4 years old and still happily rear facing

Blue Hair

So a few weeks ago I dyed John and Phoebe's hair blue.  Bella didn't get to have hers done because her hair is too dark.  It's faded quite quickly which is kind of nice.  John wants green next and I'm thinking Phoebe would look good with purple.

Phoebe's Birthday Weekend

Phoebe's 4th birthday was this past Sunday.  We had an amazing weekend filled with lots of fun.  My sister and her boyfriend came in from Colorado on Friday morning.  Corey took the day off of work and we all went to Lagoon together.



After Lagoon we went out to dinner at Friday's. Phoebe got a birthday ice cream.



Saturday she opened some presents and we had birthday cake.







Then we had some friends over and did fireworks





Sunday we went to the zoo. We hadn't been to the new exhibit with the polar bears and seals yet so the kids were very excited. The new exhibit did not disappoint. It was great.



















Then we went to Toys R Us to get her birthday balloon and hat



It's hard to believe my little girl is 4 already.

Bad Blogger

I've been a very bad blogger lately.  With it being summer we go outside after breakfast and don't come back in until at least 9pm, other than to eat and clean.  So by the time I can actually get on my computer at night it's almost midnight and I don't feel like it.  We also haven't done school as I had originally planned, we got three days done and then got wrapped up in Pappy visiting and vacation.  So I guess we're taking a real summer break this year.  It's no big deal, it just means we probably won't get to take all of December off like we usually do.

And of course I finally sit down to post and I can't get my pictures to upload.  So I'm won't be posting what I had planned.  Blame Photobucket.

Las Vegas

We just got back from our vacation to Las Vegas.  We had a ton of fun.  On the night we got there we went to The Tournament of Kings dinner show.  Corey and I had gone last year by ourselves and knew the kids would love it.  John and Bella had been looking forward to it for weeks now.  They all LOVED it.  Even Phoebe who is usually a bit afraid of loud things.

The second day we went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.  I think this was my 4th time going there and I'm always disappointed in it every time.  The kids enjoyed it but it's really nothing special.  We saw a big turtle, I think that was the highlight of it.



Then we went over to a friend from our homeschooling board's house.  They live in Vegas so we thought it would be fun to meet.   We went swimming and ended up staying until 9PM.  The kids had so much fun playing with their kids.  And Corey and I enjoyed some adult conversation, which we sadly don't get enough of.  John tried to join their family.  He always wants to go live with other people.

The 3rd day we went to see the dolphins at the Mirage.  Bella is in love with dolphins and had never seen one in real life.  She's been telling everyone she sees for months now how she's going to see one for the first time.  She of course loved it.  I think hearing them make their noises was her favorite part.









And we let her get this picture made to remember her trip.  It's of course photoshopped but she told her friend when she got home that it's real.  And being 6 years old her friend believed her.




Then we went to the Coke and M&M stores.  Both were massively overcrowded.





There's always lots of people dressed up along the strip.  I usually avoid them since they tend to be freaky.  Like Elmo last year, super creepy.  But as we were walking along Thor stopped John and gave him a fist bump and complimented his earring.  So we stopped for a picture.  These guys were very nice.  Later Superman stopped and talked to him too.  His Batman shirt was a big hit.

And that was our vacation.  We had fun and the kids all were really well behaved on the drive there and back.  They drove me almost completely crazy by the third night in the hotel though.  Hotels with small children is a special kind of torture.

A really cool (but dead) butterfly

We didn't let the fact that it was dead stop us from enjoying it.

The juice is not coming out

Phoebe couldn't understand why the juice wouldn't come out the straw.

Best Friends

This is John's best friend.  They've been friends for over two years now but are much closer this summer.  They've pretty much spent every waking minute together since summer began.  John actually doesn't want to go on vacation this summer because he doesn't want to leave her.  It's so cute.