More 4th of July celebrations - splash pads, pool parties, and bubbles!

It's a long weekend full of fun celebrations for 4th of July.  We kicked off the day before with a morning trip to the splash park with our friends.  (It's so hot during the day that it's best to go in the morning.)

Maxwell and Sadie

Time to take a break and have a snack

Maxwell found a little caterpillar and actually picked it up!  (Out of character for him)

Watching the caterpillar

After the kids were done at the splash park we went to play on the playground.

Carter was there too (and Andrea and Jeff) but just not these in these pictures.

All these flags flying in the wind made me feel so patriotic!

After naps, we went to a 4th of July pool party next door.  I made an orzo salad for the first time, plus did prosciutto wrapped figs (loved them at Tida's and had to have them again).

We bought a new digital camera that's waterproof so it was fun to try it out!

Maxwell and Jared

Emmalyn loves Mr. Chris

Owen, Hayden, and Maxwell

He loves swimming SOOO much.

His skills are great and I don't have to watch him like a hawk anymore.

As a special treat, as the sun went down, Chris added in some bubbles.  It was a LOT of bubbles.

Mr. Chris has Maxwell believing that when he says the magic word "abracadabra" it turns on the pool lights.  So when it gets dark, Max will say the secret word and Mr. Chris will discretely push the button to turn on the lights.  Maxwell thinks he's doing magic. :)

Mary Ann, Melissa, and Avery

Being overtaken by bubbles

Covered in bubbles

Swimming underwater with glow sticks

Maxwell and Avery

Happy Anniversary Britt and Joe!

Peter says people probably don't read my blog because they are tired of reading about Max.  I would love to write about my thoughts on motherhood or being a working mom or something having nothing to do with being a mom.  However, I am so far behind on this blog (today is Aug 4 and I'm blogging about May 25 - 27) that anytime that I can spend blogging goes towards trying to catch up.  So, maybe someday this blog will be more than just Max but for now, it's all Max all the time.  This is my journal/photobook so I don't want to leave anything out. 

We celebrated Brittany and Joe's anniversary but first, some other pics mainly pictures that I took while trying out my new camera...

 Max is a sympathetic crier.  If Landen starts crying, Max will cry right alongside him. 

My new camera sure captures details well.  Sometimes I will notice food on Max's face in a picture that I didn't see normally.  It also does a good job of showing how wet Max's clothes get thanks to all his drooling.  This boy has so much drool but I refuse to keep a bib on him all day, it just isn't cute.  So, instead he will just have wet shirts.

Video - I have mentioned how Max has started blowing raspberries anytime he can connect his mouth with skin on Peter and I.  We commonly get attacked by raspberries in the morning.  I love it.  Here's a video that shows a little bit of that and then you can also enjoy some more teeth grinding.  I don't love that.

We did more house hunting over the weekend.  Haven't found the winner yet.

To celebrate Brittany and Joe's anniversary, we did some grilling.  We grilled a lot at our apartment last year but this year for some reason we haven't been doing it.  This was the first time this year.

The master chef!

Cute boys  -  Landen and Hayden

Action shots with the new camera  -  awesome!

 The love birds feeding each other dessert.

Dinner was awesome - I love food cooked on the grill and can't wait until we have a house and can just walk out into the backyard and grill rather than packing everything up and going downstairs at our apartment to use one of the grills in the common areas.  Although, eating outside has become complicated with Max because he's not happy sitting on our laps and not eating when we are eating.  And he's a grabby little guy which makes it hard to eat because everything needs to be out of his reach.  But then we can't put him on the ground because he'll crawl around and put everything on the ground in his mouth.  And he's not going to stay put on a chair by himself.  It's tricky and usual it ends up with Peter and I switching off - one of us eats while the other holds and entertains Max and then we swap.

Max has now sort of started waving.  It's not a true wave but he will put his arm and hand out and move it up and down a little bit.

Happy Birthday Kallie!

Woo hoo!  I am now 32.  No day off for the birthday girl - I headed to work!

 Here's what I push to the car each day.  Max in the stroller, diaper bag on one handle, pump bag on the other handle, laptop bag in the basket under the car seat.

 My sweet perfect husband sent me flowers at work - he knows so well what I love.

 Brittany had In-n-Out waiting for me at lunch.  YUMMY!

She gave me this awesome baby food recipe book.  You'll see more of this in the future.

 Max showing off his drumming skills.

 My team did cake and sang happy birthday to me.  I chose a Red Velvet and Marble cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Ridiculously good.  My mouth is water just thinking about it.

 Peter had presents for me when I got home from work.  Max helped me open them.

 He was sorta into it.

What?  Peter!  You shouldn't have!  You are such a generous husband.

He gave me the super nice Canon Rebel.  Look for some better quality pictures on future blogs - wahoo!

Checking out the new camera's ability.  Yup - pretty good.  It captured how cute Peter is.

We went and picked up Panda  Express for dinner - - no cooking for me!

Video - So Max has this new awful habit of grinding his teeth.  It is the most horrible sound.  And I don't know how to make him stop!  Turn your volume up, there's some grinding right at the beginning.

It was a good day but was also a bad day.  Peter did everything he could to make it a special day and I really appreciated that.  However, regardless of that, it was just a bad day.  The entire day it just felt like something was missing and without that, it wasn't going to be a good day.  What was missing?  My mom.  I missed her terribly today.  I felt more alone and abandoned and sad without her than I did on Mother's Day.  There was no birthday card in the mail.  There were no presents in the mail.  There wasn't a phone call from her.  It just sucked.  I miss my mom.