New York for the 4th {3rd Annual}

As has become tradition, we headed north for the 4th of July weekend for time with Mike's family.  His brother & sis in love always plan the most fun time.  We didn't waste any time and headed out for morning ice cream- because why not?! Its summer!  They live in the cutest town and I love it that you can travel so many places by this old aqueduct.  Our kid:adult ratio was a little improved for this round of community living!

 then a stroll over to the libray for a little story time with Goo/Gram

 Mike transporting the majority of the kids home.

 On Saturday we headed into NYC for a Yankees game.  It was really fun!

 It was a sweet time with this guy, which I could always use more of.

 And I got sweet time with this guy since strollers and backpacks aren't allowed.

 We had one sleepy boy on the way home.

 We always have such fun cousin time at their pool. 

Ben loooooves the water and would just walk right in if you aren't careful.

 The boys were in Lego cave heaven.

 Lily has come to know that NY means birthday time for her!

 Another day we went to a "castle" estate for a picnic lunch.  Love the personality and dynamics reflected in these pictures.  Last year Lily & Bennett spent a lot of time together.  This year the little girls are two year old.  That amount of development and Lily spend significantly more time with them.  But still a good "middle child" bouncing back and forth between them and the boys.

 The boys 

 Bubbles!!

 Love this pic of Goo and her big boys

 Ben is pushing on Liam's back and Peter is belly laughing.

 Dinnertime by the pool

 Birthday cake time.  The THIRD year of the butterfly cake and no less JOY!

 Mike handed out sparklers for the 4th.

 Such sweet summer childhood/cousin memories!

Friend Camp

Oh, back after school got out, one of my best friends and her kids drove up to visit us!  We had 6 kids 7 and under.  There was lots of noise, stimulation & community-living. 

Noah is 2 months younger than Ben and naturally became his BFF, of course.

I just sat one day and soaked these two babies in & replenished my tank from the few years that my arms were empty of babies.

While they were here, my kids had VBS, which I think maybe gave them a good break from us. And Kari cleaned up each eve- how great is that?!  Community living!

How unbelievably cute are they?!

 Kari and I were thrilled to get out a few times- thanks to Mike, his parents, and a neighbor girl.

Kari and I got brave crazy one day and took all of the kids to BG by ourselves.  So that was a single stroller, a double stroller and sometimes one in a wrap.  Oh, and six kids in the back of a mini-van.  I liked saying it was absolutely necessary for her to stay12 days so that we'd have enough 5-15 minute segments to talk about everything we needed to talk about.  Thankfully, this drive gave us two hour long segments to make some serious head-way on the conversations.  That factor alone made it worth it.  

We didn't leave during the night. We had to stop by Mike's parking garage to get the booster seat from his car.  

 It took us an hour or two to find our groove and figure out where we could and couldn't take a double stroller, call first aide a few times, & loose a kid but eventually the kids did get to ride some rides.  Hmm, its interesting that adults pay for tickets and preschoolers are free, b/c Kari and I didn't get to ride any real rides.  Altho, it does look like Kari is having fun here!

 I loved seeing my kids enjoy Kari's kids (of course, there were a few hairy moments) but overall, they did so well.

Peter also went to the dentist while they were here and had 2 teeth pulled.  He got $5 from the tooth fairy for that.  So he treated all of us to cotton candy.  Naturally.

 These two boys were such good sports.  I ended up stripping Ben down b/c it was so hot.

 The second weekend that Kari was here, our good friends came to visit! 

We had a full house with 5 adults and 9 kids.  I loved it, and it overstimulated me! :P

 We enjoyed the Science Museum one day and paraded through the neighborhood another.

 17 years of friendships!

We had moments of not being able to believe all of these kids were OURS!

 Our Ben hasn't been overly socialized (with peers).  His mama has been snuggling him too much.  It was so fun for him to have this time with Noah!

 One final day of the pool, and whew, that's a wrap!  

It was such a fun, special start to summer to get time with these friends!!