Ave turns 8!!

The birthday girl did not want cake as her birthday treat.  Nope, she wanted to find a waffle truck and try it out by herself with just mom and dad.  So after dinner we headed out to Waffle Crush to try some waffles.

We tried the "berry" and the "nana" and the ladies on the truck adorned Ave's with a candle so we could sing to her for the twelfth time that day :) :)

they also did a quick decoration on her box...

The waffles were yummy....the only bummer was that they were definitely not big enough.

We sat in the van to avoid the 110* weather and chowed down on our waffles. All three of us smooshed in the front seats telling Avery our favorite stories about her.  Loving getting to have that time with just her and celebrate her turning 8.  Happy birthday sweet Ave!!!

*** Hard Rock Cafe

We have been spending the last two weeks trying to get the last items from our summer bucket list all squeezed in.  We decided that Avery's birthday would be a fun time to take everyone out for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.  

We had a good lunch and the kids had fun looking at all the different guitars and memorabilia.  The best part though was when our waitress came out and announced to the whole restaurant that it was Avery's birthday and then had the entire restaurant say "Happy birthday Avery!!!"  Avery went completely red but was grinning ear to ear it was so stinkin cute.

Beep beeps and konk konks

Hudson has entered the "car phase".  He loves them, any and all of them.  Everyday he puts a couple in his pockets to carry around with him.  He also has them stationed all around the house.  I find them placed in random spots everywhere.  He will walk into a room and pick one up and put it in his pocket and then go about his way.  He will come over to me and put one on my lap or hand one to me and say "play."  This isn't a question as much as it is insisting that I stop whatever I am doing and follow him over to the car track.  The other night I was trying to make dinner and he was having a meltdown about me not playing cars.  I remembered something I saw on Pinterest and took some foil and made shapes around the cars and then showed him how to crush them with a monster truck.  

He stayed busy crushing cars with Ave for twenty minutes right there in the kitchen while I finished.  "Mom, watch!!!" he would tell me and then use the truck to flatten out the foil, checking every few seconds to make sure I was still watching.  Then once they were all smashed to his satisfaction he would start handing Avery the pieces of foil saying, "again, again!!" and watching as she shaped them back into cars.

He loves racing his cars down his track most of all but a close second is playing cars in the tub.  He lines them up along the edge and pushes them in one at a time to make them splash.

Then he puts one of his ramps up in a corner and starts racing them down the ramp into the tub.   He loves it.  If we have had a busy night or are trying to get kids down quickly I always have someone check the tub because if there are cars in there, that kid is not going to want out until he is completely pruned.  He has had times where he is totally pruny and the bath water has gone cold and he still has a fit when I finally make him get out.  The other night I went to get in the shower and about went down when I stepped on a green convertible with a flame paint job.  Frustrated I tossed it out onto the bathroom floor.  I reached over to grab a bar of soap and saw three hot wheels all lined up where the soap should be.  I couldn't help but smile.  Oh Hudson, you make me so happy.

Brother time vs. Sister time

Hudson loves his big brother and sisters.  He is always hurrying behind them, following where they go and wanting in on the fun.  "Guys,... guys!!" he will shout and then run to catch up.  Its pretty easy to tell who he has been hanging out with at any given time.  If he's making forts in the living room with laundry baskets you know big brother is involved...  

Hunter sneaks him up on his "big bed" and reads stories before bed, buying him an extra fifteen minutes of stay up time.  Hudson loves it because Hunter reads him LEGO books or books about snakes and tarantulas or other boy stuff.  He knows that they are Hunter's books and not books from his book shelf.

When I am making lunch and he comes around the corner looking like this....clearly he's been enjoying some dress up fun with the sisters.  They dress him up and put stuff in his hair.  Sometimes he is their baby or the "kid."  They tell him what to play and give him his character and he goes with it.  He will come in smiling and say "hairbow" and point to the headband or clip that they have put in his hair.  It makes me smile to see them walking by with him all done up and talking to him in their best little mommy voices.

Making silly faces in the back seat with each other when we're driving, definitely a brother thing...

Running around the living room in this getup, of course courtesy of Ave and Em.

Sisters make sure he has a baby to hold while he eats his lunch.

Whether it's hanging with his big bro, playing with his sisters or all four of them up to something, they keep him plenty busy and know how to wear this little guy out.

Night swimming

We went night swimming with the kids the other night.  Hudson floated around the pool on his race car in his diaper and Emma kicked around in a butterfly boat.  Hudson loved it until the pool light would shut off for a minute to cool down and then he would panic and say out, out, until it turned on again a minute later.  

 Deke and I taught the kids how to do handstands underwater, took turns sitting on the bottom of the pool in meditation pose, had a diving contest and played endless rounds of marco polo.  We played for two hours in the dark until the kids were getting sleepy and we headed in for ice cream.  After showers and pjs all four of them were out in a matter of minutes.  Something about spending an entire summer day having fun in the pool.