Before we left town however, we did blow up our pool for the first time this summer. Although both the boys aren't too keen on swimming in general, they both love the backyard pool. I think it's the size and the fact that it's just the two of them, so there aren't any other kids to worry about.
Our theme for this week was appropriately, the fourth of July. Since we were out of town most of the week, we didn't do a ton of things. But I did try my hand at tye-dyeing with the kids. I decided to combine this with pool day to combat any dye snafus. At first I couldn't convince the kids to get out of the pool to dye their "firework" shirts, but once Gav got started, he loved it! I had to stop him from using the whole blue bottle on his shirt!
I had to help Dec with his shirt, since the gloves are adult sized and he couldn't really understand how to squeeze the bottle to make the dye come out.
Here's the finished products: Declan's is on the left, Gavin's is on the right. You then rinse the shirts after the dye sets, and Gavin's took 20 minutes to rinse before all that extra dye came out!
After making our firework shirts, it was back to the pool. Their favorite game on this day was to throw the beach ball back and forth until someone got it out of the pool. Then one of the boys would go run after it and shout "I saved the day!" when they got the ball.
The boys made sure that Daddy did a good job fixing all the leaks in the pool!
Adorbs.
Gavin has given up nap time, except on this day when I almost stepped on a sleeping Gavin at the top of the stairs.
We also managed to squeeze in a trip to Lamb's Farm before we headed out of town. Not in keeping with the Fourth theme, but you know, I had a Groupon :) I like this pic of Dec holding my hand while he works up the nerve to pet the goat. He is always nervous at first and then warms up to the animals.
Dec playing mini-golf. This is what Gavin spent most of his time doing (he played 36 holes with Ryan). Declan even got to use a "football" golf ball, which he definitely didn't want to give back.
Gavin lining up his putt.
Gavin's poses crack me up, I don't know where he comes up with all of these.
I love this pic. Gavin looking off in the distance, golf club raised, like he just conquered something. Declan holding the pig's nose looking confused. It's perfect in it's weirdness!
We managed to pull Gavin away from golfing to check out the animals as well.
Some well brushed goats.
Declan helping to clean up before the big party at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Despite the glare from Gavin here, he actually was really excited to wear his firework shirt to watch the fireworks!
I forgot to bring my real camera, and my iPhone just doesn't cut it when it comes to night shots, so excuse the poor quality of these pics! Here's Gavin enjoying the fireworks with his friend Jonah.
The driveway crew. Declan is not in the pic because he watched about half a firework before Ryan had to take him inside and hold him for the rest of the firework display. But afterwards Dec would tell everyone that would listen how awesome the fireworks were.
Grandpa and Gavin. Grandpa enjoyed Gavin's running commentary on the fireworks ("ooh, that's a big one!" "A green one, and a blue one, that one went really high!")
It got a little chilly that night, and I completely forgot to pack anything warm for the kids to wear, so Gav is wearing my Cross Country shirt.
Windmill Grandpa brought home perhaps the best toy you can give kids: a giant box. While Ryan and I escaped to Iowa City for a couple of nights, Grandpa helped the kids turn the box into a kids only fort (you can't really tell in the pic, but the top left corner has a picture of a grown up with a red cross through it. Gavin explained to me that this means no big people allowed in). There's a door in the front where Declan is sitting and a skylight that Gavin is poking Rex through.
Playing in the big box with their cousin Eliana. We learned this week that Gav and Dec need to start sticking up for themselves, because they let Eliana walk all over them, and would then complain about it afterwards!
Each year on the fourth of July (and on Memorial Day), the main park in Geneseo puts up flags for all the veterans. It is stunning to look at, and we always try to find Great Grandpa Pettit's flag. This year we happened to park right in front of it, so here are Dec and Gav with their Great Grandpa's flag. Gav seemed to kind of understand when I tried to explain to him that this is a flag honoring Great Grandma's husband.
We tried to play on the playground as well, but that only lasted about 10 minutes before Dec had a major meltdown. The day after fireworks and staying up til 10:30 is just never good with toddlers, and you're pretty much playing a waiting game until the tantrum comes. It's always a delight when it comes in a highly public place :)
The calm before the storm.
Post meltdown and nap, Dec was up and ready to head to the pool party with his cousins Kailyn and Bryce.
Both boys love the pool(s) at their cousin's house. They have both a kiddie pool with waterfall and fountain, and an adult pool. The kids had a blast and swam for over 3 hours! It's also a lot of fun when pretty much all of your cousins are around to play with.
One of the many fun games involved throwing things onto the fountain and making Mommy retrieve them because the boys don't want to get their delicate faces splashed.
Cousins everywhere!
Dec immediately turned the pool noodle into a sword.
Relaxing with his wet hat on. Gav loves to completely submerge his hat and then put it back on again.
The boys are fine with splashing, as long as they are the ones doing it!
By the end of the day, Dec was tuckered out.
While we were out at Grandma and Grandpa's, we took the kids to Monkey Joes. The MJ's around here have closed, and this is one of Gavin's favorite places, so he was pretty excited to go (he is already asking me to go again).
Dec is big enough now to enjoy this place as well. Here he is demonstrating his excellent climbing skills. What you won't see are the pics of the Mommy rescue where I had to wedge myself into a jumpy house built for kids 10 and under to help Declan climb up a wall and go down a slide.
Hard to take action shots on an iPhone!
Wrestling with the bear/Grandpa. The kids were pretty cranky before this fun game that Grandpa invented.
Declan barely had time to say goodbye to the windmills before he was out cold on our way back home. He's clutching the green football that Grandma and Grandpa bought them on a trip to the toy store.
We did one more fourth of July craft once we got back home: glitter fireworks. Both the boys were really into this craft.
Dec didn't want to do the glitter by himself at first, but he soon found that it was quite fun to dump copious amounts of glitter onto the page.
Dec's fireworks.
Gavin's fireworks.
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