Just call me Martha, or Happy 4th!

 Fourth of July is serious business around Longmont and my bff Katy and I took it to the next level this year, competing in the Longmont Picnic Contest. 

It has now become our tradition to have all of our friends meet up before the big concert in the park and have all the kids decorate their bikes. Last year after we all about died from the extreme heat parading from our house to the park, we decided that we would meet at the park and just parade around the park before the concert. We did just that this year, and it was perfect. Our parade has changed from mainly strollers and wagons to scooters and big kid bikes as our kids have gotten older, and we have some new babies in the group, so it just keeps growing each year!

And they're off! Notice John and Colin's shirts that I made from a handme down tie die.

Each year, there is a contest for the best picnic set-up at the park. We have never participated before, but this year we really got into it combine all of our party planning experience for a tablescape that we can now call award winning.  All of our friends and families humored us and we set up a pretty awesome patriotic tent/tablescape/picnic spread. Here is most of the crew.

 Here we are with our finished tablescape. We got to the park at 9am to stake out an ideal shady location next to the playground and spent time perfecting our decorations before everyone else arrived.

Every single thing on the table played into our Stars and Stripes theme.  We warned them it wouldn't make the table if it didn't.  Luckily we have really understanding friends:)  Highlights included: sliders, which made the paper here, layered Jello shots , custom water bottle wrappers and other stickers, a red, white and blue layered punch, 7 layer dip with an American flag on top , a trifle with a star on top, table runner sewn for the event, fruit flag , patriotic pasta salad, and pretzel sparklers.

When the judges came to our table, we had our kids sing Yankee Doodle Dandee. We thought it added that little something extra.

There were 24 entries in the contest this year, and we came in 3rd. Not too shabby for our first time. We took notes and are already planning next year's tablescape. We figure if we had won the first time we entered, it would have been kind of anti-climatic anyway. Now we have something to work towards. We won a family movie night themed gift basket with candy, popcorn, and movies, and a gift certificate to get our oil changed.

Both of us felt very validated by all of our over the top efforts in decor and food when no less than 10 strangers stopped to take photos of our spread, and multiple people also stopped and asked if they could buy our food. We are good at picnicing!

We headed home for naps after the concert and reconvened at our house that evening for a barbeque. All the kids had a great time playing together, and the adults enjoyed patriotic mojitos, good food and Katy's patriotic playlist that has been accumulating songs for the past 4 years.

The kids' table chowing down on hot dogs and/or black bean burgers, fruit, chips and pasta salad.

How many kids can fit in a wagon?

4 kids didn't seem to be pushing the limits of the wagon enough, so Mac and Cam crammed themselves in for a few spins around the yard.

All the kids had patriotic outfits, and Em even had a day AND night outfit.  I think she is just the cutest kiddo!

John, Colin and James doing an impromptu jam session/dance party on the picnic table after dinner. I really wish this was a video because Colin and James' had some seriously awesome moves.

Patriotic bomb pops are really the only way to end a 4th of July meal if you are a kid.

Look how much everyone (Minus Riley and the babies) has grown from last year:

Longmont, along with many other Colorado towns has a fire ban for the rest of the summer, which includes ALL fireworks-even sparklers. I have to admit that I was a little bummed, fireworks are one of my all time favorite things, but we all came inside, turned off the lights and watched NYC's fireworks show on tv and all the kids had a dance party to Katy Perry's Fireworks.
Like most Nichols' parties, this one ended with a little nudity and table dancing.  Just checking if you were sill reading:)

Happy Independence Day!

Most of this post was clearly stolen from Katy's blog, and used for my own :)  Thanks Katy!

