Random July Pics

As August draws to a close and Avery starts her first day of first grade today, what else did we do in July you say?  I am glad you asked.

We had a couple pool days.  Avery's BFF Lily came over for a morning swim and the girls had a blast.

Laura did some traveling to Colorado, so I had the kids by myself for a week.  I took them out to Chick-fil-a during the week.

Chick-fil-A ice cream!

We went to Laura's family reunion and the kids had a blast swimming in the lake and actually playing together.

Our happy family!

Carter all dressed up with Mommy and feeding the ducks.

We also took a trip or two to Carowinds on a random morning.  This time we went to the water park mostly, but didn't take too many pictures.

A happy little guy!

Excited to go high!

Avery helping her little brother on one of the rides.  Carter grew an inch or two this summer, so he is finally getting to ride some of the kids rides which makes the visits so much more fun.

The kids are also starting to play more and more together.  It is so much fun to watch them play in the kitchen, house, with cars or dolls.  

Carter can still be a pest to his big sister, but I don't think that is going stop anytime soon.

Minion Movie Day

 As you might know, Avery is a huge fan of the Despicable Me movie series.  She has had consecutive minion birthday themed parties, dressed up as a minion for Halloween, and has a great deal of the toys.  However, she hasn't seen the movies in the theater.  The new one came out this summer and we thought Carter was old enough for the entire family to go (rather than just me and Avery) so we went one Saturday that we were actually at home.

During the movie Carter was pretty focused.  It of course helped that we had a large popcorn (that we refilled and finished as well).  Avery of course loved the movie.  It's so funny to watch her watch a movie.  She doesn't always laugh the first time, because she is paying attention so much, but remembers every second.

 Carter didn't want to let that last bit of popcorn go....

 Since we had ruined their dinner already, we decided to just do ice cream for dinner.  Notice that Carter had to bring his hammer and screwdriver with him.

 Happy little family with chocolate stains!

Thumbs up for a fun day.

FruFest

July was also the time of the year for our summer beach trip with some of our college friends and all the kids.  As usual it was a zoo, but a lot of fun.

The whole gang, all looking at the camera at once!

Thanks to Mary's parents, who lent us their house, which also had a pool.  

 It was a life saver as some of the kids who still take naps.  Unfortunately, Carter wasn't always one of those kids.  Here he is pulling a "Carter" and falling asleep at the dinner table, much like the last time he went to the beach.  He just doesn't want to miss out on all the fun.

 Avery had a blast as well and was great on the boogie board.

 The kids had a ton of fun playing with each other.  Having 8 kids in the house usually meant that there was someone else to play with when they had to be separated for whatever reason.  Like the second picture below, where on an empty beach Carter and Avery were fighting over a 1 square foot pile of sand.

Avery and Carter resolving their differences with the help of Easton.

 The best thing about being at the beach for this kid might be 3 times a week garbage service.  This dude loves big trucks, especially garbage trucks.

 Chasing birds was pretty cool too.  Trying our best to wear him out so he would take a nap and sleep thru the night.  (It didn't work)

 Sara Jane brought a glitter tatoo kit for the kids.  Carter got a puppy dog and Avery got a couple of things.  Carter was sooooo proud of his dog and was the first thing he did when he went back to school was to roll up his sleeve and show all his friends his tatoo.

 A great time at the beach and we can't wait for our next trip!

July 4th at the Lake

We're back!  For July 4th weekend, we headed up for a few days at the lake with my family.  Gigi decided to cook us up a storm and we had all the kids together for a few days going crazy.

Me with the kids on the jetski.

I accidentally flipped Avery off the back, but she's tough.  Carter only wanted to go fast.

We also packed Carter's jeep for the trip so the girls used it as transportation up and down the path to the lake.  Unfortunately, I had to push it back up the hill each time, because I didn't test how the new battery worked (not very well), but the girls had fun.  3 commas in one sentence!

 Carter was hilarious taking care of Madison.  Here he is "reading" a book, but was always looking out for her, talking about her, wondering where she was, etc.

 Gigi also put on some cooking lessons for the kids.

The girls did a great job making dessert.  I did a great job eating it.  +10lbs for the weekend!

  Bubble making machines!

We also got to try out the float that Mom and Dad got us for a Christmas present.  Basically it was a big couch that the kids could sit on that was easy to ride.  All of the kids loved it including Carter.  He almost fell asleep on it one time he was so tired, but wanted to go faster and over bigger bumps.  Avery also all of a sudden decided she wanted to go knee boarding.  Then did it.  First try.  She's such a rockstar.

Laura got this great video before I flipped her off the jetski as well.  Amazingly she saved her phone from going in the water.