Lucy's got moves

The dancing bug has bit Lucy lately and she wants to dance all the time.  We often turn on pandora and have little dance parties after breakfast in the morning while cleaning up.  This was one of those mornings and she was really feeling it!  This video just makes me happy. :)

And just for kicks, here are some pictures of her later in the day.

Ryan's 33rd birthday

We celebrated Ryan's 33rd birthday on July 9th!  Every year on his birthday, Ryan gets a marzipan cake from a bakery.  Last year it didn't work out and I felt bad about it, so this year I was determined to get him one.  After calling approximately 95 bakeries around town and half of them not even knowing what marzipan was (weird for a bakery), I gave up.  So I told Ryan and let him pick what he wanted to have for his birthday treat.  He chose banana cream pie and homemade lemon custard.  We made both of these together the night before, which was a fun activity, and then also per his request, we had steak and twice baked potatoes for dinner.  Ryan got a lot of calls, texts, cards, etc. from people, which is also a fun part of having a birthday.  Overall I think he had a great day!

Aaron's Angel Day

For Aaron's Angel day each year, friends and family of Lisa and Brandon let off balloons.  Lucy loves balloons and loved playing with it.  There's a little picture of him in my nightstand drawer that Lucy looks at almost everyday, so I like to think that she kind of knows who he is. :)

Fourth of July

The morning of the actual 4th of July, our friends (the DeMills) invited us to join them at the Hilliard city parade.  It was a great parade- not small and dinky, but not overwhelmingly long and boring.  They also have kids that match up age-wise with the Rasmussen's kids, so they all had fun.  They all played a game of tag and then the parade started.  They collected candy like it was Halloween, too!  After the parade, we came home for naps and then went back to the DeMill's for a BBQ, sparklers, poppers, games, etc.  Because we were out so late the night before, the kids had all pretty lost it by the time we got home and so put them all straight to bed and called it good with the fireworks we saw people do on our drive home. (Also, Lucy somehow got a random cut on her nose which is why it looks dark in these pictures).

Red, White, & Boom

Columbus does a big firework show every year called Red, White, and Boom.  They actually do it on the 3rd of July for a couple of reasons- so that everyone can stay out late (get drunk) and have the next day off to recover, and also so that it doesn't interfere with city fireworks.  It gave us something fun to do on the 3rd, so we didn't mind.  We heard it is crazy downtown trying to get out after fireworks, so we went downtown earlier and went to the kids area with inflatable stuff and free food and drinks, and then we drove out of downtown and watched the fireworks from a distance and ate lots of treats in the back of our van.

More fun things with the Rasmussens

The kids played in the crazy down pouring rain one afternoon...

We went swimming...

We watched fun things on the ipad (Lucy finally started to warm up to them a teeny bit)...

We played at a big, indoor play place on a rainy day (there's a gated small part for little kids, and then the huge, tall part for older kids)...

 I now present you with the two best crazy faces Lucy has ever made.  :)

 Jackson and Bennett were so excited, they did dances when they got to the bottom of the big slides (not really- we just got some funny action shots of them).

We painted, made up fun games, and ate lots of snacks...

We played with glow sticks and tested them out in all the dark rooms of the house...

Michelle does gel nails and has all the professional equipment and gave us mani/pedi's that are still going strong over a week later!  She also taught me how to make her version of chocolate chip cookies, which happen to break every rule about baking cookies but they are surprisingly awesome

Ryan read books to the kids....