday Reese!!!

Reese with his watch from Papa and his other presents...

Reese's requested space cake... a rocket. He thought it was going to take off when we lit the *engine* candles! Hmmm...

Reese this morning opening his present from us. Daddy also went and got him balloons early this morning.
Whew, now we have a 6 year old--amazing. He is a great little guy. Learning so much this year and becoming an outgoing boy. He is thoughtful of his brother--asking often if he is okay and watching him so he doesn't get hurt. He is always the one to try to make everyone happy if we are with the cousins and there is fighting over toys. Reese loves listening to stories on his mp3 player and enjoys telling me all about them. He still likes to play in the dirt and loves to spend an afternoon exploring and digging in the backyard.

Whoops...

Reese was just walking along and *whack* he ran into the end of a wall... People always ask kids when they get hurt if the other object got hurt--in this case it applies! His face cracked the wall!!!

Another Playdate...

We were lucky enough to get to go to our old college town today and meet up with old buddies. The kids got to see some friends too and seemed to pick up where they left off last year... We didn't make them sit for the above picture, they were busy with their balls and then had to sit down to watch some other people fly kites and it was pretty much monkey see monkey do--one would sit, they would all sit and then as soon as one started to get up they'd all get up.
Fun day!

Girl Time

These girls all came for a very fun IKEA getaway weekend last weekend (just haven't posted about it yet) and stayed with us. I was fortunate enough to get to join them them in their excursion sans kids. We felt like we were 19 again!

Playdate at Oma's...

The boys and I are at Opa and Oma's for 2 weeks...
Today we had a play date with Ian. So we had a 6, 5, and 4 year old. They all had to wear boots and later bare feet. Lots of noise and giggling...

Blowing bubbles on the big rocks.