Family, Friends & Fun!

First, where did summer go? Is it really August already? The month of August is always packed with family get togethers and mini vacations...I am sure it will fly by too!

This past weekend was fun and exhausting all rolled up in one! We started the weekend off with lunch and a play date at Jen's house on Friday. Ryan and Lily had a great time playing outdoors all afternoon. The Clouser's are lucky to have a fenced in yard with plenty of room to run around, a hill to go up and down and a swing set for the kiddies to keep busy on!

Hmmm...what are those two up to?

Difference between boys & girls- Ryan loved to run down the hill where Lily being very cautious, preferred to walk.
Before we knew it, it was 4:30pm and time to head over to Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop Delp's house for a farewell party. In my 4th of July post, I stated that my sister Bambi-Jo and her family were moving down to North Carolina. We decided to all get together to see her children (Ian, Autumn, Ethan & Owen) before the move took place today. Well, at the last minute, they were not able to make the get together. We decided to have a small gathering anyway and Ryan (no nap at this point all day!) really had fun playing with his cousins the rest of Friday evening. We enjoyed pizza and ice cream (yep- no diet this weekend!!!)...it was so nice to just hang out with my siblings that I don't get to see that often. We really need to plan more small gatherings in the future. Too bad Bambi and her family won't be here to enjoy them. We wish them all the best and hope their new home is everything they wanted and more.

Ryan really enjoyed his red, white and blue ice cream star!

Saturday was even busier with celebrating our good friends Wendy & Chris's son Owen's 6th birthday! Owen was the first born out of the "three amigas" (me, Jamye & Wendy) and it was Wendy who started our itch to also have children...

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY OWEN!!

Owen wanted to celebrate his birthday at the Jump Factory this year. The Jump Factory is an indoor play gym with huge inflatable slides and moon bounces. They also have a small arcade in the bounce arenas. We had been here previously when Ryan first started school. He was only a little over a year old but had a blast jumping in the moon bounce and sliding down the huge inflatable slide with his daddy. We were only able to stay a little over an hour because we had plans to visit Chris' family in Hazleton that day as well. Chris had made the comment that it was going to be hard to get Ryan to leave once we got there....well...turns out Ryan not only has a fear of inflatable characters (you know those inflatable snowmen you see around x-mas time!) but also giant inflatable bounce gyms too!!! He refused to go into them in the beginning...we were completely surprised at how scared he was to climb in them and jump around!!

Ryan begging his daddy to let him out! See little Jaylin in the background- she was not scared one bit- Jamye couldn't get her out of the bounce gyms!

What a sad face!!!

Lucky for us and Ryan, there was the arcade! Ryan loved playing air hockey with Daddy and though he wasn't very good at hitting the puck hard enough to score, he thoroughly enjoyed stopping the puck before it would go into his goal! He was so funny when the puck would get past him and score one for daddy...he kept saying "OHHHHH Daddy!"

I'm ready daddy!

Ryan also enjoyed playing with the huge inflatable baseball swing cage. Do you see the blue triangle? That triangle was blowing air up to float the plastic ball...this way the kids could concentrate on hitting the ball and not trying to throw and hit the ball at the same time. Both Chris and Ryan really enjoyed this game!
Before we knew it, the hour of play was up and the party assistants were blowing their whistles to get all the kids out of the bounce arena and into the party room for cake. We turned to say, let's go buddy to Ryan and he was already in one of the moon bounce jumping!! Funny how it took an entire hour for him to realize how much fun they really were! So we let him take one ride down the slide before heading into to sing to Owen. Hopefully Ryan remembers how much fun the Jump Factory is for future parties.

Yippee!

The Party Room!

Such a cutie! Happy Birthday dear Owen...We unfortunately could not stay to eat cake (which was fine by me...I knew we were going to eat a ton of junk at Valley Day once we arrived in Hazleton!) because we had an hour drive ahead of us. Thankfully Ryan did nap for at least 40 minutes while driving up to see Pop-Pop and Grandma High. We wanted him to enjoy Valley Day and when Ryan is cranky or goes without a nap, look out for cranky Ryan! He isn't much fun to be around! hahah.

Before heading over to Valley Day (small fair in the valley of Conyngham- this where Chris grew up), we first stopped by Nanie's (Chris' maternal grandmother) so she could see the baby for the first time. She was so excited to see both her great grandchildren! Grandma High told me that she is a big fan of our family blog. Nanie loves to see pictures of the kids and read how they are doing. I am glad technology allows us to stay connected to her this way as well! I was bummed I didn't get any photos of her with the kiddies...oh well...there is always Thanksgiving!

After visiting with Nanie, we headed over to Valley Day. After eating tons of yummy comfort food, we walked around checking out the different games and entertainment. It didn't take Ryan long to see/hear the music playing from the gazebo! He ran out to dance, catch bubbles and just go crazy! We were able to see him dance to a few songs before Kara needed to eat. Chris and I headed back to his parents home while they stayed with Ryan so he could dance some more! I think it was over an hour later that they finally got him back to their place! Grandma said he didn't want to leave and that he had Pop-Pop in tears because he was laughing so hard watching him do the Chicken Dance!! What a ham!

Ryan catching the bubbles while dancing up a storm!

Ryan loved dancing with the other kids and climbing the gazebo stairs!

We arrived home late Saturday night. Gave the kids quick baths and put them bed. Thankfully they both slept in a little on Sunday! We didn't slow down on Sunday either, it was a day packed with shopping! We needed to get a few things for the house and grocery shop...before we knew it was Sunday night and the weekend was over! They really need to make weekends start on a Friday and end on Monday! Wouldn't that be neat to only have to work Tuesday-Thursday? Well we can dream can't we?! :)