Whew!

Today was a VERY busy day.  Double A, The Bean, The VH, Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for Holidays!  Holidays is the tradition we started when DJ was 4 (she's 19 now), and try to do at least once a year, where we celebrate a bunch of holidays in one day because I'm usually not home for most of them.  So today we did:

Easter.  Each kid gets to dye 6 eggs, then we send them off on an errand and I hide the eggs (obviously it's too cold for the bunny to come do it).

 

Thanksgiving.  We eat Thanksgiving dinner, but very pared down.

We celebrate birthdays.  Each person gets a cupcake.  We've started doing only 1 candle for each, because between 7 kids and 4 adults, it would have been something like 304 candles.  11 are easier to light and blow out...

 

4th of July.  We got outside and do sparklers and smoke bombs.  There isn't always snow like this year, so this time we got to toss the smoke bombs in the snow and watch the results. 

Halloween.  We do face paint and the kids trick-or-treat around the house.

St. Patrick's Day.  We do a treasure hunt with clues to follow to find the Leprechaun's lost gold (gold wrapped chocolate).

Are you exhausted reading about it?  Because it's exhausting doing it!

 

We then all wore our matching owl pjs to the movie.  Because I am a dorky aunt who makes her nieces do stuff like that.

 

The movie was Moana, and it was a lot of fun.

Finally, today is Shoetopia's 4th blogiversary!  I think this shoe is hilarious and adorable.

Everyone is supposed to be spending the night, but sadly Pippi had a horrible headache all day and decided she wanted to go home after the movie, and Tink decided to go with her.  The VH has family stuff tomorrow so she couldn't say over.  I still have 4 kiddos sleeping over, though.

Speaking of kiddos, all of my nieces are amazing, but can I take a minute to brag on Double A and The Bean?  They still love to do Holidays, but they are also great with helping with the younger kids.  They're great with kids in general, and love hanging out with their cousins.  They are patient and kind and loving, and it makes my heart happy to watch them.  But now my happy heart and I are going to bed.

Happy 4th!

I hope you all had a fun, safe, and relaxing holiday.  We did absolutely nothing but have a reality TV marathon, which was fine, but man do I miss our annual family reunion on Flathead Lake.  One of these years I'm actually going to be able to take the hubby home for that.  Oh well, we hung out with the puppies, who dressed up for the occasion:

Yes, I did make a paper hat and force them to wear it.  The hubby says I need therapy, and he says the puppies are going to need therapy as well if I keep tormenting them with outfits.

 

Pedro also wore the hat, but here's a picture from earlier in the day with him in his flag shirt (which I made last year).  He's sitting on the rug I crocheted from old t-shirts.

Our mantel is a little more festive than last year, but still not terribly exciting.  Have I mentioned that my awesome mama made all of the wooden people you see on the mantel each month?  So at least I always have something cute to start with.

Last one before the shoes.  I used to do flags on my toes every year for the 4th, but I haven't done it the last several years, and I'm clearly out of practice.  The right one looks like it was done by a blind, drunk toddler.  But at least I tried to be festive.

 

OK, shoes.  I love these.

And these.  I could maybe even make a pair like this (although I doubt I could get my lines to go straight).

I have no idea what is happening here, but it frightens me.

Cute, but again, all you would see is a boring red strap once you put them on.

Damn.  That is all.

Much better.  I think this is quite cute.

Oh wow.  Why oh why can't I get the hubby to wear crazy men's shoes?

 Love love love, even with the stupid slingbacks.

I like these, too.  Kind of crazy, but I think 4th of July is a holiday you can get away with slightly crazy-festive.

 

Ribbon laces!  And adorable kiddo shoes.

Happy 4th, everyone.  The puppies and I are worn out from all of the couch snuggling we did today while watching TV, so we're off to bed.

4th of July

I'm happy to report that unlike last year, the shoe calendar actually went with the theme of the day.

Some young lady at the turn of the last century was quite patriotic in her choice of footwear.  I'm hoping there was a kicky outfit that went with this pair of shoes.

And now for some more patriotic footwear:

 

Floofy!

Of course we needed some cute baby shoes.  I really like the last 2.

I actually tried on a pair of shoes in this style the other day (they were black, not flag-themed), and decided that as much as I like them, I really can't pull them off.  Dang, I need to be cooler.

 

I like that these are very thematic, but in a little more subtle way.

Definitely not subtle, but you know how I feel about polka dots.

Um...

The inside flag would get all sweaty and dirty and gross.  That doesn't seem nice.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday.  Ours was laid back and quiet, at least until the neighbors started blowing things up.  I'm going to sit here, drink my Evening in Missoula tea (yum!), work on  THE LIST and then go join the hubby and puppies for sleep.  They're getting spoiled tonight and getting to sleep the whole night with us because of all the noise.  I'm guessing 4th of July is now their favorite holiday just for that.