Birthday Injustice

I suppose I'm to blame. I shouldn't give Merrody good birthday parties just because she was born in the summer. Or maybe I shouldn't have had Joel in the dead of winter. Either way, Merrody has had a number of really fun birthday parties and Joel has had none. One year we had Merrody's birthday party at the zoo, another at the swimming pool and this year... horseback riding at a ranch.

In Merrody's defense, she is a really good girl and deserves to have her birthday celebrated in style. The other morning she spent a good 2 hours doing chore after chore that I asked her to do.

And her love of horses is not a fleeting interest. While other kids jump from Hannah Montana to ponies and on to something else, Merrody has loved horses since she was two. It defines her. And it explains why all of her jeans have holes in the knees.

She was willing to settle for a horse-themed party at our house. She's not spoiled.

And she would've included as many girls as space or sanity would permit. She would even include her younger brothers.

Can you believe no one wanted to be partners with this handsome guy for the game? Give them time...

Sweet little Jack wanted to wear the helmet even if he was too young to ride the horse.

Grandma lucked out. Because one of the little girls wasn't able to make it, she was able to ride too!

Oh, and did I mention it was close to 100 degrees today? Little sweetheart spent most of the time in the air conditioned car!

A Trip To the Park and Other Random Happenings

Today we took our kids to the park. It was a new park, not one we've been to often. Surprisingly, the kids reacted like this:

They didn't want to play! In fact, they spent most of the time DRAWING PICTURES!!

Here's a not-so-happy Jackson sporting the shirt he's worn DAY AND NIGHT for the last 6 days! I haven't even fought it once. It's one of the few things I LOVE about having boys.

The Frankenstein-like wound in between Joel's eyes resulted when he had a little run in with a pool cue at a friend's house. Doesn't it look like stitches?

Merrody started piano lessons this week. (taught by yours truly). She's learning quickly! It's fun even though listening to her practice hurts my ears!

Norah took her first trip to the emergency room this week. She woke up in the middle of the night burning up with fever and she was PURPLE!!!After trying to get her back to a normal color, I rushed her down to the hospital. Of course, she was pinking up by the time I got there. Her fever was 105, though! Turns out the little sweetheart had a UTI. She's on the mend, thank goodness. It sure makes you appreciate health when your baby gets sick. We just love our little baby!

Festive Fourth

I would like to personally thank the founding fathers for making yesterday possible. My very good friend, Julie Roughan, invited us over for a bbq. (And by very good friend, I mean she's the woman who watched my three oldest kids overnight two nights in a row while I kept having false alarms with being induced. She would've watched them again if my Mom hadn't shown up)Now, back to the fourth: The first treat came at 8:45am when we woke up! Wow! We haven't slept that late in a long time. I think our kids are starting to get the hang of this summer schedule. We layed around all day doing basically nothing. Then, it was time to go to Julie's bbq. This woman knows how to throw a party. The food was amazing! I'm not exaggerating when I say that Matt's first plate of food consisted of: a bratwurst, a hamburger, steak, and ribs. Unfortunately, he didn't save room for the fried chicken, hot dogs, millions of delicious salads or the AMAZING grilled vegetables! Oh, and I forgot the homemade rootbeer. Julie's backyard is huge complete with batting cages, a beautiful swimming pool, gorgeous patio with built in grill and outdoor wood stove, plenty of covered patio seating and a perfectly manicured lawn. Our kids were so excited to go swimming. I brought my suit, but never had to put it on because Megan (the world's greatest babysitter and Julie's daughter) was on it. She pushed Jack around on a floaty chair, helped Joel go down the slide and taught Merr a few tricks. I just sat by and enjoyed it all! Matt did get in the pool for a rousing game of water basketball. Who blames him? And so the evening went, until the sun went down. Platters and platters of amazing desserts were brought out and all of the lawn chairs were arranged facing the pool. Moses Lake's city fireworks show had nothing on the fireworks show at Julie Roughan's house, right over the pool. And I would know. From her house on the hill, we could see fireworks everywhere! Who knew Moses Lake is all about the fireworks?! From houses as close as two doors down, to the city fireworks a few miles away, we probably saw 12 or more fireworks shows all going on simultaneously with our own. But ours had the reflection in the water of the pool. And the comfort of our nice chairs. And the yummy treats. And the good friends. And when we pulled into our driveway, all the children were fast asleep!