Happy Birthday Old Man Hynes!

Mike Turns 37!! 

It was Happy Birthday to "Da-da" at the Hynes house this week. If it was up to the kids, the house would have been decorated from the floors to the ceiling, to the trees outside; they love a good celebration. We didn't get to go that far, but it was still a great birthday celebration! The day before his birthday, Harmoy watched the kids in the morning while we went for our 11 mile run, and that night, she watched them again so Mike and I could go on a "real date"!!! Our first in a while (that didn't involve hours of running anyway), and we had so much fun. We went to Mike's favorite restaurant, Barbacoa, where we ate on the patio, surrounded by a lake, cool misters, trees and bees that were unnaturally attracted to  me,  and then to a movie. Then we leisurely walked around downtown and just happened upon a frozen yogurt shop at 10pm...YUMMY! It was a great date.

On Mike's actual birthday, we had his family over for a birthday dinner that started off with a mini-disaster. Apparently, while disposing of dinner clippings, I accidentally sent one of Archie's washcloths down the garbage disposal. This is the pre-dinner scene with Harmony crouching on the counter pulling it out with pliers after Mike and Had Abogi had taken turns twisting the mechanism from underneath. Sorry Mike.

 I think I made up for it with these beauties though: Korean Fried Chicken and Lemonade Icecream Pie!

 Jason got Mike a remote control airplane that Mike had been dreaming about, and he has LOVED flying it! We went to a Jr. High tonight to fly it around and I snapped some pictures. Too bad it's too far away for you to see the pure enjoyment on his face.

I love this picture with all 3 kids looking up to watch the plane.

The Look of our Summer Days

These are some examples of our summer afternoons. The kids play so hard in the heat, that come 2 or 3, Elliott crashes. If he doesn't crash, then forget getting him to Taekwondo in the evening, or saying "no" to anything; a meltdown or a crash, that's what we get. I much prefer the crash.

Summer days are filled with yummy fresh food!! Nevermind that Lucy won't touch most of my favorite foods (these beets are a good example), I love them, and I'll eat them all summer long anyway. Yay for garden beets, tomatoes (she won't even look at them), green onions, corn (which she will eat), salad (not a chance), and anything else that grows in the summer sunshine

Speaking of growing in the summer sunshine, Archie is doing just that! Gone are the days of the little baby that just observes life, he is a mover and a doer! He actually plays with his toys now! It is great. Mike commented the other morning, "I don't remember our other kids being this busy." They weren't. Archie's something else. Mike swears it's because he's such a genius that he gets bored, so he has to instead explore our cupboards, outlets, drawers, and anything but his own baskets of toys. He does like books though; you can always get him to sit still with a good book.

He also loves nothing more than being out on those Summer Days. He gets all red-faced and hot, but he never wants to come inside. He like challenging himself with going up and down the curb, or down the slide at the park, and lately, he can't get enough of the dump truck.  Just like his big brother.

Lucy must be ready for school to start, because she has gotten into writing again. The other day, she spent her allowance on The Bee Movie because it is her favorite movie since Uncle Kimball took her on a date to see it YEARS ago. After she bought it, she wrote him this letter, which I then texted to him.

Then, after watching an old family video where Aunt Heather read some poems she had written, Lucy immediately went to writing some of her own. Here they are, illustrations and all:

Elliott officially joined the ranks of "high belts". He tested for his blue. Very proud of him. 

Don't get me wrong, he's excited about his belt, but not as excited as he is about his first season of flag football!!!! When it comes to sports, any kind of sports, he is ready to go! Here he is in his get-up, giant mouth guard and all. 

August and Everything After...

Hee Hee! That title is a play on words! It's the title of Counting Crows first album, and this post is partially about my Counting Crows concert...SWEET!!!

 But before we get to that, we have a few other adventures to tell you about. 

Boise opened a new Aquarium a while ago, and we finally got around to visiting it. The kids loved petting the sharks, manta rays, and starfish. They also got to go inside a little bird habitat.

Mike and I went on a run in the foothills that was nothing short of **magical**. It was sunrise in the rolling hills with my man, the dust, and our music. It was the first run I actually enjoyed while running. It was beautiful.

Elliott got some sunflower seed to plant from his preschool teacher last year. We planted them, they grew and they reseeded. This year, they are bigger and better. I love that his seeds lasted two years. Elliott has a fear of things that are big, it doesn't matter what it is, if it's big, he doesn't like it. That's why he's about 4 feet away from the sunflowers. He doesn't like them, but I do.

Archie's first haircut! I did it! Isn't he a cutie?

Archie stuck again.

Ok, here is the moment you've been waiting for! The concert! I've loved this band since Jr. High...an unmentionable number of years ago. I've seen them in concert twice before, and met them after the show both times, but this concert was special. Mike's friend, Luke, got us backstage passes to soundcheck, we got an official looking pass, signed cd and photo, and we got a picture with the band. My sister Emily, and her man Jason met me there, and we had sooo much fun!!!

On a sadder note, Lucy's beta fish, John, died this week. She'd had him for over a year. This fish was the funniest fish ever. Who ever met a fish with a personality? We had one in John. She named him after John the Baptist because he lives in the water. Ever person that came and sat in our living room (no exaggeration), commented that our fish was dead. He had a habit of floating belly up in his bowl. You would just tap the bowl and he would swim again, but he loved the drama of faking his death.

I go to face paint for 3 hours at our neighborhood party in the park

The kids have become pros at making their own eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast. They are so helpful, it really frees up my morning for Archie.

Archie has built upon his love for books. Mike reads him this book called "Jeremy Draws a Monster" (remember, it's the book we gave Elliott for the first day of school last year), and he growls whenever the monster talks. So, now, whenever Archie reads himself a book, he just sits and growls while he turns the pages. It is super cute.

I won yet another bubble blowing contest at Rowan's birthday party! The first was 12 years ago at my family reunion! Looks like I've still got it!

Zooming through July

In July we had:

Lots of summer camps. A Cheer camp and volleyball camp for Lucy, and a tennis camp for Elliott. A taekwondo camp for both

Lots of green smoothies for Archie

Elliott lost his first (and second) tooth

We discovered that Archie loves books.  If you are sitting in a chair, he grabs one, walks up to you and says, "this". Then you say, "you want a book?" He does an excited little wiggle, then when you pick him up, he does the sign for book. It's very cute.

Lucy watered the lawn so it looked nice and green for Mike's work party.

We played at parks with water.

We had fireworks for the Fourth of July

We had Mike's work bbq on the Fourth of July

Archie had a follow-up visit at his GI doctor. This is how we entertained him in the waiting room.

Archie discovered new ways of getting stuck. Notice his feet are about a foot off the ground in the second picture.

  

Archie's scrunchy face

the kids went dirt-biking

We had cold yummies at the park

We watched the Star Wars trilogy for the first time. Archie discovered he loves my Wicket doll from when I was 5.

We solidified Archie's love of watermelon.

We had another fun run with the cousins, this one was at the zoo before it opened.

 

We found a deer about 20 feet from us on a family run! Love living in Boise!

Ok, that sums up July. Onto August and the final days before school starts! Go Summer Fun Times!!!