Turning Three

My little Megan is now three years old.  I still can't believe it.  We celebrated her birthday yesterday down in Pasco.

We invited our good friends, the Binghams, to come to the party.  They now only live like five minutes from my parents; so that is pretty convenient. We had all the girls decorate bags to carry their candy.

The birthday girl shows off her bag.

We played some really simple games that were fun.  This one was a balloon relay.  Each kid had to pop two balloons and then come back to tag the next person.

It was a little breezy, so some balloons made a break for it.  Poor Megan is chasing her balloon right into the neighbor's yard - oops.

This game was fun.  I found the idea on the Internet.  It is called human pinata.  Will was the pinata with a bag of candy.

The goal is to tag the pinata and then he throws a handful of candy out.  While the kids are busy trying to collect that candy, the pinata runs away.  Will was a good pinata.

This was another Internet find game - flour mountain.  You make a mountain out of flour and put a piece of unwrapped candy at the top.  Then each kid takes turns taking out spoonfuls of flour.

The kid who makes the candy fall have to get the candy - with just their mouth.  It was a funny, messy activity.

After brushing the kids off, it was time to open presents.  Megan got what she asked for - candy and balloons.  She also got bubbles, books, art things, and more.  Her new toy microphone from grandma is probably her absolute favorite.

Megan told me she wanted a Christmas cake for her birthday, in August.  I think the Christmas tree turned out pretty cute.  The store didn't have any green frosting though, so we had to use white frostin and green sprinkles.  Oh well.  It only took like six blows but Megan was finally able to get out those three candles.

The girls went outside to eat their cake and popsicles, so yummy.

Not really part of the party, but we made sure that Adam got a turn playing with the balloons.  He is getting so big also.

So it was a fun, really simple party.  Thanks mom and dad for letting us have it at your house.

Update on Adam

So our baby is now eight months old and he is so cute.  He is also starting to get into more things.  Even in trouble, you can't help but smile.

Adam has become a ripper.  If any books is placed within 2 feet of Adam, he will grab it and try to rip it.  Thankfully, my mom is always giving us magazines and those are perfect for ripping.

Whitney thought she should try to make Adam look like a girl - does it work?

And Adam gets to try his first sucker.  He seemed to like it.

Adam loves toys that light up and make noises.  This little toy piano does both.  Adam can now hit things and make the noises by himself.

There is something about paper.  Maybe my babies are all vitamin deficient because they always want to chew on paper.  And Adam doesn't like to let go once he has the paper in the mouth,

Adam is enjoying being outside more.  We were invited to a birthday party for the neighbors.  Whitney is sharing her tres leche cake with him.

We bought a little chair for Adam that sits on top of a regular kitchen chair.  I like that it has a tray and we can put food on it for Adam to enjoy while the rest of us are eating dinner.  Here he enjoyed beans and noodles and a little pudding for dessert.  It was the perfect meal for him.

Hooray for our baby!  He is getting so big and he is so pleasant.  We are still working on getting Adam to crawl; he goes backward now and gets stuck places.  But I am sure he will get there. What a great blessing he is.

A Day of Free

I love free things.  Really love free things.  So this last Saturday was perfect.  We had a lot of fun and didn't have to pay for anything.

As part of the Hermiston summer reading program through the library we earned tokens to go to the swimming pool.  The weather was perfect for a day in water.

Megan was really happy to get a turn to go in the water.  Whitney and Rachel are in swimming lessons and get to go in everyday.  This has led to some swimming lesson envy.  So Megan got to do lots of splashing and having fun.

Adam has never been a big fan of the water.  He was asleep at the beginning but eventually woke up and watched for awhile.

But then he decided that he loved the water.  I splashed his legs for a few minutes and then let him stand in the shallow kids pool.  He and Megan had fun splashing each other for awhile.  There was a lot of anger when we took him out though.

After swimming we took advantage of root beer float day at A&W.  The free root beer floats were delicious.  But next year I am giving Adam his own because he ate half of my ice cream and liked drinking my root beer.

We went home for a few minutes so I could make some French bread pizza for dinner and then we hurried of to the big parade for the fair.  The girls really got into waving at everyone.

And the infamous watermelon truck.  This was our first year getting a watermelon.  Hooray!

Megan showing off her new frisbee.  This parade is awesome.  We also got a t-shirt, a bunch of little toy footballs, cheese, and lots and lots of candy.

And then we leap frogged our way back to the car - at least, Megan did.  By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and slept really well that night.  What a fun day,

Will's parents

We were lucky enough to have Will's parents come and visit for a day.  They were driving back to Utah.

I wasn't sure how Adam would do with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler; he is just starting to feel stranger danger occasionally.  But he warmed up after a couple of minutes.

We went to the bounce house gym place that we have taken the girls to several times.  It was fun for us adults to be able to sit and talk while the girls were jumping.

Then we went to Sheri's for dinner.  I learned that Wednesday is free pie day at Sheri's if you buy a meal, so we all got to try different kinds of pie.

The girls liked their meals too.  So maybe we will go back sometime.

Unfortunately, Will's parents had to leave early the next morning.  But they were here long enough to make some pretty hair for the girls.  I wish they could have stayed longer.  Thankfully, we are going to visit them for a week over Labor Day, so that will be fun.

Right before Will's parents came, we went to the McDonalds open house.  The McDonalds right down the street from us was being renovated for the last like two months, so they had a party to celebrate the re-opening.

Ronald McDonald did a magic show for the kids.

Whitney wins a free milk shake.

And there was face painting; Megan wanted to be the kitty.  It was kind of a fun little open house.  Workers were walking around passing out free samples of McDonalds food.

And just one more picture.  Isn't this the cutest baby?

Anyway, things are going really well here.

Happy Fourth

So I know we are a little behind, but here are some Fourth of July pictures from those crazy Hermiston Keelers.  We watched a couple of videos about why we celebrate the Fourth of July and the girls made paper flags.

Here Will and Whitney sit on my mom's porch swing.  See the matching outfits - that wasn't planned.

And eating a delicious breakfast with our neighbors - well, my parents' neighbors.

Then we went to the Pasco parade.We found the perfect place to sit and everyone was eager for it to begin.  The girls got a lot of candy this year.

One of the floats at the parade.

After the parade we went back to my parents house and my dad made a fire so we could all roast hot dogs and s'mores.  You forget how good a hot dog is roasted over a fire.

The girls all enjoyed their meal.

Whitney got a slip n slide for her birthday.  This was our first time using it.  Rachel was the only one willing to try it at first.

Eventually the three girls would just scoot themselves down the slide.  Nobody liked going on their tummy.

After dinner we went to the stadium for fireworks.  It actually got pretty cold so we were glad for the sheets to add an extra layer of warmth.

The fireworks were beautiful.  Adam slept through his first firework show.  Oh well.  He can try again next year.
So it was a wonderful Fourth of July.  Happy Birthday America!