4th of July Weekend

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy July 4th weekend. We were very busy. We headed down to my aunt's house on Saturday to put a permanent step out front and a handrail up. There were a lot of other miscellaneous things to work on too. We ended up being there for 11 hours. Much longer then we thought. Meet Sweetie...

He is one of my aunt's cats....and he is huge! It's hard to tell in this picture how big Sweetie is. He weights over 30lbs! I saw him run for the first time this weekend. That was funny! There was a whole lot if jiggling involved!

We found this outside my aunt's house.

We put the praying mantis in Isabella's bug box and she enjoyed watching him for a few hours. Then we set him free. We never go anywhere without the bug box. According to Isabella, you never know what you might discover!

Chris and I weren't able to get everything done at her house on Saturday so we ended up having to go back down Sunday. When we woke up Sunday morning, we found that Raymond had pulled his feeding tube apart sometime in the middle of the night. For those who don't know, Raymond gets fed three times during the day then over the coarse of ten hours at night. This isn't the first time he has pulled the tube apart. We've tried taping the tubes and other things but Raymond's very strong and very determined. So we started with an early morning bath.

Raymond looks like he is about to slip under the water in this picture. The bath tub wasn't that full, he just likes to slide himself down.

Thanks Daddy but way to early in the morning to take a picture of Mommy!

All clean! Isabella is making Raymond laugh. That's her hair at the top of the picture.

After we left my aunt's house on Sunday we drove home and were able to see lots of fireworks. Isabella loves fireworks. She really enjoyed watching for them in the sky.

On Monday we went to the Kutztown Folk Festival with Grammy. It was very hot!

A man from WFMZ filmed us going through the misting station and asked if he could air it on TV. If I can find the video clip, I'll post it.

Raymond was extremely hot & sweaty. He had enough! So we headed back to the car.

But not before a quick stop at the kettle corn stand for Daddy.Then everyone fell asleep on the way home.

Later that night Chris came in the house after walking Sadie to see where Isabella was. He had something in her bug box he wanted her to see. A toad!

As you can see, Sophie was also very curious about it!

Then we set him free.

Chris happened to buy this book at Barnes & Noble earlier that evening. This was the perfect opportunity to flip through it and learn more about the toad we just set free. Chris and Isabella looked at the book for awhile together.

Since I mentioned Sophie, I'll tell you a little about her. She's mean. Not to me but to pretty much every other living thing. She puts up with Chris, Isabella and Raymond because they live with me. I love her despite her grumpy attitude with other people...especially strangers. When we got home from Barnes & Noble I found her laying on the table. When I took a closer look I saw this was what she was laying on...I told her she wasn't aloud to try and sell Sadie. Sophie resents the fact that I insinuated she would do such a thing. But if I get any calls about a dog for sale, I'll know why!Besides, who would want to get rid of such a sweet, gentle, good and very patient dog?

Here are two video links from WFMZ for you to check out if you're interested.

Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center's Summer Camp "Loose the Training Wheels"

(we are so excited that they featured the center!!!)

and

Me! at the Kutztown Folk Festival

(they didn't put the kids in the video but I'm in it right at the end - why I don't know because the kids are MUCH cuter!)

Until next time!

Lots of Love,

Erica