We've had a bunch of fun since my last post!

There was the ward party for the 4th of July! The kids were pulled in a red, white & blue decorated wagon and we had a pancake breakfast.

Later that day we drove to Keith & Sarah's to celebrate America's birthday. We played in the pool and forced Uncle John to take our family photo. Keith & Sarah took us to the park with Mash. We took in a huge fireworks show that Katy thought was for her birthday. It lasted a long time and Allen wasn't even scared a bit!

Happy Birthday to Katy! Katy turned three on July 7th and we had a swim party for her birthday. It was a Monday so we didn't have our far away family and friends like Delma's gang or our cousins. But almost everyone we invited did come and it was a total blast! Lots of swimming and riding on the clam slide. Jake & Hillary were Katy and Allen's personal swim buddies. Peter didn't get into the pool until close to the end and I didn't get in at all due to hostess duties. We swam so much we had to hurry up the cake and open the presents outside the pool after it closed.

When we got home we had a couple of big presents that were too big to take to the pool. One was from Marie...an adorable Katy-sized chair that looks like Tigger and talks like him, too! Then Mom & John gave Katy a basketball goal that she hugged when she saw it. Katybird is already a hoopster! Allen and Peter love it, too!

That night after the swim party, Allen had his first slumber party ever! He was exhausted but we washed him up and brought him to Mom's house for the night. I borrowed a potty training book that insists you can potty train a kid in less than a day. You have to take about four hours with no distractions from siblings or the phone or anything, so Allen woke up at Mom's house and played over there until about 3:00 that afternoon. Katy and I stayed in the bathroom and talked "potty" talk for almost five hours. We put up family and friends' photos on popsicle sticks and dropped them into a pocket on the wall. Then Katy would hold up the stick and talk about everyone who uses the potty. Not very respectful but it seemed to do the trick. She's been dry every night, but nap time has brought problems. Plus she occasionally surprises us with accidents for no reason at all. For the most part Katy has voluntarily gone to the potty on her own for several days now, and that's saying something. She finally earned her ring pop that she's been wanting for months now because she did her #2 in the pot! Wahoo! When I called Mike and told him the good news, he asked if I took a picture of the actual poo. I am proud to say that I did not!

On Thursday I took Katy and Allen to Sarah's neck of the woods for Katy's follow-up eye appointment. We did the appointment thing and then went to the big, fancy mall for some "Chick-a-lay" which is what Katy calls Chick Filet. We rode the merry go round and bought some candy from a huge fleet of gumball machines. Then we played in the Libby Lou's store and Katy had glitter from head to toe. Allen and Katy were both dancing to the music and Sarah couldn't stop laughing.

So far we have survived our vacation travels. We did a three hour drive north on Friday night, then Saturday we drove all day with a potty training three-year old and a teething fourteen month-old. It was nice when it was quiet, but it wasn't quiet very long. Our niece Lani came along for the ride and she was a huge help. She was the first to notice that we brought Katy into an Arby's restaurant without shorts on...just in her shirt and panties. That's a new low for me as a mom.

Allen is getting a molar in his upper left side of his mouth, and he's also becoming much more vocal. He stands up for himself much better than even just a month ago. He stomps around all over the place (especially when Mookie tells him to march) and he makes everyone smile who sees him. It's impossible not to smile when you see this happy chunk of a boy! We finally have a date scheduled for his circ. that didn't get done at birth: July 28th. He'll be knocked out all the way for the surgery and that's going to be a sad day for me.

Well, off to take some vacay pics!