Staycation

Staycation: noun

A vacation spent close to home.   So this year due to busy work schedules, camp/preschool, and that new cutie pattootie we can Emmy we just didn't take a summer vacation. So we decided to take two mini staycations, where we stayed close to home.   For the first we ventured to the exotic Colorado Springs.  I had never explored this city just 2.5 hours away from L Town, and Seth hadn't been since he was a little guy.  I had heard wonderful things about the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo so we decided that would be the first stop on our adventure. First we donated to the animal of each persons choice.    In addition to all the animals we (the boys) rode a teeny tiny train!  And the highlight by far was feeding the giraffes, which was one of the coolest things I've ever done.  Who knew giraffes liked salad?  We spent the night in a hotel with two pools and ate dinner at a restaurant, always fun with 3 young kiddos, though Em slept like a champ.  The next morning we went to 7 Falls, getting there WAS an adventure thanks to the TomTom!  We ended up driving 30 minutes up a mountain, no where near the tourist trap that was 7 Falls. We did take an elevator 14 floors up through a mountain. Em's under the blanket:)  Then we started to walk up the stair and quickly decided it was too far and too steep for this crew.  So we climbed rocks (doesn't it look like they are so far up, really it's inches:)  And we watched an Indian dancing demo.  Even the boys got in on it! We also drove through the Garden of the Gods which was really cool and I hope to explore further once the kids are older.  The drive home was pretty bad taking 3 hours and lots of tears.   The second trip was just two weekends later and was up to the Haley condo in Dillon.     We met up with our good friends for some good times on Grampa unnamed boat, floating on the Res.  We eat chips while on the boat, and only then my kids know this and get unbelievably excited for the chips.  A pretty good family picture!  For dinner we joined the Nichols for dinner, four wheeling, and s'mores by a camp fire.  No fox this year:)  Best buddies! SO while we haven't ventured far since our little girl arrived we've had two good short, and close to home trips.  And are looking forward to a slightly longer, farther trip to the mitten state just Em and I in October!  And a full out family vaca, involving a mouse in November!

BoCo fair

This past week was the annual Boulder County fair, with it being so wonderful, we went twice!!

 We saw animals!

 And 4-H projects!

 Road rides, hard to see John in the back:)

 Em broke out her gingham outfit that I LOVE!!  There's a hat too, that's a little big, but the beautiful owl clip makes up for it!

 One night Seth and Tim took the big boys to the rodeo, it was too late for Em and Mac...

My crazy boys!

Life's a beach!!

Yesterday we went to Boyd Lake State Park for a little R & R.  Wow did we have a great time!

 I mean really with 3 sportbrellas, a giant tent, and numerous blankets to lay any and all of the four babies one and under, who wouldn't want to drink.  I mean have fun!

 Best buddies had fun posing on the beach!

 And eating fake cheese flavored chips!

We took turns holding the baby, but both Seth and I still got too much sun :(

 Eating, was an Olympic sport for Colin, you can also see his split lip from the brother:(

 We did some boating, thanks to the Andrews family's boat!

 We played in the water,

 And in the sand,

 We creating a large levee system that may or may not be better than others built elsewhere.

 We rinsed off the sand by taking a dip.

And we had the best time! 

And for those of you near water (Hi Michigan!!!), this is huge for us!  There isn't any substantial water near us, so playing in the water or on a boat or in sand isn't something we do ever! 

Drive In Movie....

Our boys have never been to a movie before and really don't watch many movies at home, but together with our friends the Nichols' we decided that the drive in would be perfect for their first experience!! 

As with most plans involving a 2 year old, a 3 year old, a 4 year old, an 8 month old and a newborn; the dream is often much better than the reality. With minivan pack to the hilt with pizza, snacks, treats and activities we headed to the drive-in in Ft. Collins right when the box office opened t 6:45pm. It was a gorgeous night and we had a blast tailgating and pre-gaming as we waited for the movie to start.

The boys were so excited for the movie to start!! We did not anticipate how late the movie would actually start. By the time the previews were done and Cars 2 actually started, it was after 9:30pm!

John and James waiting patiently, well as well as could be expected!Daddies and boys killing time before the movie.
Even more ready for the movie to start-all changed into pajamas with popcorn!

With the movie starting well after the Haley's bedtime, the movie was a bust.  And not just because it really wasn't a very good movie...  John cried to go home for most of the film while Colin wanted to climb, run, and over all be crazy instead of watching the movie, and then cried once it was over.  (Much like at home...)

Although there are no photos of Cormac or Emerson from the drive-in, they were both dream babies. They nursed and/or slept the whole time and neither one of them made a peep the entire loooong night. I couldn't completely leave them out though, so here they are on their baby date earlier in the week when all of the big kids were at summer camp.

As you can see, Emmy is already a big fan of her first boyfriend, Macky.  I wish she wasn't as cranky as she looks, although this week she has been.  But check out her adorable outfit.  Only the second one I've purchased!!

And a HUGE thanks to Katy for writing this post, taking the pictures, and posting it to her blog so that I could steal, almost verbatim the entire thing!!