Celebrating Our Independence!

We wore our 4th of July colors for over a week straight!  Here she got a little carried away with the white and dumped her milk all over her and the stroller while we were shopping.  Where is Maverick,    you ask?  Why getting chased down by Auntie Kate who is in town the next few weeks and we're SO excited she's here!

But before I get too far ahead of myself, the latest on the house is that we've done the sign-off and are now patiently waiting for the permit to go through so the actual building can begin.  Please pray for it to be a quick process so we're not moving our things in the dead of winter!  In the meantime, here's a sneak peek - our house colors...

Pictures don't do it justice.  And the fact is, this whole process freaks me out - these are major decisions we're making here and I'm in NO way skilled to design a home or pick out colors and our tastes are so varied and eclectic - trying to nail down just one style may end up making our house look like one big circus - but it'll be OUR circus and we can't wait for it to begin!

Our kitchen colors...

But enough about boring house stuff...Tuesday was well over 102 degrees outside so when we got home, Auntie Kate met us at the pool to cool down.  Phoebe is loving the water these days - and the fact that the pool at our apartment only ranges in depth from two to four feet gives her the freedom to "swim" without her floaty.  We actually got notified at the end of last week that the wait list for the swim class we'd enrolled her in had opened up - we'll see how she does!

This guy isn't quite the little fish his sister is, but he still likes to play in the water. 

Our little swimming diva, so ladylike.

 Er, yeah...this is more like it!

Just a little sibling love.

For the Fourth, we headed to CarmelFest.  I thought we'd go early and beat the heat but the vendors weren't open and everyone was lined up to watch the parade.  So we stuck around.

But after our episode with heat exhaustion recently, I didn't want to push it so we put down $20 on pastries at Shapiro's and watched the rest of the parade from inside!

They had mister-fans set up every five feet or so and we fully took advantage!

In the kids' area, you had to purchase tickets - Phoebe wanted to go in the bounce house but the sun was so bright that it made practically every square inch of that bounce house too hot to jump on - we barely got fifty cents out of our $2.50 but at that point, we just wanted to keep moving forward.  Here we are strategically jumping in the shaded part.

Playing in the water - I think the kids did this one just so they could wade through the water once they were done.

Finally we hit the petting zoo which was by far the biggest hit for everyone involved (till this five month old cow stepped on my toe, that is!).  Poor girl, she just looks hot but she's happy!

On our way out, we stopped at the firehouse.  Maverick did a little posing.

Phoebe and Maverick already battle over everything from books and toys to snacks and even Mommy.  I didn't think it started quite this early but apparently it does!

We got a call on Wednesday from Granddaddy who was in Princeton since his cabin in Virginia had lost its power over the weekend.  He drove up on Friday for a quick visit and dinner. 

Being silly together.

Maverick loves Granddaddy - walked right up to him when we opened the door.  They just look like good ol' pals in this pictures.  Love it!

And in an effort to stay cool and entertain the kids, we let them burn some energy while we ran errands over the weekend.  We got a call Saturday morning that our pediatrician wasn't going to be able to keep our Friday morning appointment the following week and asked if we could come in on Saturday instead.  We'd been dreading our Friday the 13th visit because it would involve s-h-o-t-s.  At least this way, we'd get it out of the way a bit earlier.  Weighing in, Phoebe stayed steady at 50th percentiles across the board.  Maverick on the other hand was 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height - from what we remember, Phoebe measured the same way but we figure it all evens out in the end.  They both got shots and handled them like the troopers they were.  Probably one of the reasons we allowed them to run around like maniacs afterwards.  Our shopping venture didn't last very long - for obvious reasons. 

We ran another errand on Sunday after church and they both entertained themselves on a doggie bed. 

And after a lively dance party with Auntie Kate Sunday evening, we tried to calm everyone down with books.  I'm sure there's some incriminating video floating around our house somewhere - here's praying it never makes its way to the Internet!

Either way, we were so blessed to spend time with family, celebrating our freedom AND air conditioning.  Many people went without electricity and I'm not sure this family would have survived without it!  We've got family pictures scheduled for this Saturday so stay tuned - it's been a year since we last attempted the kids' pictures - here's hoping we get a few keepers!  Stay cool, everyone!