This weekend Kevin and I hit up some awesome garage sales to add to Isak's robot fleet. For a $1.50 we got a buzz light year, complete with talking buttons, laser light, and moveable helmet and 2 talking/light up/walking little robots that came with remote. I also got a huge box of lincoln logs for $5 and painted wood blocks of all shapes for $2 and some other things I am saving for christmas. I usually do a lot of my kids christmas shopping in the summer at garage sales...My kids are still little and don't care and I can find almost brand new toys for super cheap! Actually, only 2 of the robots below were bought at a store, the two red ones in the middle, the rest were goodwill or garage sales. My kids still have way too much stuff but when it only cost me $.50, I don't mind getting rid of it after they are done playing with it.
My little brother, Mark, got engaged a few weeks ago and we got to meet his fiance, Jen, this past weekend. Somehow I never got a picture of her though, but she is very cute and incredibly nice. While she was here, we had the great idea to have a cake decorating contest and have Kevin judge them. Kevin was chosen as he wasn't there while they were made and wasn't biased.
And somehow, mine won! I think its the cute cardboard cutouts of the couple on top that did it for me. We all enjoyed some cake while we showed Jen the infamous slide show of our family pictures that every daughter/son-in-law has had to watch before marrying into our family. Its always quite entertaining :).
Lucy and Isak have LOVED having their cousins around this past week. Even if we've spent all day with them and they leave, Isak always asks, "where did my cousins go? I want to play with my cousins!".
Reed and Lucy taking a bath and splashing my mom with enormous amounts of water. They were having so much fun!
Since Valerie has been here, we've gone to the pool and thrift store shopping and spent lots of time in my backyard watching the kids jump on the trampoline and swim in the bouncy pool.
And Maddie was smart enough to bring her lemur costume with her so her and Isak could be lemurs together again! Isak loves this costume, I think its the tail, and loves his cousin Maddie. Its funny, he seems to adore the ones that are 3-5 years older than him versus the one his age.
And Lucy found the leopard head to her costume. She is starting to love to dress -up as much as Isak.
On a side note, Isak started swim lessons today. We will see how it goes, there are 7 kids in his class and it seems kind of chaotic. Last year I was lucky enough to be able to find him a private lesson for a week that he loved and seemed to learn a lot from. Hopefully 2 weeks in this class will help him with something.
Lucy's hair is getting really long. I want to cut it for summer but Kevin won't let me. Its pretty when its brushed out, but I have to usually fight her pretty good to get it done in the morning which is a huge pain. And despite massive amounts of conditioner, its gets tangled easily. The jello and Popsicle juice probably doesn't help either. Maybe she will have an "accident" with some scissors and I can trim it without anyone knowing...
We've had so much fun with my family here. My kids are loving having their cousins around and Isak especially loves that there is always someone to play with. The other night we had our official "Master Chef" competition, with the key ingredient being carrots. We each had to come up with a dish that contained carrots and then were judged on taste, carrotiness, presentation, creativity, and some other things I can't remember.
I made some tortilla wraps that had ham/cheese/shredded carrots/lettuce/tomatoes and had a mixture of cream cheese and ranch dressing. They were delicious.
We also had a quiche, carrot salad, some bunny cracker appetizers, and carrot cupcakes. I would just like to mention that I won. Not that its important or anything :).
Lucy and Reed are only a few months apart and play really well together. Along with this, they also fight really well together as well so some days there is more hitting and biting than others.
My brother Aaron came in from Texas this past weekend and brought his super nintendo along with bomberman. I loved this game when I was younger and the kids loved that 4 players can play at once. Anyway, he was very popular.
My sister and I took the kids out to Scootney swimming area last week and the kids loved playing in the water. My sister was awesome enough to swim with Isak out to the dock and then wait patiently for him to decide that it was okay to get back into the water.
We found some little tadpoles in the water that were fun to watch.
As well as several large sticks and some pieces of driftwood that the kids entertained themselves with.
We've have spent so much time outside in the water, my kids have been sleeping great at night because they are so tired!
My kids did okay on the way out, Lucy had to be carried a lot, but the return they were pretty tired. It was really hot as well, and despite the hats, sunscreen and water, they were very red cheeked. 
They were also extremely tired. We found this cool cave that the kids liked to throw rocks down.
I realize I am doing this post backwards, but that is the way the pictures worked. Kevin's grandpa passed away the end of May and we had his funeral the following week. I always loved Kevin's grandparents and admired their example of service and enduring to the end. They were wonderful people and I know they are so excited to be together again. Kevin's siblings were all able to come up for the funeral and it was great to be together and see everyone.
