July 4th and other summer fun!

Oh three year olds are so delightful in so many ways and so challenging in so many other ways.  I keep thanking our lucky stars that we do not just jump right into pre-teens and that we get to play a hand at parenting a 3 year old first.  In many ways I imagine they are similar: sassy talk, "no" and stomping out of the room, temper tantrums because I asked her is she wanted the red or the purple popsicle, "don't see me" and shutting her bedroom door, "ugh" while cocking her head to the side, rolling her eyes and walking away from me.  I imagine this time will replay itself in our future and I pray that I do a better job then than I am doing now.  This picture was an escapade I pulled to get Lily to stop screaming/crying in the bathtub for no reason at all.  It worked after I showed her how ridiculously cool her hair looked in the camera, but as you can see she refused to smile.

We have one very small garden this year, which is one more than we had last year.... and I came home from work the other day to find beans!  It was the best thing ever.  Rowan loves gardening with Lillian and I.  She will stand at the box Colin built for us and dig her hands in the dirt forever.  She typically screams at us when we pick her up.

For the weekend after the 4th we made it to the cottage for the weekend.  We had a blast!  Jumping off the dock.  Swimming. Roxy fishing every chance she got.

This is the response I got when I asked her to stop so I could take a picture.

Then I said no honey, please show me a sweet face for the picture.  This is what she did instantly. So my test worked, she does know what the difference between sweet and ummmm not so sweet is.

Colin and I got on the wind surfer......with not much success.  However we have decided to blame it on the lack of wind.  Here I am 'killin' it.  We also kayaked a bit and saw the bald eagle.  

Lillian LOVED playing with Will, Katy and Mike's son.    She is 3 and he is 18 months.

And here is a picture you have to love, to just melt your heart.  Two of their favorite things, water and being nakey, nakey, chicken bakey.