Summer Days!

We've had a pretty low key first few weeks of summer around here. Last week me and the kids went to Grammy and Bee's to swim and eat popsicles.

Parker has gotten so good at diving to get the weighted pool toys. Hayes has remained excellent in his ability to yell "Kalabunga!" while running and jumping into the pool. It's super cute!

On Wednesday night we took the kids to J's Creamery after church to enjoy some free ice cream! The weather was perfect and it was so nice to sit and relax.

Lily was really good at eating everyone else's ice cream other than her own and in true Lily fashion suckered her Dad into letting her down his whole milkshake. 

I'm slowly adjusting to my house being in a constant state of disaster (thanks, summer) and am NOT doing so well with it, but it is what it is I suppose. My friend Amy who is the baby whisperer has mercifully agreed to come over and watch my kids once a week for a few hours so that I can run some errands. Good for the soul, I tell you! Last week I got my nails AND lashes re-done. I'm basically feeling like a celebrity. 

Lily Mae also found and applied her first tube of lipstick! It was so fun (I'm kidding.)

Good thing she is cute!

We had a movie night with popcorn after a very busy Sunday afternoon of sweet baby showers and showed the kids "The Incredibles" for the first time. We are excited for the second movie to come out!

The big event this week has been VBS! I have a deep love for VBS, and our church does an exceptional job with it every year. This year the theme was "May the faith be with you" and the boys were so excited to go every day. I volunteered in the craft room so Lily got to go hang out with the big kids as well which she of course loved because she thinks she's a big kid, too.

Parker was in the other craft room but I snuck in to grab a photo of him on Monday. We were making Galaxy bottles on this particular day, complete with baby oil, food coloring, and glitter. For 300 kids. It was messy! But it was fun. 

We snuck in another swim night at Grammy and Bee's because what is summer without swimming and popsicles?

I took the kids to Chick-fil-a (or as Parker say, "Chick-fick-le") after VBS on Tuesday and let Lily run the show in the play place. She has basically been dreaming of this day since she could sit up so she was obviously very excited to go down the big girl slide! She totally owned it, ha. 

Tonight we went to our church's VBS finale which was complete with water slides and water guns and popsicles and a dunking booth.

(The only photo I got of Lily before she inhaled that bomb pop.)

After we got home I wrangled the boys down with an episode of American Ninja Warrior (their favorite) and promises of Starbursts to gave them both haircuts. It was only mildly traumatic so I'm calling it a win, mostly because they look so CUTE with fresh haircuts!

The Artists.

 Lily Mae has always been very eager to please her big brothers. As a result of this, she thinks she is bigger/older/stronger than she actually is and is by far my most "into everything" child. I have to watch her like a hawk most days. (Which I don't always do which ends up with her swinging the chandelier while standing on the dining table and laughing maniacally about it...) Lately, she has been alllllll about drawing with Parker. 

In case you didn't know, Parker is quite the talented artist and spends probably 60% of his day each and every day sitting at our dining table coming up with new creations (and that is no exaggeration) . It is one of my most favorite things about him and I know I will always love the memory of walking into the kitchen to see him perfectly quiet and content and in his little creative world.

Lily has taken it upon herself to become his apprentice (most of the time to his delight and sometimes to his dismay) and has the most perfectly perfect little baby grip on a pencil and I find it completely adorable and hilarious. She scrunches her little brow and bends over her work just like her brother and works HARD on her scribbles. 

It's my favorite. I love having creative kids and am anxious to see what all they will come up with as they grow!

Parker's WALL-E Themed 6th Birthday Party.

I don't really have much to blog about today but I am, for the 100th time, on a mission to blog more consistently so I figured I would go back in time a month to share Parker's Wall-E themed birthday party. We were so excited to celebrate our precious 6-year-old!! Parker was very intent on this theme (although I thought it was a bit random) and chose to have the party at our beloved Science Spectrum.

Side note: I go back and forth on whether it's easier to have birthday parties at home or away from home. Does anyone else understand this struggle? At home is (usually) cheaper, and you have unlimited time to set-up, but you also have to clean your house (boo), and then having it somewhere else pretty much guarantees that there will be a rental fee involved, and you will have some ridiculous small amount of time like 20 minutes to set up (which does NOT work if you are crazy party lady like me and want to decorate). Anyways. None of that really matters, because Parker had the BEST time with his sweet friends!

