Friday was more of the same during the day, but since it was July 4th we had different plans at night. We grilled out some chicken and then headed to the beach for fireworks. The kiddos were ready to go by the time the fireworks started at 9:15, but they were troopers and stuck it out until the show was over. Ty was beyond tired, but Lucas still had some energy and really came alive when the show started. He said, "wow, big!" when the show started.

Here is Lucas saying, "beaCH!"

We got to the beach around 8pm, so we had about an hour to let them goof off.

And take some pictures...

Grandma (my mother), Mom (my grandmother) and Grandpa (my dad)

Jenn and Me

Team Schroeder (minus Tyson)

Here is everyone during the show. Lucas had a little bloody nose that you can see in the second picture...

On Saturday we headed straight to the beach since we knew that Ty and Lucas preferred it over the pool. They had lots of fun running in the waves and digging in the sand.

Here is Lucas in the hole...

And here he is about to get ticked that he can't fill the water up the same way every time because the waves didn't come in far enough to make the water deep enough...

While the boys were sleeping on Saturday afternoon my sister and I went to afternoon tea with my mom and grandmother. In addition to the tea we also had some yummy sandwiches, cookies and brownies.

After our snack we used the pretty view as a backdrop for some family pictures....

My mom and grandmother

Mother, Me, Grandmother, Sister

Jenn and me at 25 wks pregnant with our little girls!

On Saturday night we made drinks and then Jeff and I went out to dinner with Jenn and Neil. Check out the four beggers below! There were two shih-tzu and two cock-a-poos.

Tyson was pooped after all of the excitement. Here he is behind the couch cushion...

Lucas had a "Lucas Special" (juice and crushed ice)...

And I had a very delicious virgin pina colada!

There was an almost vacation ruining event on Saturday before dinner - Neil accidentally deleted all of their digital pictures from the week! Jenn was upset at first, but then we decided that Neil just had to take a ton of pictures to make up for it, so we headed to the beach after our dinner to get some more shots of the boys.

Lucas took off like a rocket for the waves...

So Jeff and I took a picture with just the two of us for a change...

And then one of the Tingle Fam.

The turkey finally slowed down enough to take a picture, but not enough to actually look at the camera...

We put them in somewhat coordinating outfits - blue collared shirts and khakis.

Here they are climbing up the sand hill...

They were so sweet to take turns helping each other up the hill...

And we can't forget about Baby Sister! Here she is at 25 weeks...

Two new cute things he's saying...

Lucas: "Rock" - as he pointed to the stone on our house and looked at Jeff.

Jeff: "Yes, Lucas, that is stone."

Lucas, in a condescending tone: "No, no, no, no, no. Rock."
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We were at dinner and I picked up my water to take a sip when I heard a concerned Lucas say, "Two hands Mama!"

2nd Haircut and 1st Face Painting

I took the turkey to get his 2nd haircut this morning. His first haircut was almost four months ago... his hair has grown out, but not down. I expected crying and clinging, and he WAS a little hesitant at first, but once we sat down and she started cutting I was able to talk to him to keep him distracted for the 4 min it took her to trim his hair.

I planned on taking him to the park or something afterwards, but there was a clown in the store that was making balloon creatures and painting faces. Lucas watched a few other kids get their faces painted before he asked to get his painted. I was shocked that he actually sat in the chair while she did this! She painted a clown face on his little face and it was just about the cutest thing I'd ever seen. He doesn't look thrilled in the video or the picture, but he was so proud of it. Most of it wore off throughout the day, but he insisted on keeping his clown eyebrows on for dinner at Melissa and Shawn's house that night : )

Tree Progress

I think it's kind of neat when things like this happen because it brings people together. We have been overwhelmed with support from our neighbors and friends. As a matter of fact, Jeff and a couple of friends have nearly finished removing the tree from our neighbor's yard - $1200 in savings for us! Yes, you are in the wrong business, according to the quotes we received on Friday.

