Happy 4th of July

This post is a bit out of time order, but it all relates to the 4th of July so oh well. This past Saturday, the 11th, we went to Scream's (real name is Kevin Haller) annual 4th party. He and his wonderful family live near Six Flags but is from Ste. Genevieve. Dennis and Scream have been friends since high school. The party is tons of fun. It starts out with a water ballon toss which is what Kyrah is walking through now. She would hold onto her water ballon for awhile then throw it on the ground, but get upset when it popped.


I was inside with the babies so I am surprised Dennis and Broc are standing next to each other rather then throwing them at each other. They started this game so fast no one had a chance to change into their swimwear. It was super hot this day so the water felt great and everyone dried quickly ... just to start sweating again.

Before the real fireworks start we have the annual artillery battle. It is kids versus grown up. There are many rules and strategies, but the jest of the battle is to light the other persons tank/ship/copter on fire or light it as a firework. If your tank causes one of the tanks on the opposing line to light on fire you get a point. Surprisingly it was a rather low scoring battle this year. I think it had to do with the various strategies of scaraficing their own tanks as blockers... as it turned out the kids won by a point.

Various members of the Kreitlers enjoying the battle... Raya was in the front carrier on me and I of course was taking the pictures.

"Yeeeaaahhh" and clap. That is what she does after every firework.

Now travel back in time to the actual 4th of July. This of course is also Lydia's birthday and she was nice enough to be born in 2000 so it is easy to remember how old she is because it is always the same as the year. It is 2009 and she is 9 - very easy. Usually we go over to Lydia's house and her nice pool, but this year we went down to the cabin and enjoyed Grandpa's new pool. He carved out a section of the pond and actually put up a retaining wall and concreted the bottom, put up a fence and netting (so the fish can't get into the swimming area) and made his own version of a pool. Grandpa even made Kyrah a pool called Peanuts Pool (we call her Peanuts as a nick name). Her pool is about 18 inches deep so she can walk around. The bigger pool is waist deep on an adult. The twins enjoyed their time at the cabin as well - taking bottles and naps - their two favorite pasttimes. Broden loves to snuggle up on Grandma's lap.

Unlce Steve loves to hold the twins for about 2 minutes then he passes them off pretty quick.

The birthday girl and Kyrah enjoying Peanuts Pool time.

Grandpa took Kyrah into the big pool. Ohh Grandpa - take off that white t-shirt you have on...oh wait...

Check out the huge elephant ears in the background and you get a better idea of the pond pool.

Kyrah was able to see fireworks 4 times this year, three of which were in the dark. She loved watching them, but it was so hard for us to keep her up so late. She still goes to bed at 7:15 so waiting until dark around 9 was torture. She got very cranky and needy during those extra two hours. But it was a special thing so it was worth it.

Oh speaking of schedules. She is now officially down to one nap a day. If we have to do something in the afternoon we will still give her a morning nap, but for the most part it is just one nap around 12:30. This nap can be anything from 2-3 hours.