HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

I am writing tonight from the living room of my parents house...worn out and a little sunburned, but happy as can be. We have had such a special 4th of July this year and I wanted to be sure to post on the actual day, even though the pictures will have to wait until we get home. I have a LOT of good ones to share, but left our USB cable at home. We came to my hometown to celebrate Jackson's 4th birthday...we thought it was pretty cool to celebrate his "4th on the 4th". :-) His actual birthday was Wednesday and his party was today. Meredith and Cory threw a big bash at their pool and clubhouse and Colin had an absolute blast. There was lots to eat, lots of cake, and lots of swimming. Jer and Cory spent the entire time in the pool throwing Colin and Jackson all over the place, which was both adorable and scary at the same time. ;-) Meredith looked entirely too skinny for a woman who is 7 months pregnant and even wore a bikini. She is that woman who manages to look like a super model with a basketball belly. My sisters are really too much at times. :-) We had so much fun at the party and finally had to drag Colin home for a nap close to 3pm. This was WAY past his nap time and he fell asleep before I could get him all the way in the bed! It was crazy and wonderful. I guess the key is to spend hours in the pool getting thrown all over creation by your dads. We all took a rest and then regrouped for a quick dinner at Spring Creek. We decided at the very last minute to try to take Colin for fireworks and ended up watching a wonderful display right here at my parents house!!! WHO KNEW?! The country club not far from our neighborhood was putting on a show and we watched it from down the street. I still can't believe we were trying to find out where to go and it was right here all along! The show was great and Colin thought it was AMAZING. It was his very first fireworks display and he stopped what he was doing to watch, point, ohhh and ahhh, and make sure we were all watching too. It was precious. After a quick bath, Colin is now snugly sleeping and we are joining him! We are totally exhausted, but what a wonderful 4th! Our whole family together in one spot just celebrating! As it should be!! :-) Happy Birthday, America!!

SLIDE POOL!

Jer is on vacation this week and we have been having a great time! Yesterday we packed in some bouncing at Boomerang's, lunch at Empress of China and a trip to the slide pool after dinner. I was bound and determined to get pictures of Colin coming down this slide...you have never seen a more excited boy! I managed to get a couple of cute ones, but it is really hard to take pictures of people flying down a water slide. Colin continues to have ZERO fear of water. The first time he went down, Jer arched his back and laid all the way down on the slide, thus turning it into a luge. They flew down the slide and both Jer and Colin went all the way under water at the end. I was certain Colin would come out screaming (it was rather scary to watch!) but he just wiped the water out of his eyes and yelled, "MORE!". How cute are these boys?!

Below are a couple of pictures from Boomerang's. The lighting in those bounce houses makes for bad quality pictures, but Colin is adorable none the less. He seems remarkably bigger this week to me...I think he may have hit a growth spurt. He seems slimmer and much taller at the moment. I can't wait for his two year appointment later this month for the official stats. Today has been fun, with the exception of the 100 degree heat. We bought Jackson's birthday present (he is FOUR YEARS OLD today! I love you, sweet nephew!) and had lunch at Five Guys Burgers. It was delicious and Colin loved it so much that he actually stayed in his seat and ate for longer than 30 seconds, which is a miracle. Anytime I finish a meal at the table in the restaurant is cause for celebration. This afternoon we are having a pre-4th of July swim and dinner at Jer's parents house and tomorrow we are heading to my parents for Jackson's party and 4th of July weekend. This is a very busy and happy week!

Chefs, Daydreams and Showers

I am not one to wax poetic about my cooking, but I am pretty sure that I made the best roasted chicken of all time tonight. It was lick your plate good. It was better than any that I have ever had in any restaurant. I mean this was SERIOUSLY good. I also made a salad that was to die for. Am I bragging? Yes. ;-) I never cooked before I stopped working and it has been my mission in life to become an excellent chef. I want Colin to love my cooking and I have been working pretty hard on this goal. I am dying to be the house that all of Colin's friends want to come to because I make the yummiest treats and have the most welcoming home. I have this image in my head...piles of cleats and gym bags cluttered at my back door, shouts and laughs filling the kitchen and a mess of boys clamouring to get second helpings during dinner at my house after the game. I know it is probably silly, but I picture things like that all the time. I love to imagine what it will be like to have a handsome young man living in my house and all the fun that will go along with it. ANYWAY, I made garlic lemon roasted chicken tonight and I am finally at the point that I can make changes to recipes and do my own thing. This turned out honestly beyond what I thought I could accomplish and it was so simple! I would have taken a picture, but we destroyed the bird before I remembered! If anyone is interested in the recipe, I will post it soon. Since I did my own thing, I want to make sure I remember exactly what I did before I share it. I don't want to miss a thing in translation because this baby was GOOD. ;-) I cook a LOT, but rarely feel the need to devote a whole blog post to it, so you know I am serious about this. haha!

In Colin news, we added something new to our nighttime ritual tonight! Jer takes a bath with Colin every night in our big tub; it is their "man time" together and Colin adores it. I lay his towel out on the bed and always scoop him out of the tub and take over for pajama duty. Jer will get dressed and join us in Colin's bed for family story time, which is basically Colin picking out what books he wants to read and who is going to read them and how many times. Tonight, Jer got out of the tub and jumped into the shower while I got Colin out of the tub. He asked Colin if he wanted to try the shower out. Colin was immediately all smiles and trying to climb out of the tub in record time. I stood him in front of the shower door and he first stuck a toe in, hesitated and then walked in to stand beside dad. I shut the shower door fully thinking that Colin would want to immediately get back out. He pressed his hands on the glass and I opened the door. Colin said, "NO MOM! CLOSE!". Well, then. I closed the door as directed and then stood back to watch. Colin loved the shower. We have a shower head that comes off the wall and Jer had it down at Colin's level. He was laughing and washing Jer and himself and jumping up and down. It was one of those adorable moments that you know you will always remember. As I suspected, he did not want the shower to end. We turned off the water and Jer stepped out, leaving Colin standing in the shower stall, holding the shower hose and marching around in the water remaining in the bottom. He started chanting, "MORE SHOWER!" and I told him that we used all the water and the shower had to go night night. He was none too pleased about it. I have the distinct impression that bath time is now going to require both a bath and a shower. Well after the bath, Colin ran back into our bathroom chanting, "MY SHOWER MY SHOWER!". I will now put in writing that my husband has created a monster. He started it. ;-)