Independence Day

 It's perhaps a bit late to blog about the Fourth of July, but I'm going to do it anyway. You can see our fruit dessert that had the kiddos cheering above and the star cutout watermelon popsicles below. They were cuter than they were yummy. Fun, though.

In another "pinterest inpsired failure" on my part, I dyed juice ice cubes red and blue and then added them into juice. It turned purple, but the girls thought it was an awesome reminder of "blue and red make purple". Such positive children! This is a very good thing for a mama who so often fails at anything "pinterest-inspired"!

Miss Mouse took the following three photos. I helped her set my camera settings before Mike took the girls to fireworks; we talked about what each setting did and why we set them how we did. She came home with some pretty impressive images for a seven-year-old, I thought. We printed them off, and she entered them in the fair. She came home with two blue ribbons and a red along with a "people's choice" award for one of the photos!!! On the topic of the fair, Sunny entered a fleece tied blanket and got a blue ribbon and a "people's choice" award, as well! People loved my children's art!!! Oh, happy mama!!!

I found Manly Mouse dressed like this on the Fourth.

 It was not hard to see who did the dressing.

Our attempt at a family Independence Day photo. Mighty Mouse had been up all night on the third. Can you tell?

Really. If there was any doubt in the above photo, there's none here. This is one unhappy, tired, little boy.

Maybe some ages are easier to photograph than others....Manly doesn't always look concerned, but the newest photos I have of him looking cheery aren't on the computer yet. I love his cheeks in these, though. Can you tell that Sunny is in her element snuggling this little cuddlebug? They are peas.in.a.pod.

As I went through these photos tonight, I kind of couldn't believe how grown up the girls are looking.

I took these goofy shots on the 1st of July, but I wanted to include them to prove that following a half-way-decent night's sleep, Mighty Mouse is about the funniest little person and sweetest little boy anyone ever could meet!

He loves hats. He calls it an "at", and I'm searching desperately for a boyish one that will make him feel as happy as this pink one of Sunny's.

His latest "joke", as of August 16, is to point to himself and say "baby?" and then laugh hysterically. I laugh with him on the outside, but inside it hurts just a little because he really still IS a baby and has just had to grow up so fast that he no longer knows it.