Happy 4th of July 2009

After a delicious cookout at home, we headed over to the ball park to see the county's annual fireworks. The fireworks were beautiful and we are happy to report that Des didn't cry and even seemed to enjoy it despite his scare from the previous night.

Early Fireworks

We started off the 4th of July weekend by setting off fireworks of our own in our backyard yesterday. It was lots of fun!

Des really liked it at first. At one point, Des just loudly exclaimed "Wow!" It was sooo cute to hear him say that which such genuine awe and delight at the fireworks! But then one of the firecracker was too loud for his liking and, bless his little heart, it scared him to death...so much so that he started crying and just wanted to go inside the house. Aunt Sil was kind enough to go inside with him and poor little Des didn't even want to watch the fireworks from the window!

Stella, on the other hand, was more brave than we expected her to be. She stayed outside to watch her Dada set off all of the fireworks. She even held sparklers, which she wasn't willing to do at the beach a month ago.

Stella really enjoyed the fireworks this year and kept asking us to do more for the rest of the night even though we explained to her that we finished them all.

Yeah! Aunt Sil is here

Aunt Sil came for a visit today and she will be here til next Tues. The kids are really excited to have her here and they are fighting over who gets to play with her.
Stella wants to show her how well she can read (she is currently on the 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics and is doing great with it)....

...and Gup just wants to sit in her lap.

Aunt Sil also brought the bangles that Amamma bought for Stella on her recent trip to India. Here she is modeling two of the pink bangles. Stella put the rest of the bangles in a container for safekeeping!

Blow Des, Blow

Desmond is getting good at blowing balloons. Here he is in action and these balloons are pretty difficult to blow, even for adults...you know the kind that needs to be broken in and stretched out a little bit before you can blow them up easily.

Step Into My Shoes

Last week, Mama caught Stella trying on one of Mama's dressy shoes. She loved these shoes because of the beads and the iridescent sequins...she is such a girlie girl already!

Slip-N-Slide

When we got home from dinner, we set up the slip-n-slide we had purchased this weekend. The sun was not blazing but it was still hot to enjoy the cold, cold water! The kids loved it.

Stella was the first to slide down.

Then it was Gup's turn.

The kids had an awesome, fun-filled day today from Chuck E. Cheese and the park to Pet Smart and the slip-n-slide...all thanks to their amazing Dada who just wanted to spend Father's Day playing and having fun with his kids.

Puppy Love

Before dinner tonight, we went in to Pet Smart just for fun and the kids had a howlin' good time with all of the animals there!

Stella & Des looked at birds...

...and fishes..........................................................and kittens.

But the best was when we came across a litter of puppies they had there for adoption.

After watching the puppies from outside their fenced in area, Des and Stella wanted to go inside.
Des is an animal lover so it was no surprise that he was eager to go, but we were surprised that Stella, who is normally apprehensive about dogs and cats, wanted to go in as well. We were even more surprised when Stella petted and held the puppies.

The nice lady there gave Stella and Des dog biscuits to feed the puppies in an attempt to wake them up since they were all sleeping despite being petted by Stella and Des. Some puppies woke up for the biscuits and others did not. For the persistent sleepers, Des tried to wake them up by placing several biscuits on the puppies' faces while saying "Here, eat it doggie, biscuit." So funny!

Des tried to eat the dog biscuit himself, but luckily we stopped him in time. Then he picked up the puppies' water bowl from under a chair and brought it over to them saying, "Here doggies, drink!" Then came time to hold them.

Des was surprisingly gentle with the puppies while holding them.

When it was time to go, Stella and Des didn't want to leave. Can you blame them?