We were ready to hire a service because we don't own a chainsaw and really didn't think it was something that we should mess with anyway because of the way the tree was positioned. Before realizing this we asked our neighbor Craig if we could borrow his chainsaw, but later in the day we emailed him that we had underestimated the size of the branch. Craig, loving a chainsaw related challenge, came over around 4:30 on Friday and said, "awww, we can handle this. I'll be right over." My jaw dropped as he walked home to get his chainsaw. That was the first act of kindness. The second was when I called my friend Melissa to tell her we'd have to cancel our dinner plans at their house because we couldn't pass up the chance for Craig to help us. She responded by saying that she'd send Shawn right over with his chainsaw! So two hours later we had Craig, Shawn and Jeff in the backyard working hard and Melissa, Michelle, me and the two boys inside preparing dinner (pizza, salad and watermelon). It was a really fun night after all!

On Saturday morning Craig came over to help Jeff finish the job, Mark brought his chainsaw over to help, Will let us borrow his wheel barrel and Kim made calls to friends to see if they had a chainsaw we could borrow. I was humbled by the love that our friends and neighbors showed us this weekend. We are so thankful for all of their help.

The first pic is what the tree looked like on Friday morning... in our neighbor's backyard, covering their garden.

This is what the backyard looked like on Friday evening after a few hours of work (taken from our upstairs window). The boys had cut down a lot of the limbs and thrown them over the fence into our backyard. The goal was to remove them asap to try and salvage our neighbor's garden. The couple is in their late 70's/80's and spend a lot of time in their yard and it looks great. It looks like a few of their plants won't make it, but hopefully most of them will bounce back.

Here are Craig and Shawn working hard...

Pierson and Lucas Keeping Cool

Pierson is Melissa and Shawn's little boy. He's only 18 months old, but really acts like a 2 yr old, so Lucas is having a great time playing with him. They go at it though! For the most part they play well together, but if there is a toy they both want they will fight. At the park this week Melissa and I had to break them up because they were hitting, scratching, and pulling hair! Melissa and I are getting some good parenting training. No worries though, they are quick to make up with a hug and a kiss.

While the boys worked on the tree these two stinkers decided they'd get into the water pail with their cute little outfits on...

Fun in Mama's Swim Cover Up

Island Eating

Every night when we make dinner we try to give Lucas a little task so that he feels included. He sits on the island and helps to sort the veggies, put the cut veggies in a bowl, etc. He usually ends up sampling a lot of the food during the prep phase, but he's occupied and seems to like helping us.

Okra is his favorite veggie right now. Apparently it even tastes good raw!

And he was just checking to make sure that this bread was fresh...

And here he had just finished a watermelon snack. He asked for us to tie this rag around his neck so that he didn't get sticky : )

This morning...

...in our backyard.

The first guy we had come give us an estimate said he'd recommend cutting the tree down all together (just a branch fell). That's not going to be cheap.

On a brighter note, look how tall our tomato plants are growing!

Chocolate Lover... like Mama

After telling Lucas that we were going to go to listen to music tonight and get an ice cream treat:

Lucas: "Ice cream please."

Mama: "Okay, you can have a few bites now before we leave."

Mama gets strawberry sorbet out of freezer and gives to Lucas with a spoon.

Lucas: "no, no, no mama... BROWN!"

Observant Lucas

Lucas is way more observant than I am. He gets it from Jeff. Jeff and I will be riding down the road and he'll ask me if I know what business a new building contains - my answer is usually that I had no clue it was even there. I don't pay attention to anything I don't have to. Lucas is like Jeff - he doesn't miss anything. A few examples... 1) We'll be walking through the grocery store and he'll spot a little dolphin on a can 10 feet away and point it out. 2) He seems to always be scanning signs for letters that he recognizes when we're driving. I'll look at him in the mirror and he'll have his serious look on and then will suddenly scream out a letter and then look at me to make sure I see it too. 3) He knows what kind of shoes all of his friends wear at school. The kids have a pair of shoes that they wear outside only, so they are kept in a basket outside of the door when the kids are inside. Every morning when we get to school and every afternoon when I pick him up Lucas tells me who each pair of shoes belong to. The other day we were looking at pictures on his class website and one of the pictures had a tiny picture of a kid's shoes in the top corner. Lucas pointed them out and knew who they belonged to.