July 4th

We celebrated the 4th of July with a nice extended weekend.  Wednesday night, July 3rd, the Ashers hosting their 2nd annual (or is it 3rd now?) Adult Independence Day party.  We of course had a nice time and the boys had a fun sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Lang's house.

On the 4th we took the crew up to the carnival in O'Fallon.  Jack, Addi and Reghan had a fun time riding on all the rides.  Unfortunately the height restriction prevented Charlie and Ethan from riding most, but they still had a fun time too.

Then we discovered a blow-up obstacle course, which was super fun, so we did that about 5 times before we headed home.

 I love these next 6 pictures because they totally speak to each of the big kids' personalities....

 Addi - gung ho jumping off the top

Jack, same way and even more so - I'm not even sure he landed on the slide at all...

 And then sweet little Reghan took the cautious route down...

 Charlie and Ethan even took a turn through the course

 And Charlie thought he was hot stuff!!

After the carnival, we headed back to the Lades' house for an evening of fireworks courtesy of Steve and Shea.  The kids enjoyed the snap pop things (I don't know their real name?).

 Jack's favorite was trying to catch the parachutes before they landed (only after a grown-up went into the street and assured him he could go out there too)

 Charlie enjoyed a festive cupcake

Another fun holiday in the books!

Generation Three

My parents have been hanging out with a big group of friends for many, many years (well before they had kids, and some even back to when my dad was growing up).  Obviously we spent a lot of time with them growing up so Kelly and I have always been good friends with all their kids.  This is the same group we take the lake trip with, but we also had another get together a few weeks later.  We had many, but certainly not all, of the 3rd generation of friends together, so we had to take advantage of the photo opp.  We're probably going to need a bigger couch one of these years!!

You can't quite see all their faces, but here's the roll call from left to right: Lucas Stanczak, Dylan Trost, Tommy Wehrley, Charlie and Jack, Evelyn Stanczak, Samantha Bosworth, Alex Wehrley, Grace Eisel, Tori Brasier, Amelia and Cora Trost, Graham Eisel, Brooks Bosworth and Lily Hefley on the back of the couch.  Phew!!

 And then some of the 2nd generation: Jeff Brasier, me, Lindsay Bosworth, Kristen Knoop, Jules Stanczak, Dan Hefley, Angie Trost, Carrie Hefley and Laura Wehrley.

 And my dad finally got to meet Laura's twin boys after missing them due to naps, etc at the lake.  Here are the two Tommys bonding:

 And of course little Tommy had to check out big Tommy's mustache!

We had a fun night getting everybody together again!!  Thanks to Joan for hosting!

Kelly & Parker Visit

At the end of June my sister and niece came to St. Louis and we had a fun-filled extended weekend!  They arrived Thursday afternoon and we went to our house to relax.  It didn't take long at all for the kids to become the best of buddies again.  Charlie and Parker were even paying more attention to each other this time.

 We got out the water table and they had a fun time watering the neighbor's tree, one drop at a time.

Parker wanted her shirt off after Jack took his off.  Monkey see, monkey applies to cousins as well apparently...

Crooked shades!

Friday morning we loaded up the troops and headed to Grant's Farm.  Grandma and Grandpa met us there along with our friends Jules and Adam (& kids).  We rode the tram, fed the goats, rode the carousel, watched the bird show, ate lunch and sampled beer.  Pretty much all the standard Grant's Farm activities.

This is a little blurry, but you can see Jack & Charlie waving to Grandma & Grandpa

Friday evening we ate dinner at my parents' house and just had a low key night there.  The kids played on the neighbors' slide, a little bit of baseball and of course trains.

Saturday morning we hit our neighborhood pool.  Sadly it was our first visit of the season - we need to take better advantage of our neighborhood amenities!  The kids loved jumping in off the side and walking in the shallow end.

Saturday night was another low key night at our house.

Sunday morning we went to a playground near our house.  I don't have any pictures so you'll have to take my word for it.  That evening my parents hosted a family get together so our aunts and uncles could see Kelly and Parker.  It was a nice night and great to see everyone.  There was baseball with Uncle Steve...

 Puzzles....

 Coloring...

 Playing games on Aunt Kelly's iPad with Aunt Jean and Aunt Patty...

 Relaxing time with Grandpa...

 And of course romper room time on the bed....

The next morning Kel and Parker headed home.  We had a really nice visit with them - each time gets more fun with the kids playing together and therefore harder and harder to see them go.  We'll be heading to the ROC in September, so until then we'll have to settle for phone calls and Skype sessions.