Hello Old Friend!

Last week the girls and I went to Grand Haven to see my dear friend Karrie who I hadn't seen in WAY too long. Karrie was my roommate in Indy at the time Mark and I got engaged. I promised her if she would live with me she would also get engaged-as I had an almost perfect track record after college. I had pixie dust on me or something! Anyway-it worked...so much fun to see each other and the kiddos!

Ava was thrilled because she was allowed to jump on the bed in the first five minutes. A big no no in la casa nuestra.

This picture is blurry because of that darn triangle island, but I love how Ava is just cracking up at Will!
A turn for herself. (Note: if you notice that it looks like she is missing a tooth, that is not part of the costume. Nor is she missing a tooth. Just a little misplaced strawberry.)
Safety first!
Hmmmmm....
Oh yeah, Reese came too..you just wouldn't have really known it.
Smitten Kitten.
And there is ICING, too? This was seriously Ava's best day ever.

Please note the amount of sprinkles on right hand cupcake.

And for good measure, a picture of the people who had actually met in person prior to this day. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my make up and it made me 20 minutes late, without makeup. Thank goodness for black and white.

Such a great day! Such a special friend. Thanks Gerbers for hosting our mayhem on your vacation! We love you. :)

Smitten with the Mitten (Round 3) (Whew)

July 4th started out like any other day. Pajama shirts and heels.

But then we switched into our patriotic gear and the obviously more practical flats. And the attempted cousin picture. Minus Reese-which is too bad because she only had her dress on for 17 minutes of red, white, and blue cuteness before she had a blowout causing us to leave church and wash both of us. But that's another story.
Special time with Grandma Betsy after church.
It's amazing really all the wonderful pictures I have with my children. But-we were twins. Thanks Wal-Mart for providing such memory making outfits.
Ohhhh sweet flute lady and tractor man. We've thought about you often.
Obviously the #1 goal of the parade: GET CANDY.
It was a scorcher so Reese, Kaiya and I stayed here.
But Ava eventually came home. I don't really think I need to explain this.

I don't know what screams cool more than a sippy cup, shades, and a swim diaper.
I am seriously lucky to have scored this dude. I may not have been much at soccer but I'm glad I got him to quit playing the field.

We had a lot of things to celebrate besides just America's birthday.
Classic game of "can you kick the 1.99 ball over the hedge".
The jury's still out..
but we THINK
they
had fun.
Loved her shirt. Felt like if I was going to steal the phrase for the title I owed her a little screen time.
The cousins I never had but always wanted.
This concludes this years July 4th celebration documentation. Look for me, tractor man and flute lady, and no good family pictures again in just 359 days.

(Round 2)

Saturday morning started out with a shower for Karyn. Mark's cousin Dan is getting married at the end of August and Karyn is a peach. She actually came on the DeKorne scene a few months before I did-I guess Mark and I just had louder biological clocks ticking and made it legal and procreated a little more quickly. So excited to be related to such a cool cat!

We headed out on the pontoon boat to open gifts and enjoy some mimosas. (Karyn is front right. She tried to sneak to the back of her own party picture above!)
This picture cracks me up because our eyes are doing the exact same thing. A trait my girls will no doubt be annoyed about!

After the shower we suited up and headed back out to the beach for another beautiful day...

and what would a holiday weekend be without beautiful family photos.

Mark and Cullen on their way in after a rough ride on the hobie cat.
Worn. Out.
Really worn out. (seems like he slept a lot this trip, huh?)
Popsicles!

Audra giving rides to Addie and Ava...

Karyn and Dan loving Ava. Hopefully this will brain wash her into being a perfectly behaved flower girl in their wedding. Please pray.
Oh yeah. There's still more. We aren't even to the actual holiday yet!

776 (Happy 4th of July) (Round 1)

That's how many pictures I took this weekend. Oddly similar to the year 1776, don't you think? Kinda difficult to narrow down into just one post, so there will be several. Don't say I didn't warn you.

"What mom?"

"Glen Lake???? Yipppeeee"
Some pretty extreme cuteness happening with her Daddy.
Oh my heart. And this picture was straight out of the box. Not one ounce of editing.

Worn out from all that laughing.

Boy toys.
Girl toys. (?) They have already proven to be more successful at soccer than their mother. I spent most of the time getting yelled at because I was twisting my hair and looking at the birds.

Could NOT have been a more beautiful weekend. Seriously, amazing.
A real highlight of our trip was having our cousins there. Ava and Addie are 6 months apart and had a BLAST together. It was so fun for them to have each other to play with!

Stay tuned. (Or feel free to avoid my blog for the next several days!)