4th of July- Part 2

My 4th of July was challenge after challenge after challenge before "enjoying" the day off. We had plans to visit grandpa and pick cherries from his cherry tree and then off to Nana's for lunch and a nice day in the park with family and friends where the kids can play in the water and just enjoy the day with their cousins.

ONLY that day never really happened. LOL! We got to church late... had to go to an extremely overcrowded grocery story called Wal-Mart to get groceries for our picnic, forgot stuff so made a side trip to Freddies and left my debit card in the car so had to run back out and re-ring everything back up. Got to the Father in Laws house and realized we forgot the kids' fireworks at the house so we headed back home for the fireworks. Didn't get to pick cherries at Grandpas so hoping to get by later this week... which at this point isn't looking so good because my To Do list just seems to keep getting longer and longer. So after fixing face paint umpteen times with the kids, we headed off to Nana's and got there around 4. Can you believe she ate lunch without us! So what if we were only 3 hours late for our lunch date... :D

We went to the annual fireworks at Ann Morrison and left from Nana's house who lives about a mile away. In Madi's stroller we packed in 5 camping chairs, two blankets, a cooler full of ice, a bag of fireworks, a bag of snacks, a 15 lb bag of camera equipment, a tripod, 3 backpacks and a kid's chair. Can you believe the wheel broke off on the way there... A stroller with 3 wheels doesn't work well... did you know that! :D

So here we are with our 3 kids who decided to bring their scooters with them so they can't carry anything and all this gear and a whiney almost 3 year old who thinks she HAS to be carried everywhere and a broken stroller... My husband ran back to Nana's grabbed the van and recruited his brother Matt to help us to carry stuff into the park. My job was to carry in my camera bag and my 3 year old so I walked on without them as they found a parking spot and carried everything in. My husband did a great job carrying everything in except he forgot one little item... As i am getting ready to finally set up my camera stuff 20 minutes before the fireworks display... I notice my tripod is no where to be found. He remembered EVERYTHING except for that.... So no fireworks pictures this year from me. I didn't even try. I knew they wouldn't turn out so I didn't bother. Also did I mention that in the cooler that I packed for dinner at the park included Black Forest ham, Swiss Cheese, Mayo, Mustard, tomatoes, onions... everything except the bread... I FORGOT TO PACK BREAD! It was quite the day of mishaps... but in the long run it still ended up being sooooo much fun and a 4th of July I shall never forget. Next year I guarantee I won't forget the bread or tripod....

I remembered crayons at least for my 3 year old! And here is my cutesy Sister In Law Laury!


My single, adorable brother in law Matt.... :D


Laury kicking her husband in the toosh! Trust me it is much deserved... she puts up with a lot! :D


Me and Laury! Aren't we so cute!


My crayons and books entertained the kids for awhile.


My husband and his brother


My two favorite boys


I have no idea what they were laughing about but soooo cute to watch them


The boys and Madi snuggling up to her Uncle Jack


My niece Sydney and her friend Paige


My nephew Zach. He told me it was one cool picture of him! :D

Girls will be Girls!


Chalk Art in the Park! It was absolutely stunning!


And last but not least.... Josh with two of the kids

Okay so I have a confession...

I know how envious a few of you were about the green grass we enjoyed in the park the other day.... and while well we did have grass that day at the park....The blades of grass were more the colors of brown and yellow... I am honored you believed my grass was green... Maybe its is because of my superb photo editing skills! LOL!

So how did I turn the grass green? It was very very easy (for me and probably Jen McNeil cause I know she owns the software.) For anyone that knows me they know I am a huge advocate for Nik Software Complete. It is a software program complete with (I think) 52 photo filters. They are amazing once you figure out which ones you like and then you can do blending options etc and multiple different filters... So anyways all I did was run a filter called Enhanced Foilage. There are 3 choices of "green" to choose from. I chose the first one - adjusted the opacity fo my liking -and then hit okay. I instantly had green grass! :D

But if I had to do it in photoshop (which I actually have never had to do) I would assume you could go to adjust coloring on your photo and then change the drop down box to Green and then increase the saturation, or you could do a separate layer and color the areas you want green and then blend the two layers together wish softlight or a reduced opacity... ugh it is to early to think!

Here is my beautiful fake green grass :D


And here are some other pictures from the park that day

Our week in a nutshell

On Sunday the family and I went to Ann Morrison Park and rode bikes. It has kind of become our tradition on Sunday's to go walk the Greenbelt. It was so hot today it was almost miserable. I think we stopped every 20 minutes so I could rest and take a break!

Here is Ryan peeking through the tubes


Here is little bo bratty in her stroller


Here are some ducks that we passed by....


Here is my handsome little man!


This can be found along the greenbelt



On Monday we pulled out the swimming pool. I think we spent the entire day in this little thing. The kids had so much fun. Here is Ryan shooting me with his rake. He didn't want me to take his picture.


Here is Madison licking the water off her hands.


Ryan kept diving into the pool...


The classic tantrum...

On Friday my sister and I took the kids to Eagle Island and played in the lake. Here is Ryan swimming around.

Ryan made himself a little moat.

Olivia shyed away from the water but she liked to put her toes in it.

Here is McKynlee enjoying the sun with her big red hat! You couldn't miss her out there in the water!

Kylie had more fun putting sand all over her body.

How we spent Mother's Day

The kids and I met up with grandma and spent the day on the Greenbelt at Ann Morrison Park. We had a picnic, went on a walk and went out for ice-cream at Wendy's! Later that day we all played frisbee... well they played and I took pictures (as usual!)

By the end of the day I actually wore my kids out and all of them were past out in the van (yes I drive a van don't laugh) before we even got back home. It was one of the best Mother's Day ever! I just love spending time with my family and my camera! :D

I wish I could take credit for this photo but I can't. I don't usally like pictures of myself but after some major photo editing I decided that this is now one of my favorites! My little sis took this and she did a great job focusing on this pic.
Me and my two favorite boys! Don't look at the belly please... I didn't realize sitting down made all my fat roll over my jeans! I look fine standing up though! :D

Madison picked me some pretty weeds for mothers day!

Me and my mommy! Aren't we hot? :D

MAdison fell asleep during the walk and was blowing bubbles with her spit while sleeping... too cute!

My little monkey! Ryan never lets me take pictures of him... he gets so mad when I do and will sometimes throw a fit... but this time he stopped to pose! (By the way if you look you can see my beautiful and totally stylish van inthe background.... )

Madison was clapping! She was so happy to be playing

She loves the swings.

Here is Jacob my little climber!

This picture was totally fun to edit! Here is Madison peeking out of the tube. One of my favorite photos of the day!

Here is Courtnee riding her blades

Here is Ryan trying to roller blade... I went to take a picture of him blading and he fell... I love this photo right before he fell and skinned up his hands!

Hey for an old women she can still hang! (Just kidding mom!)

Here is our big little baby.

Still throwing around the frisbee! I love sun glares on photos!

Pictures are so much better then words... so this is short and sweet!