It's all over but the...

CLEANING!

My we have had a big week around here! (Was it just one week?)
First off it was the Fourth of July. It was a bit different this year with Kolby off
at camp, but we still had a fun day that included lots of family, food and fireworks!

Missing our Kolby but still having fun!


Swimming with the family..

The three big cousins in 4th of July Shirts made at MDO

All the cousins (minus campers Kolby and Sam) watching fireworks...poor Whitney just had her hand stepped on in this one, but it was still the best picture!

As you know by now, the 5th of July is a big day for us too! Little Miss Ella Kate turned 2! Since Kolby was away we postponed her big party until Monday the 7th. But that didn't stop us from celebrating on the 5th too! Rob's sister Connie and her two kids, Katie and Drake, came down from Bells to help us celebrate. Ella Kate was quite taken with her little cousin Katie who is just 6 months younger.

Water sliding with Katie... The kids table is the most fun place to be!

Happy Birthday Ella Kate!

Presents! EK Loves to open presents and tears every last scrap of paper off the box. (She loves this clock which is a remake on the 1968 original in the Fisher Price Classic Series. They have an original one at church in EK's Sunday school class. She wants to sleep with her clock every night now!)

Ready for bed after another big day of celebrating....

Sunday morning modeling their cute matching new outfits from Aunt Connie! (As if I didn't have them wear matching Elmo swim suits and short sets the day before! Connie and I seem to enjoy dressing our Katies alike! :)

We had some time to rest on Sunday and to get ready for another big day of celebrating on Monday. After Kolby's return from camp and Grandma's arrival from from Denison Monday afternoon, we got the house all "Elmo-ed up", fired up the water slides in the back and headed to Rosa's to meet everyone for a birthday dinner.



(Someone asked if I am always going to display toys in this bookcase/cabinet. Uh... No. While I love toys, I just haven't had a chance to finish getting all my real decor back out and in place. I made the doors at the bottom to hide all the toys. The Elmo motif was just for the birthday! :)

Three (or is it four) parties later, we really got our $$$s worth out of that waterslide! And it's still going!

We had a fun time at Rosa's with all the family.


Then we headed to the house for birthday cake...


Water-sliding...




The three little cousins! We can't wait until Kelton becomes a big brother in just two months! (or less)

Trampoline jumping...

Mama K and Papa gave EK this brand new BLUE trampoline bed for her birthday after our old one died last month. EK is SO happy to be able to jump again!

Presents...

Sue Sue & Biggy gave EK a SUGAR! dog that looks just like the real one. EK is fascinated with Sue Sue's "Suu-gar! "

EK loves this baby from "Am Ma" (Grandma) but she was also really into the card! In fact she loves it and calls it her Am-Ma book! I didn't expect a 2 year old to be so into her cards!

and more fun!

Rob took the kids to the front to do "pops' and glow sticks.
(Tired yet? I know I was but wait there is more....)
After a pretty late night Monday I was amazed how ready my kids were to get up and go to Mother's Day Out on Tuesday! But it was bowling day for the big kids and Ella Kate had the last of her 2 year old birthday celebrations with her little class and teachers!

Aren't they all so cute?! Oh, and that red coming our of their mouths is from the Elmo decorations. I'm sure all the Moms loved me for that.

So with all the birthday celebrations over, I was looking forward to a few quiet days at home. Rhett's baseball game was rained out Tuesday night so we went out to eat early and everyone went to bed early.

Much to my dismay, I woke up at 6am Wednesday morning with a high fever and my stomach cramping something fierce. I spent the next 7 hours running from my bed to the rest room with "stuff" coming out both ends. Sometime around the 6th hour, delirious with fever and exhaustion, I started wondering if my will was up to date. It was miserable. Rob had to come home from work to watch Ella Kate as I could not do anything and my Mom and sister were out of reach. My doctor called in some great prescriptions around 2pm which made everything stop and made me sleep. I don't think I left my bed for 15 hours after that. Two days later, I am starting to feel human again. We think it could have been food poisoning or just a nasty virus... but I am the only one we know who has had it. Aren't I lucky?!

Poor EK did not understand what was wrong with me Wednesday. She cried at my bedroom door until Rob got home to entertain her. She keeps coming in my room asking "You sick Mommy?" It's nice to finally say "No baby, Mommy's not sick anymore." However, after I surveyed the house this morning, I did feel a bit queasy again! Even though I was the one sick, it looks like every room in our house threw up on it's self! How did that happen so fast?

So this weekend we are going to take it easy (after we clean up) and try to re-coop from our big week of parties and stomach bugs. If anyone stuck around long enough to read this novella long post, I hope we all have a great relaxing, HEALTHY weekend!