Summer, Summer, Summertime!

Bored at the Grocery with her Momma!

Happy 3rd Birthday Gabe Argiris!

Austin and Hadley came down to Indy this weekend to help Gabe Argiris celebrate his 3rd birthday with his awesome "Cars" themed birthday party.  I had to work, but Austin took some pictures for me.  It looks like all of the kids had a great time, and I was told that Hadley pulled the winning ribbon on the pinata, releasing all of the candy!  How exciting is that? 

Happy 3rd Birthday Gabe!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's day is this Sunday and I have to work, so we decided to celebrate today...well kinda.  Austin had plans to go out on Lake Webster with his friends from work tonight, and Hadley and I had plans to go to the Mermaid Festival with Lex, Gabe and Julianna.  Since we all had different plans, we just left his Father's day present on the table.  It makes me sad that I don't have a picture of father and daughter in celebration, but such is life.  When we got home, Austin told us how much he appreciated his gift, and how excited he is to go fishing with his new loot this summer!  

Hadley wrote on daddy's card for him.  Super cute!

Hadley and I bought the perfect card for Father's day.  Uncle Zeb taught Hadley how to do the monkey face, so we often call her our little monkey just to get to see it.  She's super cute when she grabs her ears and blows out her cheeks! 

See, wasn't that the perfect card?  We thought so! 

Happy Father's Day!

Playdate and an evening at the 66th annual Mermaid Festival

Aunt Lex brought the Gabe and Julianna over today for a play date, and then we went to the 66th annual Mermaid Festival.  The kids enjoyed splashing in the lake and digging in the sand while Lex and I sat on the dock and enjoyed dipping our toes in water.  It was a relaxing day! 

After the sun went down, we headed inside and got ready for the festival.  We all got to ride together, thanks to the new Outlook.  When we got to the festival we started in the Merchant's barn where we enjoyed tasty ice cream cones, and then headed over to grab some dinner at the Lion's Club.  After dinner, we took the kids over to the midway so that Gabe could ride some rides.  He rode the roller coaster first, and then he wanted to ride the motorcycles. 

Well, Julianna and Hadley wanted to ride too.  Hadley was having a good time at first, but freaked out as soon as the ride started going faster.  It was pitiful, because she kept reaching for me and the operator wouldn't stop the ride for me to get her off.  Those of you that know me understand that it was a rare occasion that I didn't regulate!  Instead I just let her ride it out, and then comforted her at the end.  She was fine!      

I love fair food, but it was killer for my diet...and it gets worse.  To end the evening, we bought elephant ears from the Legion and they were seriously the size of my car.  Super yummy though!  We sat in the grass and enjoyed them and then headed home.  Whew!  What an exhausting but fun day!      

Mermaid Festival Cutie Parade

Austin's parents came down tonight to go with us to the Mermaid Cutie Parade in downtown North Webster.  The festival has a cutie parade for children newborn to 14 years old, and then a cutie pageant for children 4 to 6 years old.  We were going to enter Hadley into the parade this year, but didn't find out the theme, Jungle Safari, until two weeks ago.  We thought it was a little too soon to be able to put together a quality float, so we opted to just go and cheer on the other contestents instead.  Ahh, who am I kidding?  We went to check out the competition and figure out to what level we need to bring the cutie thunder next year!

Everyone patiently waiting for the parade to start...

...but soon Hadley got bored and wanted to join Grandma Kim and Aunt Shelby at the grocery store where they went to get snacks, so Grandpa Mark walked with her.

Grandpa and Hadley looking down the road at the start of the parade, in the picture below.

The winners get pretty heafty scholarships in each division: walking, pulling, and motorized. 

1st place $5,000

2nd place $2,500

3rd place $1,500

4th place $1,000

The previous year's queens and kings are on the float above, and a neat little giraffe float below, in the pulling division.

I wish I would have gotten a better picture of the float below.  It was by far my favorite.  The elephant was super cool w/ fake legs for the rider, a trainer pulling it and a pooper scooper following behind.  They definitely had a lot of creativity with this float! 

The alligator float below moved back and forth as it was being pulled.  It was pretty neat!

The float below was Austin's favorite.  He liked that they went out on a limb and didn't follow the norm.  It's a "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses, themed float complete with Axl Rose as the drummer.

After the parade was over we went to Pizza King on Webster Lake for a tasty dinner at Shelby's request.  Good choice, good choice!   

Watch out Mermaid Festival...Hadley's going to dominate this parade next year!           

Say Cheese!

Hadley does not dig the camera.  I can't imagine why?  The poor little thing has had mommy shoving it in her face since the day she was born.  Today during bath time I asked her to say "cheese" for the camera, and instead of turning away, she gave me some big ol' grins! 

Round Barn Festival Twilight Parade and Cookout

If you know me, you know that I love doing stuff with family. We headed down to Rochester tonight, where my dad lives, to partake in the Round Barn Festival twilight parade. This was Hadley's first parade, so it was pretty exciting to get to watch her. She was frightened by the loud sirens and it took her a while to pick up on the fact that you were supposed to grab the candy from the street. I think she tried every kind of candy that we got, and she polished off cousin Gabe's green snow cone in no time. After the parade, we stopped by dad's house and then headed over to my Great (Hadley's great great - which I think is pretty cool!) Aunt June's house for a cookout. It was a super fun evening - just the kind that I love!

The kids, plus everyone else, patiently awaiting the start of the twilight parade.

Apparently the Samaritan helicopter fly over signifies the start of the parade. 

My Great Aunt June and Karen anxiously waiting!

I love the picture above of Julianna and Gabe looking down the road at the start of the parade.

Hadley didn't want to stand in the road.  She chose to sit in her stroller to wait.

Her faces crack me up!  You can see her reaction to the start of the parade, and the loud noise that accompanies.

In the picture above, she was a little scared of the loud fire truck and police car sirens.  Poor girl!

The friendly fire dog above cheered her up though!

Hadley wouldn't go into the road to pick up the candy.  Good girl!  In the picture above, Grandpa convinced her that it was okay.

Hadley loved the dog in the picture above, and I did too!  If we were to get a dog, the St. Bernard would get my vote.

They were handing out snow cones, but Hadley didn't get one.  Cousin Gabe was super sweet and gave his to Hadley.  In the picture below, you can see that she was nice enough to share it with Juli.

The Biomet car! 

Getting brave, and picking up a piece of candy on her own!

Like I said earlier...she tried every candy in the candy bag!

Karen Sumpter, on the blue sign above, is the wife of my late second cousin Judd, Great Aunt June's son.

Awe, how sweet!  Me and my baby girl.  Thanks for these awesome pictures, Lex!

My dad recently bought this Midget.  He's wanted a convertible for years, so he decided to buy one.  It's super cool, and tiny!  I don't think Austin would be able to fit inside. 

The kids had a great time playing in Grandpa's yard.  As you can see, Hadley's shorts were a little big for her, and she got wet from the pool.  I was cracking up at the picture below of her trying to pull her pants up.  I ended up going to Walmart and buying her a cheap little outfit so that she could get out of the wet clothes and play some more without having to fight with her pants!

When we got done hanging out at Dad's house, we headed over to my Great Aunt June's for a cookout.  Fred, my second cousin, met us there.  We had some tasty food and enjoyed each other's company.  We were having such a great time, that we didn't leave until around 11:00 p.m.  Ugh!  I have to work tomorrow.