I am not really a homemade cake and food kind of mom for birthday parties so I picked up some "galaxy" cupcakes (or "cake, in a cup!" which only makes sense if you've seen the movie) at Market Street and ordered cookies from a very talented girl in Lubbock. They turned out SO perfect!

My mother-in-law made "trash cube" rice crispy treats and we also had chips and little finger sandwiches. Oh and "plant samples"--also known as grapes.

The only drama was that dang backdrop (which is actually a photography backdrop from Wal-Mart....I'm still really wondering who would seriously use that for professional photos but I digress). We weren't allowed to put push pins in the wall and the painters tape we tried wasn't working. Bryan and Judy, bless them, really tried to get me to give up on it but in true Katy fashion, I stuck to my guns and used a billion pieces of tape until it stayed. Yes, I am that annoying.

Everything else was pretty easy! I printed all the labels on our home printer and was able to steal some of our MOPS table cloths for the weekend (the perk of being the hospitality chair).

On to the fun! Parker was so excited about this birthday chair. It was cute. 

I think every boy from Parker's class at school came (plus one adorably cute little girl) as well as some of his church friends. It was basically the best day ever in his book. The kids ate and ran around the museum for the first bit of the party. I love watching little boys at this age. They are hilarious together and SO energetic. 

I was so impressed with all that the Science Spectrum had to offer for parties--we chose to a "Crazy Chemistry Show", which ended up being a really cool lesson on how to make slime. All the kids got bags of slime to take home (and I'm sure their parents were SO happy about this!)

We also made ice cream which was probably the big highlight of the party. Our party coordinator used liquid nitrogen and the kids (and adults) were all extremely intrigued. It was pretty awesome.

After cupcakes and presents (where Parker got about 15 new lego sets that he had excitedly completed three days later), we headed up to the "Grossology" exhibit which was truly, truly, GROSS. There was a giant intestine and, I'm going to say it, ANUS tunnel (with slide) for the kids to run through. It was hilarious. And disgusting. They also had all things boogers, toots, burps, stinky feet, etc.--including a section where you could SMELL different stinky things like body odor, bad breath, and again...anus. I'm not making this up.

So there's that! It was a wonderful, fun, and kind of gross morning. A true little boy dream birthday, in my opinion, and a wonderful way to celebrate my sweet, smart, funny, creative PARKER REED!

Summer Bucket List.

I'm not going to lie, today was a very blah day at the Roberts household. I've been mostly feeling a lot like this:

Bryan has been working so much this week and it's been 103 degrees almost every day. We've watched a lot of Netflix and made a lot of messes and I feel that I spent 90% of my days walking back and forth to the kitchen getting each kid snacks and milk in constant rotation (and Hayes will only take milk that is "mwarm", aka warm). What I mean to say is I am ready for the weekend!!

We made a summer bucket list this week and Parker is SO excited to cross everything off over the next few months. He was especially intrigued by the idea of a drive-in movie and has been asking about it almost constantly so we will probably so that one ASAP.

(Excuse my child-ish drawings....I'm quite certain Parker could have done a million times better!)

1. Go swim at Grammy and Bee's house (A LOT!)

2. Eat popsicles (A LOT!)

3. Go to drive-in movie

4. Go to trampoline place (Altitude)

5. Go to Blazing Bouncers

6. Go to Main Event

7. Make homemade ice cream

8. Make s'mores (A LOT!)

9. Have a lemonade stand

10. Go to zoo

11. Go see a movie in the theater

12. Go to a parade

13. Go camping with Pops

14. Get ice cream in our pajamas

15. Camp in the backyard

16. Go to farmers market (A LOT!)

17. Shoot fireworks

18. Go to Joyland

19. Go to a waterpark

20. Go to the beach--build a sandcastle jump waves

21. Do slip n' slide

22. Go on hike

23. Play with chalk and bubbles (A LOT!)

24. Go to science spectrum

In other news:

Parker has been introduced to an Xbox and it is "SO COOL, MOM!"

We were also introduced to drop-off playdates with his sweet kinder friends! He spent the day swimming and eating pizza and playing video games in a theater room and was very sad when I forced him to leave.

Speaking of Parker's drawings, here is his most recent "Ninjago" creation:

Lily has been her normal into-everything-yet-completely-adorable self this week. Look at that sass! I love her.

She also threw one of my earrings in the toilet this morning and laughed about it. The stinker.

And HAYES, well let's just say Hayes' week has been a lot like that first photo. Pants on head, messes everywhere, but still hilarious and so darn cute (and he knows it).